LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 
Herbert  S.  Woodward 


LIBRARY 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA 


OF  THE 


ANCIENT  AND  ACCEPTED  SCOTTISH  RITE 


OF 


FREEMASONRY 


PREPARED    FOR    THK 


SUPREME  COUNCIL  OF  THE  THIRTY-THIRD   DEGREE. 


SOUTHERN  JURISDICTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


PUBLISHED   BY  ITS  AUTHORITY. 


CHARLESTON, 
A.\  M.'.  5641 


ENTF.KHII  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  HI  me  year  1871^  by 

ALBERT    PIKE. 
In  tne  Office  of  tne  LiDranan  of  Cor.gresf .  at  Washington. 


ENTERI:D  according  to  Act  of  Congress.  :r  the  year  190>,  by 
THE  SUPREME  COUN'CIL  OF  THE  SOUTHERN 

JURISDICTION,  A.  A.  S.  I-  ..   U.  S.  A., 
In  the  Office  of  tne  Librarian  of  Cci  gress.  at  Washington. 


Manufactured  by 

L.  H.  Jenkins,  Richmond.  Va. 

March,  1916 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  work  has  been  prepared  by  authority  of  the  Su- 
preme Council  of  the  Thirty-third  Degree,  for  the  Southern 
Jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  by  the  Grand  Commander, 
and  is  now  published  by  its  direction.  It  contains  the 
Lectures  of  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite  in  that  juris- 
diction, and  is  specially  intended  to  be  read  and  studied  by  the 
Brethren  of  that  obedience,  in  connection  with  the  Rituals  of  the 
Degrees.  It  is  hoped  and  expected  that  each  will  furnish  himself 
with  a  copy,  and  make  himself  familiar  with  it ;  for  which  pur- 
pose, as  the  cost  of  the  wo.rk  consists  entirely  in  the  printing  and 
binding,  it  will  be  furnished  at  a  price  as  moderate  as  possible. 
No  individual  will  receive  pecuniary  profit  from  it,  except  the 
agents  for  its  sale. 

It  has  been  copyrighted,  to  prevent  its  republication  elsewhere, 
and  the  copyright,  like  those  of  all  the  other  works  prepared  for 
the  Supreme  Council,  has  been  assigned  to  Trustees  for  that  Body. 
Whatever  profits  may  accrue  from  it  will  be  devoted  to  purposes 
of  charity. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Rite  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  will 
be  afforded  the  opportunity  to  purchase  it,  nor  is  it  forbidden  that 
other  Masons  shall ;  but  they  will  not  be  solicited  to  do  so. 

In  preparing  this  work,  the  Grand  Commander  has  been  about 
equally  Author  and  Compiler ;  since  he  has  extracted  quite 
half  its  contents  from  the  works  of  the  best  writers  and  most  phi- 
losophic or  eloquent  thinkers.  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  bet- 
ter and  more  acceptable,  if  he  had  extracted  more  and  written 
less. 

Still,  perhaps  half  of  it  is  his  own;  and,  in  incorporating  here 


IV  PREFACE. 

the  thoughts  and  words  of  others,  he  has  continually  changed 
and  added  to  the  language,  often  intermingling,  in  the  same  sen- 
tences, his  own  words  with  theirs.  It  not  being  intended  for  the 
world  at  large,  he  has  felt  at  liberty  to  make,  from  all  accessible 
sources,  a  Compendium  of  the  Morals  and  Dogma  of  the  Rite,  to 
re-mould  sentences,  change  and  add  to  words  and  phrases,  com- 
bine them  with  his  own,  and  use  them  as  if  they  mere  his  own, 
to  be  dealt  with  at  his  pleasure  and  so  availed  of  as  to  make  the 
whole  most  valuable  for  the  purposes  intended.  He  claims,  there- 
fore, little  of  the  merit  of  authorship,  and  has  not  cared  to  dis- 
tinguish his  own  from  that  which  he  has  taken  from  other  sources, 
being  quite  willing  that  every  portion  of  the  book,  in  turn,  may 
be  regarded  as  borrowed  from  some  old  and  better  writer. 

The  teachings  of  these  Readings  are  not  sacramental,  so  far  as 
they  go  beyond  the  realm  of  Morality  into  those  of  other  domains 
of  Thought  and  Truth.  The  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite 
uses  the  word  "Dogma"  in  its  true  sense,  of  doctrine,  or  teaching; 
and  is  not  dogmatic  in  the  odious  sense  of  that  term.  Every  one 
is  entirely  free  to  reject  and  dissent  from  whatsoever  herein  may 
seem  to  him  to  be  untrue  or  unsound.  It  is  only  required  of  him 
that  he  shall  weigh  what  is  taught,  and  give  it  fair  hearing  and 
unprejudiced  judgment.  Of  course,  the  ancient  theosophic  and 
philosophic  speculations  are  not  embodied  as  part  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  Rite ;  but  because  it  is  of  interest  and  profit  to  know  what 
the  Ancient  Intellect  thought  upon  these  subjects,  and  because 
nothing  so  conclusively  proves  the  radical  difference  between  our 
human  and  the  animal  nature,  as  the  capacity  of  the  human, 
mind  to  entertain  such  speculations  in  regard  to  itself  and  the 
Deity.  But  as  to  these  opinions  themselves,  we  may  say,  in  the 
words  of  the  learned  Canonist,  Ludovicus  Gomez:  "  Opiniones 
secundiim  varietatcm  tcmporum  scncscant  ct  inter moriantur, 
aliccqnc  diversoc  vel  prioribits  contrarioc  .renascantnr  ei  deinde 
pubescant." 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


LODGE  OF  PERFECTION. 


MORALS    AND    DOGMA. 


i. 
APPRENTICE. 

THE  TWELVE-INCH   RULE  AND  THE  COMMON   GAVEL. 

FORCE,  unregulated  or  ill-regulated,  is  not  only  wasted  in  the 
void,  like  that  of  gunpowder  burned  in  the  open  air,  and  steam 
unconfined  by  science ;  but,  striking  in  the  dark,  and  its  blows 
meeting  only  the  air,  they  recoil,  and  bruise  itself.  It  is  destruc- 
tion and  ruin.  It  is  the  volcano,  the  earthquake,  the  cyclone  ; — 
not  growth  and  progress.  It  is  Polyphemus  blinded,  striking  at 
random,  and  falling  headlong  among  the  sharp  TOCKS  by  the 
impetus  of  his  own  blows. 

The  blind  Force  of  the  people  is  a  Force  that  must  be  econ- 
omized, and  also  managed,  as  the  blind  Force  of  steam,  lifting  the 
ponderous  iron  arms  and  turning  the  large  wheels,  is  made  to  bore 
and  rifle  the  cannon  and  to  weave  the  most  delicate  lace.  It  must 
be  regulated  by  Intellect.  Intellect  is  to  the  people  and  the  people's 
Force,  what  the  slender  needle  of  the  compass  is  to  the  ship — its 
soul, always  counselling  the  huge  mass  of  wood  and  iron,  and  always 
pointing  to  the  north.  To  attack  the  citadels  built  up  on  all  sides 
against  the  human  race  by  superstitions,  despotisms,  and  pre- 


2  MORALS  A  ND  DOGMA. 

judices,  the  Force  must  have  a  brain  and  a  law.  Then  its  deeds 
of  daring  produce  permanent  results,  and  there  is  real  progress. 
Then  there  are  sublime  conquests.  Thought  is  a  force,  and  phi- 
losophy should  be  an  energy,  finding  its  aim  and  its  effects  in  the 
amelioration  of  mankind.  The  two  great  motor?  are  Truth  and 
Love.  When  all  these  Forces  are  combined,  and  guided  by  the 
Intellect,  and  regulated  by  the  RULE  of  Right,  and  Justice,  and  of 
combined  and  systematic  movement  and  effort,  the  great  revolution 
prepared  for  by  the  ages  will  begin  to  march.  The  POWER  of  the 
Deity  Himself  is  in  equilibrium  with  His  WISDOM.  Hence  the  only 
results  are  HARMONY. 

It  is  because  Force  is  ill  regulated,  that  revolutions  prove  fail- 
ures. Therefore  it  is  that  so  often  insurrections,  coming  from 
those  high  mountains  that  domineer  over  the  moral  horizon.  Jus- 
tice, Wisdom,  Reason,  Right,  built  of  the  purest  snow  of  the  ideal, 
after  a  long  fall  from  rock  to  rock,  after  having  reflected  the  sky 
in  their  transparency,  and  been  swollen  by  a  hundred  affluents,  in 
the  majestic  path  of  triumph,  suddenly  lose  themselves  in  quag- 
mires, like  a  Californian  river  in  the  sands. 

The  onward  march  of  the  human  race  requires  that  the  heights 
around  it  should  blaze  with  noble  and  enduring  lessons  of  courage. 
Deeds  of  daring  dazzle  history,  and  form  one  class  of  the  guiding 
lights  of  man.  They  are  the  stars  and  coruscations  from  that 
great  sea  of  electricity,  the  Force  inherent  in  the  people.  To  strive, 
to  brave  all  risks,  to  perish,  to  persevere,  to  be  true  to  one's  self,  to 
grapple  body  to  body  with  destiny,  to  surprise  defeat  by  the  little 
terror  it  inspires,  now  to  confront  unrighteous  power,  now  to  defy 
intoxicated  triumph — these  are  the  examples  that  the  nations  need, 
and  the  light  that  electrifies  them. 

There  are  immense  Forces  in  the  great  caverns  of  evil  beneath 
society ;  in  the  hideous  degradation,  squalor,  wretchedness  and 
destitution,  vices  and  crimes  that  reek  and  smimer  in  the  darkness 
in  that  populace  below  the  people,  of  great  cities.  There  disinter- 
estedness vanishes,  every  one  howls,  searches,  gropes,  and  gnaws 
for  himself.  Ideas  are  ignored,  and  of  progress  there  is  no  thought, 
This  populace  has  two  mothers,  both  of  thorn  step-mothers — Igno- 
rance and  Misery.  Want  is  their  onl  \  guide — for  the  appetite  alone 
they  crave  satisfaction.  Yet  even  these  may  be  employed.  The 
lowlv  sand  we  trample  upon,  cast  into  the  furnace,  melted,  purified 
by  fire,  may  become  rcsplcndeir  crystal.  They  have  the  brute 


APPRENTICE.  3 

force  of  the  HAMM-ER,  but  their  blows  help  on  the  great  cause, 
when  struck  within  the  lines  traced  by  the  RULE  held  by  wisdom 
and  discretion. 

Yet  it  is  this  very  Force  of  the  people,  this  Titanic  power  of  the 
giants,  that  builds  the  fortifications  of  tyrants,  and  is  embodied  in 
their  armies.  Hence  the  possibility  of  such  tyrannies  as  those  of 
which  it  has  been  said,  that  "Rome  smells  worse  under  Vitellius 
than  under  Sulla.  Under  Claudius  and  under  Domitian  there  is  a 
deformity  of  baseness  corresponding  to  the  ugliness  of  the  tyranny. 
The  foulness  of  the  slaves  is  a  direct  result  of  the  atrocious  base- 
ness of  the  despot.  A  miasma  exhales  from  these  crouching  con- 
sciences that  reflect  the  master ;  the  public  authorities  are  unclean, 
hearts  are  collapsed,  consciences  shrunken,  souls  puny.  This  is 
so  under  Caracalla,  it  is  so  under  Commodus,  it  is  so  under  Helio- 
gabalus,  while  from  the  Roman  senate,  under  Caesar,  there  comes 
only  the  rank  odor  peculiar  to  the  eagle's  eyrie." 

It  is  the  force  of  the  people  that  sustains  all  these  despotisms, 
the  basest  as  well  as  the  best.  That  force  acts  through  armies ; 
and  these  oftener  enslave  than  liberate.  Despotism  there  applies 
the  RULE.  Force  is  the  MACE  of  steel  at  the  saddle-bow  of  the 
knight  or  of  the  bishop  in  armor.  Passive  obedience  by  force  sup- 
ports thrones  and  oligarchies,  Spanish  kings,  and  Venetian  senates. 
Might,  in  an  army  wielded  by  tyranny,  is  the  enormous  sum  total 
of  utter  weakness  ;  and  so  Humanity  wages  war  against  Humanity, 
in  despite  of  Humanity.  So  a  people  willingly  submits  to  despot- 
ism, and  its  workmen  submit  to  be  despised,  and  its  soldiers  to  be 
whipped ;  therefore  it  is  that  battles  lost  by  a  nation  are  often 
progress  attained.  Less  glory  is  more  liberty.  When  the  drum  is 
silent,  reason  sometimes  speaks. 

Tyrants  use  the  force  of  the  people  to  chain  and  subjugate — that 
is,  enyoke  the  people.  Then  they  plough  with  them  as  men  do 
with  oxen  yoked.  Thus  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  innovation  is 
reduced  by  bayonets,  and  principles  are  struck  dumb  by  cannon- 
shot  ;  while  the  monks  mingle  with  the  troopers,  and  the  Church 
militant  and  jubilant,  Catholic  or  Puritan,  sings  Te  Deums  for 
victories  over  rebellion. 

The  military  power,  not  subordinate  to  the  civil  power,  again 
the  HAMMER  or  MACE  of  FORCE,  independent  of  the  RULE,  is  an 
armed  tyranny,  born  full-grown,  as  Athene  sprung  from  the  brain 
of  Zeus.  It  spawns  a  dynasty,  and  begins  with  Caesar  to  rot  into 


4  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Vitellius  and  Commodus.  At  the  present  day  it  inclines  to  begin 
where  former  dynasties  ended. 

Constantly  the  people  put  forth  immense  strength,  only  to  end 
in  immense  weakness.  The  force  of  the  people  is  exhausted  in 
indefinitely  prolonging  things  long  since  dead ;  in  governing  man- 
kind by  embalming  old  dead  tyrannies  of  Faith ;  restoring  dilapi- 
dated dogmas ;  regilding  faded,  worm-eaten  shrines ;  whitening 
and  rouging  ancient  and  barren  superstitions;  saving  society  by 
multiplying  parasites ;  perpetuating  superannuated  institutions ; 
enforcing  the  worship  of  symbols  as  the  actual  means  of  salvation  ; 
and  tying  the  dead  corpse  of  the  Past,  mouth  to  mouth,  with  the 
living  Present.  Therefore  it  is  that  it  is  one  of  the  fatalities  of 
Humanity  to  be  condemned  to  eternal  struggles  with  phantoms, 
with  superstitions,  bigotries,  hypocrisies,  prejudices,  the  formulas 
of  error,  and  the  pleas  of  tyranny.  Despotisms,  seen  in  the  past, 
become  respectable,  as  the  mountain,  bristling  with  volcanic  rock, 
rugged  and  horrid,  seen  through  the  haze  of  distance  is  blue  and 
smooth  and  beautiful.  The  sight  of  a  single  dungeon  of  tyranny 
is  worth  more,  to  dispel  illusions,  and  create  a  holy  hatred  of 
despotism,  and  to  direct  FORCE  aright,  than  the  most  eloquent 
volumes.  The  French  should  have  preserved  the  Bastile  as  a 
perpetual  lesson ;  Italy  should  not  destroy  the  dungeons  of  the 
Inquisition.  The  Force  of  the  people  maintained  the  Power  that 
built  its  gloomy  cells,  and  placed  the  living  in  their  granite  sep- 
ulchres. 

The  FORCE  of  the  people  cannot,  by  its  unrestrained  and  fitful 
action,  maintain  and  continue  in  action  and  existence  a  free 
Government  once  created.  That  Force  must  be  limited,  re- 
strained, conveyed  by  distribution  into  different  channels,  and  by 
roundabout  courses,  to  outlets,  \vhence  it  is  to  issue  as  the  law, 
action,  and  decision  of  the  State ;  as  the  wise  old  Egyptian  kings 
conveyed  in  different  canals,  by  sub-division,  the  swelling  waters 
of  the  Nile,  and  compelled  them  to  fertilize  and  not  devastate  the 
land.  There  must  be  the  jus  ci  norma,  the  law  and  Rule,  or 
Gauge,  of  constitution  and  law,  within  which  the  public  force 
must  act.  Make  a  breach  in  either,  and  the  great  steam-hammer, 
with  its  swift  and  ponderous  blows,  crushes  all  the  machinery  to 
atoms,  and,  at  last,  wrenching  itself  away,  lies  inert  and  dead  amid 
the  ruin  it  has  wrought. 

The  FORCE  of  the  people,  or  the  popular  will,  in  action  and 


APPRENTICE.  5 

exerted,  symbolized  by  the  GAVEL,  regulated  and  guided  by  and 
acting  within  the  limits  of  LAW  and  ORDER,  symbolized  by  the 

TWENTY-FOUR-INCH    RULE,    has    for    its    fruit    LIBERTY,    EQUALITY, 

and  FRATERNITY, — liberty  regulated  by  law ;  equality  of  rights  in 
the  eye  of  the  law ;  brotherhood  with  its  duties  and  obligations  as 
well  as  its  benefits. 

You  will  hear  shortly  of  the  Rough  ASHLAR  and  the  Perfect 
ASHLAR,  as  part  of  the  jewels  of  the  Lodge.  The  rough  'Ashlar  is 
said  to  be  "a  stone,  as  taken  from  the  quarry,  in  its  rude  and 
natural  state."  The  perfect  Ashlar  is  said  to  be  "a  stone  made 
ready  by  the  hands  of  the  workmen,  to  be  adjusted  by  the  working- 
tools  of  the  Fellow-Craft."  We  shall  not  repeat  the  explanations 
of  these  symbols  given  by  the  York  Rite.  You  may  read  them  in 
its  printed  monitors.  They  are  declared  to  allude  to  the  self- 
improvement  of  the  individual  craftsman, — a  continuation  of  the 
same  superficial  interpretation. 

The  rough  Ashlar  is  the  PEOPLE,  as  a  mass,  rude  and  unor- 
ganized. The  perfect  Ashlar,  or  cubical  stone,  symbol  of  perfection, 
is  the  STATE,  the  rulers  deriving  their  powers  from  the  consent 
of  the  governed ;  the  constitution  and  laws  speaking  the  will  of 
the  people ;  the  government  harmonious,  symmetrical,  efficient, — 
its  powers  properly  distributed  and  duly  adjusted  in  equilib- 
rium. 

If  we  delineate  a  cube  on  a  plane  surface  thus: 


we  have  visible  three  faces,  and  nine  external  lines,  drawn  between 
seven  points.  The  complete  cube  has  three  more  faces,  making 
six;  three  more  lines,  making  twelve ;  and  one  more  point,  making 
eight.  As  the  number  12  includes  the  sacred  numbers,  3,  5,  7,  and 
3  times  3,  or  9,  and  is  produced  by  adding  the  sacred  number  3  to 
9;  while  its  own  two  figures,  i,  2,  the  unit  or  monad,  and  duad, 
added  together,  make  the  same  sacred  number  3 ;  it  was  called  the 
perfect  number ;  and  the  cube  became  the  symbol  of  perfection. 
Produced  by  FORCE,  acting  by  RULE;  hammered  in  accordance 


6  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

with  lines  measured  by  the  Gauge,  out  of  the  rough  Ashlar,  it  is 
an  appropriate  symbol  of  the  Force  of  the  people,  expressed  as  the 
constitution  and  law  of  the  State ;  and  of  the  State  itself  the  three 
visible  faces  represent  the  three  departments, — the  Executive, 
which  executes  the  laws ;  the  Legislative,  which  makes  the  laws ; 
the  Judiciary,  which  interprets  the  laws,  applies  and  enforces 
them,  between  man  and  man,  between  the  State  and  the  citizens. 
The  three  invisible  faces,  are  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity, — 
the  threefold  soul  of  the  State — its  vitality,  spirit,  and  intellect. 

Though  Masonry  neither  usurps  the  place  of,  nor  apes  religion, 
prayer  is  an  essential  part  of  our  ceremonies.  It  is  the  aspiration 
of  the  soul  toward  the  Absolute  and  Infinite  Intelligence,  which 
is  the  One  Supreme  Deity,  most  feebly  and  misunderstandingly 
characterized  as  an  "  ARCHITECT/'  Certain  faculties  of  man  are 
directed  toward  the  Unknown — thought,  meditation,  prayer. 
The  unknown  is  an  ocean,  of  which  conscience  is  the  compass. 
Thought,  meditation,  prayer,  are  the  great  mysterious  pointings 
of  the  needle.  It  is  a  spiritual  magnetism  that  thus  connects  the. 
human  soul  with  the  Deity.  These  majestic  irradiations  of  the  soul 
pierce  through  the  shadow  toward  the  light. 

It  is  but  a  shallow  scoff  to  say  that  prayer  is  absurd,  because 
it  is  not  possible  for  us,  by  means  of  it,  to  persuade  God  to  change 
His  plans.  He  produces  foreknown  and  foreintended  effects,  by 
the  instrumentality  of  the  forces  of  nature,  all  of  which  are 
His  forces.  Our  own  are  part  of  these.  Our  free  agency  and 
our  will  are  forces.  We  do  not  absurdly  cease  to  make  efforts  to 
attain  wealth  or  happiness,  prolong  life,  and  continue  health, 
because  we  cannot  by  any  effort  change  what  is  predestined.  If 
the  effort  also  is  predestined,  it  is  not  the  less  our  effort,  made  of 
our  free  u'ill.  So,  likewise,  wre  pray.  Will  is  a  force.  Thought  is 
a  force.  Prayer  is  a  force.  Why  should  it  not  be  of  the  law  of 
God,  that  prayer,  like  Faith  and  Love, should  have  its  effects?  Man 
is  not  to  be  comprehended  as  a  starting-point,  or  progress  as  a  goal, 
without  those  two  great  forces,  Faith  and  Love.  Prayer  is  sublime. 
Orisons  that  beg  and  clamor  are  pitiful.  To  deny  the  efficacy  of 
prayer,  is  to  deny  that  of  Faith,  Love,  and  Effort.  Yet  the  effects 
produced,  when  our  hand,  moved  by  our  will,  launches  a  pebble 
into  the  ocean,  never  cease :  and  every  uttered  word  is  registered 
for  eternitv  upon  the  invisible  air. 


APPRENTICE.  X 

Every  Lodge  is  a  Temple,  and  as  a  whole,  and  in  its  details 
symbolic.  The  Universe  itself  supplied  man  with  the  model  for 
the  first  temples  reared  to  the  Divinity.  The  arrangement  of  the 
Temple  of  Solomon,  the  symbolic  ornaments  which  formed  its 
chief  decorations,  and  the  dress  of  the  High-Priest,  all  had  refer- 
ence to  the  order  of  the  Universe,  as  then  understood.  The  Temple 
contained  many  emblems  of  the  seasons — the  sun,  the  moon,  the 
planets,  the  constellations  Ursa  Major  and  Minor,  the  zodiac,  the 
elements,  and  the  other  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  the  Master  of 
this  Lodge,  of  the  Universe,  Hermes,  of  whom  Khurum  is  the 
representative,  that  is  one  of  the  lights  of  the  Lodge. 

For  further  instruction  as  to  the  symbolism  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  and  of  the  sacred  numbers,  and  of  the  temple  and  its 
details,  you  must  wait  patiently  until  you  advance  in  Masonry,  in 
the  mean  time  exercising  your  intellect  in  studying  them  for  your- 
self. To  study  and  seek  to  interpret  correctly  the  symbols  of  the 
I  "niverse,  is  the  work  of  the  sage  and  philosopher.  It  is  to  decipher 
the  writing  of  God,  and  penetrate  into  His  thoughts. 

This  is  what  is  asked  and  answered  in  our  catechism,  in  regard 
to  the  Lodge. 

****** 

A  "  Lodge"  is  defined  to  be  "an  assemblage  of  Freemasons,  duly 
congregated,  having  the  sacred  writings,  square,  and  compass,  and 
a  charter,  or  warrant  of  constitution,  authorizing  them  to  work." 
The  room  or  place  in  which  they  meet,  representing  some  part  of 
King  Solomon's  Temple,  is  also  called  the  Lodge ;  and  it  is  that  we 
are  now  considering. 

It  is  said  to  be  supported  by  three  great  columns,  WISDOM, 
FORCE  or  STRENGTH,  and  BEAUTY,  represented  by  the  Master,  the 
Senior  Warden,  and  the  Junior  Warden ;  and  these  are  said  to  be 
the  columns  that  support  the  Lodge,  "because  Wisdom,  Strength, 
and  Beauty,  are  the  perfections  of  everything,  and  nothing  can 
endure  without  them."  "  Because."  the  York  Rite  says,  "it  is 
necessary  that  there  should  be  Wisdom  to  conceive,  Strength  to 
support,  and  Beauty  to  adorn,  all  great  and  important  undertak- 
ings." "Know  ye  not,"  says  the  Apostle  Paul,  "that  ye  are  the 
temple  of  God,  and  that  the  spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you?  If 
any  man  desecrate  the  temple  of  God,  him  shall  God  destroy,  for 
the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which  temple  ye  are." 

The  Wisdom  and  Power  of  the  Deity  are  in  equilibrium.     The 


8  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

laws  of  nature  and  the  moral  laws  are  not  the  mere  despotic  man- 
dates of  His  Omnipotent  will ;  for,  then  they  might  be  changed  by 
Him,  and  order  become  disorder,  and  good  and  right  become  evil 
and  wrong;  honesty  and  loyalty,  vices;  and  fraud,  ingratitude,  and 
vice,  virtues.  Omnipotent  power,  infinite,  and  existing  alone, 
would  necessarily  not  be  constrained  to  consistency.  Its  decrees 
and  laws  could  not  be  immutable.  The  laws  of  God  are  not  ob- 
ligatory on  us,  because  they  are  the  enactments  of  His  POWER,  or 
the  expression  of  His  WILL  ;  but  because  they  express  His  infinite 
WISDOM.  They  are  not  right  because  they  are  His  laws,  but  His 
laws  because  they  are  right.  From  the  equilibrium  of  infinite 
wisdom  and  infinite  force,  results  perfect  harmony,  in  physics  and 
in  the  moral  universe.  Wisdom,  Power,  and  Harmony  constitute 
one  Masonic  triad.  They  have  other  and  profounder  meanings, 
that  may  at  some  time  be  unveiled  to  you. 

As  to  the  ordinary  and  commonplace  explanation,  it  may  be 
added,  that  the  wisdom  of  the  Architect  is  displayed  in  combining, 
as  only  a  skillful  Architect  can  do,  and  as  God  has  done  every- 
where,— for  example,  in  the  tree,  the  human  frame,  the  egg,  the 
cells  of  the  honeycomb — strength,  with  grace,  beauty,  symmetry, 
proportion,  lightness,  ornamentation.  That,  too,  is  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  orator  and  poet — to  combine  force,  strength,  energy, 
with  grace  of  style,  musical  cadences,  the  beauty  of  figures,  the 
play  and  irradiation  of  imagination  and  fancy;  and  so,  in  a 
State,  the  warlike  and  industrial  force  of  the  people,  and  their 
Titanic  strength,  must  be  combined  with  the  beauty  of  the 
arts,  the  sciences,  and  the  intellect,  if  the  State  would  scale 
the  heights  of  excellence,  and  the  people  be  really  free.  Har- 
mony in  this,  as  in  all  the  Divine,  the  material,  and  the 
human,  is  the  result  of  equilibrium,  of  the  sympathy  and  opposite 
action  of  contraries ;  a  single  Wisdom  above  them  holding  the 
beam  of  the  scales.  To  reconcile  the  moral  law,  human  responsi- 
bility, free-will,  with  the  absolute  power  of  God ;  and  the  existence 
of  evil  with  His  absolute  wisdom,  and  goodness,  and  mercy, — these 
are  the  great  enigmas  of  the  Sphynx. 

You  entered  the  Lodge  between  two  columns.  They  represent 
the  two  which  stood  in  the  porch  of  the  Temple,  on  each  side  of 
the  great  eastern  gateway.  These  pillars,  of  bronze,  four  fingers 
breadth  in  thickness,  were,  according  to  the  most  authentic 


APPRENTICE.  9 

account — that  in  the  First  and  that  in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings, 
confirmed  in  Jeremiah — eighteen  cubits  high,  with  a  capital  five 
cubits  high.  The  shaft  of  each  was  four  cubits  in  diameter.  A 
cubit  is  one  foot  and  ^a.  That  is,  the  shaft  of  each  was  a  little 
over  thirty  feel  eight  niches  in  height,  the  capital  of  each  a  little 
over  eight  feet  six  inches  in  height,  and  the  diameter  of  the  shaft 
six  feet  ten  inches.  The  capitals  were  enriched  by  pomegranates 
of  bronze,  covered  by  bronze  net-work,  and  ornamented  with 
wreaths  of  bronze ;  and  appear  to  have  imitated  the  shape  of  the 
seed-vessel  of  the  lotus  or  Egyptian  lily,  a  sacred  symbol  to  the 
Hindus  and  Egyptians.  The  pillar  or  column  on  the  right,  or 
in  the  south,  was  named,  as  the  Hebrew  word  is  rendered  in  our 
translation  of  the  Bible,  JACIIIN  :  and  that  on  the  left  BOAZ.  Our 
translators  say  that  the  first  word  means,  "He  shall  establish;"  and 
me  second,  "In  it  is  strength." 

These  columns  were  imitations,  by  Khurum,  the  Tyrian  artist, 
of  the  great  columns  consecrated  to  the  \Yinds  and  Fire,  at  the 
entrance  to  the  famous  Temple  of  Malkarth,  in  the  city  of 
Tyre.  It  is  customary,  in  T  odges  of  the  York  Rite,  to  see  a  celes- 
tial globe  on  one,  and  a  terrestrial  globe  on  the  other ;  but  these 
are  not  warranted,  if  the  object  be  to  imitate  the  original  two 
columns  of  the  Temple.  The  symbolic  meaning  of  these  columns 
we  shall  leave  for  the  present  unexplained,  only  adding  that 
Entered  Apprentices  keep  their  working-tools  in  the  column 
JACK  IN  ;  and  giving  you  the  etymology  and  literal  meaning  of 
the  two  names. 

The  word  Jachin,  in  Hebrew,  is  p3\  It  was  probably  pro- 
nounced Ya-kayan,  and  meant,  as  a  verbal  noun.  He  that  strength- 
ens; and  thence,  firm,  stable,  upright. 

The  word  Boaz  is Ty3?  Baaz.  TJ? means  Strong.  Strength,  Power, 
Might,  Refuge,  Source  of  Strength,  a  Fort.  The  *  prefixed  means 
"  u'ith''  or  "  in,"  and  gives  the  word  the  force  of  the  Latin 
gerund,  roborando — Strengthening. 

The  f (inner  word  also  means  he  re1///  establish,  or  plant  in  an 
erect  position — from  the  verb  "yn  Kiln,  lie  stood  erect.  It  prob- 
ably meant  Active  and  V 'reifying  Energy  and  Force;  and  Boac, 
Stability.  Permanence,  in  the  passive  sense. 

The  Dimensions  of  the  Lodge,  our  Brethren  of  the  York  Rite 
say,  "  are  unlimited,  and  its  covering  no  less  than  the  canopy  of 
Heaven.'  "  To  this  object,"  they  say,  "  tln'>  mason's  mind  is  con- 

2 


10  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

tinually  directed,  and  thither  he  hopes  at  last  to  arrive  by  the 
aid  of  the  theological  ladder  which  Jacob  in  his  vision  saw 
ascending  from  earth  to  Heaven ;  the  three  principal  rounds  of 
which  are  denominated  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity ;  and  which 
admonish  us  to  have  Faith  in  God,  Hope  in  Immortality,  and 
Charity  to  all  mankind."  Accordingly  a  ladder,  sometimes  with 
nine  rounds,  is  seen  on  the  chart,  resting  at  the  bottom  on  the 
earth,  its  top  in  the  clouds,  the  stars  shining  above  it ;  and  this  is 
deemed  to  represent  that  mystic  ladder,  which  Jacob  saw  in  his 
dream,  set  up  on  the  earth,  and  the  top  of  it  reaching  to  Heaven, 
with  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending  on  it.  The 
addition  of  the  three  principal  rounds  to  the  symbolism,  is  wholly 
modern  and  incongruous. 

The  ancients  counted  seven  planets,  thus  arranged:  the  Moon, 
Mercury,  Venus,  the  Sun,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn.  There 
were  seven  heavens  and  seven  spheres  of  these  planets ;  on  all 
the  monuments  of  Mithras  are  seven  altars  or  pyres,  consecrated 
to  the  seven  planets,  as  were  the  seven  lamps  of  the  golden 
candelabrum  in  the  Temple.  That  these  represented  the  planets, 
we  are  assured  by  Clemens  of  Alexandria,  in  his  Stromata,  and  by 
Philo  Judasus. 

To  return  to  its  source  in  the  Infinite,  the  human  soul,  the 
ancients  held,  had  to  ascend,  as  it  had  descended,  through  the 
seven  spheres.  The  Ladder  by  which  it  reascends,  has,  according 
to  Marsilius  Ficinus,  in  his  Commentary  on  the  Ennead  of  Plo- 
tinus,  seven  degrees  or  steps ;  and  in  the  Mysteries  of  Mithras, 
carried  to  Rome  under  the  Emperors,  the  ladder,  with  its  seven 
rounds,  was  a  symbol  referring  to  this  ascent  through  the  spheres 
of  the  seven  planets.  Jacob  saw  the  Spirits  of  God  ascending  and 
descending  on  it ;  and  above  it  the  Deity  Himself.  The  Mithraic 
Mysteries  were  celebrated  in  caves,  where  gates  were  marked  at 
the  four  equinoctial  and  solstitial  points  of  the  zodiac ;  and  the 
seven  planetary  spheres  were  represented,  which  souls  needs  must 
traverse  in  descending  from  the  heaven  of  the  fixed  stars  to  the 
elements  that  envelop  the  earth ;  and  seven  gates  were  marked, 
one  for  each  planet,  through  which  they  pass,  in  descending  or 
returning. 

We  learn  this  from  Celsus,  in  Origen,  who  says  that  the  sym- 
bolic image  of  this  passage  among  the  stars,  used  in  the  Mithraic 
Mysteries,  was  a  ladder  reaching  from  earth  to  Heaven, 


APPRENTICE.  II 

into  seven  steps  or  stages,  to  each  of  which  was  a  gate,  and  at  the 
summit  an  eighth  one,  that  of  the  fixed  stars.  The  symbol  was 
the  same  as  that  of  the  seven  stages  of  Borsippa,  the  Pyramid 
of  vitrified  brick,  near  Babylon,  built  of  seven  stages,  and  each  of 
a  different  color.  In  the  Mithraic  ceremonies,  the  candidate  went 
through  seven  stages  of  initiation,  passing  through  many  fearful 
trials — and  of  these  the  high  ladder  with  seven  rounds  or  steps 
was  the  symbol. 

You  see  the  Lodge,  its  details  and  ornaments,  by  its  Lights. 
You  have  already  heard  what  these  Lights,  the  greater  and  lesser, 
are  said  to  be,  and  how  they  are  spoken  of  by  our  Brethren  of  the 
York  Rite. 

The  Holy  Bible,  Square,  and  Compasses,  are  not  only  styled  the 
Great  Lights  in  Masonry,  but  they  are  also  technically  called  the 
Furniture  of  the  Lodge ;  and,  as  you  have  seen,  it  is  held  that 
there  is  no  Lodge  without  them.  This  has  sometimes  been  made 
a  pretext  for  excluding  Jews  from  our  Lodges,  because  they  can- 
not regard  the  New  Testament  as  a  holy  book.  The  Bible  is  an 
indispensable  part  of  the  furniture  of  a  Christian  Lodge,  onlj 
because  it  is  the  sacred  book  of  the  Christian  religion.  The 
Hebrew  Pentateuch  in  a  Hebrew  Lodge,  and  the  Koran  in  a 
Mohammedan  one,  belong  on  the  Altar ;  and  one  of  these,  and  the 
Square  and  Compass,  properly  understood,  are  the  Great  Lights 
by  which  a  Mason  must  walk  and  work. 

The  obligation  of  the  candidate  is  always  to  be  taken  on  the 
sacred  book  or  books  of  his  religion,  that  he  may  deem  it  more 
solemn  and  binding ;  and  therefore  it  was  that  you  were  asked  of 
what  religion  you  were.  We  have  no  other  concern  with  your 
religious  creed. 

The  Square  is  a  right  angle,  formed  by  two  right  lines.  It  is 
adapted  only  to  a  plane  surface,  and  belongs  only  to  geometry, 
earth-measurement,  that  trigonometry  which  deals  only  with 
planes,  and  with  the  earth,  which  the  ancients  supposed  to  be  a 
plane.  The  Compass  describes  circles,  and  deals  with  spherical 
trigonometry,  the  science  of  the  spheres  and  heavens.  The  for- 
mer, therefore,  is  an  emblem  of  what1,  concerns  the  earth  and  the 
body ;  the  latter  of  what  concerns  the  heavens  and  the  soul.  Yet 
the  Compass  is  also  used  in  plane  trigonometry,  as  in  erecting  per- 
pendiculars ;  and,  therefore,  you  are  reminded  that,  although  in 
this  Degree  both  points  of  the  Compass  are  under  the  Square,  and 


12  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

you  are  now  dealing  only  with  the  moral  and  political  meaning  of 
the  symbols,  and  not  with  their  philosophical  and  spiritual  mean- 
ings, still  the  divine  ever  mingles  with  the  human;  with  the 
earthly  the  spiritual  intermixes ;  and  there  is  something  spiritual 
in  the  commonest  duties  of  life.  The  nations  are  not  bodies- 
politic  alone,  but  also  souls-politic ;  and  woe  to  that  people  which, 
seeking  the  material  only,  forgets  that  it  has  a  soul.  Then  we 
have  a  race,  petrified  in  dogma,  which  presupposes  the  absence  of 
a  soul  and  the  presence  only  of  memory  and  instinct,  or  demoral- 
ized by  lucre.  Such  a  nature  can  never  lead  civilization.  Genu- 
flexion before  the  idol  or  the  dollar  atrophies  the  muscle  which 
walks  and  the  will  which  moves.  Hieratic  or  mercantile  absorp- 
tion diminishes  the  radiance  of  a  people,  lowers  its  horizon  by 
lowering  its  level,  and  deprives  it  of  that  understanding  of  the 
universal  aim,  at  the  same  time  human  and  divine,  which  makes 
the  missionary  nations.  A  free  people,  forgetting  that  it  has  a  soul 
to  be  cared  for,  devotes  all  its  energies  to  its  material  advancement. 
If  it  make  war,  it  is  to  subserve  its  commercial  interests.  The 
citizens  copy  after  the  State,  and  regard  wealth,  pomp,  and  luxury 
as  the  great  goods  of  life.  Such  a  nation  creates  wealth  rapidly, 
and  distributes  it  badly.  Thence  the  two  extremes,  of  monstrous 
opulence  and  monstrous  misery;  all  the  enjoyment  to  a  few,  all 
the  privations  to  the  rest,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  people ;  Privilege, 
Exception,  Monopoly,  Feudality,  springing  up  from  Labor  itself : 
a  false  and  dangerous  situation,  which,  making  Labor  a  blinded 
and  chained  Cyclops,  in  the  mine,  at  the  forge,  in  the  workshop,  at 
the  loom,  in  the  field,  over  poisonous  fumes,  in  miasmatic  cells,  in 
unventilated  factories,  founds  public  power  upon  private  misery, 
and  plants  the  greatness  of  the  State  in  the  suffering  of  the  indi- 
vidual. It  is  a  greatness  ill  constituted,  in  which  all  the  material 
elements  are  combined,  and  into  which  no  moral  element  enters. 
If  a  people,  like  a  star,  has  the  right  of  eclipse,  the  light  ought  to 
return.  The  eclipse  should  not  degenerate  into  night. 

The  three  lesser,  or  the  Sublime  Lights,  you  have  heard,  are  the 
Sun,  the  Moon,  and  the  Master  of  the  Lodge ;  and  you  have  heard 
what  our  Brethren  of  the  York  Rite  say  in  regard  to  them,  and 
why  they  hold  them  to  be  Lights  of  the  Lodge.  But  the  Sun  and 
Moon  do  in  no  sense  light  the  Lodge,  unless  it  be  symbolically, 
and  then  the  lights  are  not  they,  but  those  things  of  which  they 
are  the  symbols.  Of  what  they  are  the  symbols  the  Mason  in  that 


APPRENTICE.  IJ 

Rite  is  not  told.     Nor  does  the  Moon  in  any  sense  rule  the  night 
with  regularity. 

The  Sun  is  the  ancient  symbol  of  the  life-giving  and  generative 
power  of  the  Deity.  To  the  ancients,  light  was  the  cause  of  life ; 
and  God  was  the  source  from  which  all  light  flowed ;  the  essence 
of  Light,  the  Invisible  Fire,  developed  as  Flame  manifested  as 
light  and  splendor.  The  Sun  was  His  manifestation  and  visible 
image;  and  the  Sabaeans  worshipping  the  Light — God,  seemed 
to  worship  the  Sun,  in  whom  they  saw  the  manifestation  of  the 
Deity. 

The  Moon  was  the  symbol  of  the  passive  capacity  of  nature  to 
produce,  the  female,  of  which  the  life-giving  power  and  energy 
was  the  male.  It  was  the  symbol  of  Isis,  Astarte,  and  Artemis, 
or  Diana.  The  "Master  of  Life"  was  the  Supreme  Deity,  above 
both,  and  manifested  through  both ;  Zeus,  the  Son  of  Saturn, 
become  King  of  the  Gods ;  Horus,  son  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  become 
the  Master  of  Life  ;  Dionusos  or  Bacchus,  like  Mithras,  become  the 
author  of  Light  and  Life  and  Truth. 

****** 

The  Master  of  Light  and  Life,  the  Sun  and  the  Moon,  are  sym- 
bolized in  every  Lodge  by  the  Master  and  Wardens :  and  this 
makes  it  the  duty  of  the  Master  to  dispense  light  to  the  Brethren, 
by  himself,  and  through  the  Wardens,  who  are  his  ministers. 

"Thy  sun,"  says  ISAIAH  to  Jerusalem,  "shall  no  more  go  down, 
neither  shall  thy  moon  withdraw  itself;  for  the  LORD  shall  be 
thine  everlasting  light,  and  the  days  of  thy  mourning  shall  be 
ended.  Thy  people  also  shall  be  all  righteous ;  they  shall  inherit 
the  land  forever."  Such  is  the  type  of  a  free  people. 

Our  northern  ancestors  worshipped  this  tri-une  Deity;  ODIN, 
the  Almighty  FATHER  ;  FREA,  his  wife,  emblem  of  universal  mat- 
ter ;  and  THOR,  his  son,  the  mediator.  But  above  all  these  was 
the  Supreme  God,  "  the  author  of  everything  that  existeth,  the 
Eternal,  the  Ancient,  the  Living  and  Awfr-l  Being,  the  Searcher 
into  concealed  things,  the  Being  that  nev^r  changeth."  In  the 
Temple  of  Eleusis  (a  sanctuary  lighted  only  by  a  window  in  the 
roof,  and  representing  the  Universe),  the  images  of  the  Sun, 
Moon,  and  Mercury,  were  represented. 

"The  Sun  and  Moon,"  says  the  learned  Bro.'.  DELAUXAY. 
"  represent  the  two  grand  principles  of  all  generations,  the  active 
and  passive,  the  male  and  the  female.  The  Sun  represents  the 


14  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

actual  light.  He  pours  upon  the  Moon  his  fecundating  rays ;  both 
shed  their  light  upon  their  offspring,  the  Blazing  Star,  or  HORUS, 
and  the  three  form  the  great  Equilateral  Triangle,  in  the  centre  of 
which  is  the  omnific  letter  of  the  Kabalah,  by  which  creation  is 
said  to  have  been  effected." 

The  ORNAMENTS  of  a  Lodge  are  said  to  be  "  the  Mosaic  Pave- 
ment, the  Indented  Tessel,  and  the  Blazing  Star."  The  Mosaic  Pave- 
ment, chequered  in  squares  or  lozenges,  is  said  to  represent  the 
ground-floor  of  King  Solomon's  Temple ;  and  the  Indented  Tessel 
"that  beautiful  tesselated  border  which  surrounded  it."  The 
Blazing  Star  in  the  centre  is  said  to  be  "an  emblem  of  Divine 
Providence,  and  commemorative  of  the  star  which  appeared  to 
guide  the  wise  men  of  the  East  to  the  place  of  our  Saviour's 
nativity."  But  "  there  was  no  stone  seen"  within  the  Temple. 
The  walls  were  covered  with  planks  of  cedar,  and  the  floor  was 
covered  with  planks  of  fir.  There  is  no  evidence  that  there  was 
such  a  pavement  or  floor  in  the  Temple,  or  such  a  bordering.  In 
England,  anciently,  the  Tracing-Board  was  surrounded  with  an 
indented  border;  and  it  is  only  in  America  that  such  a  border  is 
put  around  the  Mosaic  pavement.  The  tesserae,  indeed,  are  the 
squares  or  lozenges  of  the  pavement.  In  England,  also,  "  the 
indented  or  denticulated  border"  is  called  "tesselated,"  because  it 
has  four  "tassels,"  said  to  represent  Temperance,  Fortitude,  Pru- 
dence, and  Justice.  It  was  termed  the  Indented  Trassel ;  but  this 
is  a  misuse  of  words.  It  is  a  tesserated  pavement,  with  an  indented 
border  round  it. 

The  pavement,  alternately  black  and  white,  symbolizes,  whether 
so  intended  or  not,  the  Good  and  Evil  Principles  of  the  Egyptian 
and  Persian  creed.  It  is  the  warfare  of  Michael  and  Satan,  of  the 
Gods  and  Titans,  of  Balder  and  Lok;  between  light  and  shadow, 
which  is  darkness ;  Day  and  Night ;  Freedom  and  Despotism ; 
Religious  Liberty  and  the  Arbitrary  Dogmas  of  a  Church  that 
thinks  for  its  votaries,  and  whose  Pontiff  claims  to  be  infallible, 
and  the  decretals  of  its  Councils  to  constitute  a  gospel. 

The  edges  of  this  pavement,  if  in  lozenges,  will  necessarily  be 
indented  or  denticulated,  toothed  like  a  saw ;  and  to  complete  and 
finish  it  a  bordering  is  necessary.  It  is  completed  by  tassels  as 
ornaments  at  the  corners.  If  these  and  the  bordering  have  any 
symbolic  meaning,  it  is  fanciful  and  arbitrary. 

To  find  in  the  BLAZING  STAR  of  five  points  an  allusion  to  the 


APPRENTICE.  15 

Divine  Providence,  is  also  fanciful ;  and  to  make  it  commemorative 
of  the  Star  that  is  said  to  have  guided  the  Magi,  is  to  give  it  a 
meaning  comparatively  modern.  Originally  it  represented  SIRIUS, 
or  the  Dog-star,  the  forerunner  of  the  inundation  of  the  Nile ;  the 
God  ANUBIS,  companion  of  Isis  in  her  search  for  the  body  of 
OSIRIS,  her  brother  and  husband.  Then  it  became  the  image  of 
HORUS,  the  son  of  OSIRIS,  himself  symbolized  also  by  the  Sun, 
the  author  of  the  Seasons,  and  the  God  of  Time ;  Son  of  Isis,  who 
was  the  universal  nature,  himself  the  primitive  matter,  inexhaust- 
ible source  of  Life,  spark  of  uncreated  fire,  universal  seed  of  all 
beings.  It  was  HERMES,  also,  the  Master  of  Learning,  whose 
name  in  Greek  is  that  of  the  God  Mercury.  It  became  the  sacred 
and  potent  sign  or  character  of  the  Magi,  the  PENTALPHA,  and  is 
the  significant  emblem  of  Liberty  and  Freedom,  blazing  with  a 
steady  radiance  amid  the  weltering  elements  of  good  and  evil  of 
Revolutions,  and  promising  serene  skies  and  fertile  seasons  to  the 
nations,  after  the  storms  of  change  and  tumult. 

In  the  East  of  the  Lodge,  over  the  Master,  inclosed  in  a  tri- 
angle, is  the  Hebrew  letter  YOD  [  •»  or  ff(  ] .  In  the  English  and 
American  Lodges  the  Letter  G.'.  is  substituted  for  this,  as  the 
initial  of  the  word  GOD,  with  as  little  reason  as  if  the  letter  D., 
initial  of  DIEU,  were  used  in  French  Lodges  instead  of  the  proper 
letter.  YOD  is,  in  the  Kabalah,  the  symbol  of  Unity,  of  the 
Supreme  Deity,  the  first  letter  of  the  Holy  Name ;  and  also  a 
symbol  of  the  Great  Kabalistic  Triads.  To  understand  its  mystic 
meanings,  you  must  open  the  pages  of  the  Sohar  and  Siphra  de 
Zeniutha,  and  other  kabalistic  books,  and  ponder  deeply  on  their 
meaning.  It  must  suffice  to  say,  that  it  is  the  Creative  Energy  of 
the  Deity,  is  represented  as  a  point,  and  that  point  in  the  centre  of 
the  Circle  of  immensity.  It  is  to  us  in  this  Degree,  the  symbol  of 
that  unmanifested  Deity,  the  Absolute,  who  has  no  name. 

Our  French  Brethren  place  this  letter  YOD  in  the  centre  of  the 
Blazing  Star.  And  in  the  old  Lectures,  our  ancient  English 
Brethren  said,  "The  Blazing  Star  or  Glory  in  the  centre  refers 
us  to  that  gran(l  luminary,  the  Sun,-  which  enlightens  the  earth, 
and  by  its  genial  influence  dispenses  blessings  to  mankind."  They 
called  it  also  in  the  same  lectures,  an  emblem  of  PRUDENCE.  The 
word  Prudcntia  means,  in  its  original  and  fullest  signification, 
Foresight;  and,  accordingly,  the  Blazing  Star  has  been  regarded 
as  an  emblem  of  Omniscience,  or  the  All-seeing  Eye,  which  to  the 


It)  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Egyptian  Initiates  was  the  emblem  of  Osiris,  the  Creator.  With 
the  Yob  in  the  centre,  it  has  the  kabalistic  meaning-  of  the  Divine 
Energy,  manifested  as  Light,  creating  the  Universe. 

The  Jewels  of  the  Lodge  are  said  to  be  six  in  number.  Three 
are  called  "Movable,"  and  three  "Immovable."  The  SQUARE,  the 
LEVEL,  and  the  PLUMB  were  anciently  and  properly  called  the 
Movable  Jewels,  because  they  pass  from  one  Brother  to  another. 
It  is  a  modern  innovation  to  call  them  immovable,  because  they 
must  always  be  present  in  the  Lodge.  The  immovable  jewels  are 
the  ROUGH  ASHLAR,  the  PERFECT  ASHLAR  or  CUBICAL  STONE,  or, 
in  some  Rituals,  the  DOUBLE  CUBE,  and  the  TRACING-BOARD,  or 
TRESTLE-BOARD. 

Of  these  jewels  our  Brethren  of  the  York  Rite  say:  "The 
Square  inculcates  Morality ;  the  Level,  Equality ;  and  the  Plumb, 
Rectitude  of  Conduct."  Their  explanation  of  the  immovable 
Jewels  may  be  read  in  their  monitors. 

Our  Brethren  of  the  York  Rite  say  that  "there  is  represented 
in  every  well-governed  Lodge,  a  certain  point,  within  a  circle ; 
the  point  representing  an  individual  Brother;  the  Circle,  the 
boundary  line  of  his  conduct,  beyond  which  he  is  never  to  suffer 
his  prejudices  or  passions  to  betray  him." 

This  is  not  to  interpret  the  symbols  of  Masonry.  It  is  said  by 
some,  with  a  nearer  approach  to  interpretation,  that  the  point 
within  the  circle  represents  God  in  the  centre  of  the  Universe.  It 
is  a  common  Egyptian  sign  for  the  Sun  and  Osiris,  and  is  still 
used  as  the  astronomical  sign  of  the  great  luminary.  In  the  Ka- 
balah  the  point  is  YOD,  the  Creative  Energy  of  God,  irradiating 
with  light  the  circular  space  which  God,  the  universal  Light, 
left  vacant,  wherein  to  create  the  worlds,  by  withdrawing  His 
substance  of  Light  back  on  all  sides  from  one  point. 

Our  Brethren  add  that,  "this  circle  is  embordered  by  two 
perpendicular  parallel  lines,  representing  Saint  John  the  Baptist 
and  Saint  John  the  Evangelist,  and  upon  the  top  rest  the  Holy 
Scriptures"  (an  open  book).  "In  going  round  this  circle,"  they 
say.  "we  necessarily  touch  upon  these  two  lines  as  well  as  upon 
the  Holy  Scriptures ;  and  while  a  Mason  keeps  himself  circum- 
scribed within  their  precepts,  it  is  impossible  that  he  should 
materially  err." 


APPRENTICE.  I/ 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  comment  upon  this.  Some 
writers  have  imagined  that  the  parallel  lines  represent  the  Tropics 
of  Cancer  and  Capricorn,  which  the  Sun  alternately  touches  upon 
at  the  Summer  and  Winter  solstices.  But  the  tropics  are  not  per- 
pendicular lines,  and  the  idea  is  merely  fanciful.  If  the  parallel 
lines  ever  belonged  to  the  ancient  symbol,  they  had  some  more 
recondite  and  more  fruitful  meaning.  They  probably  had  the 
same  meaning  as  the  twin  columns  Jachin  and  Boaz.  That  mean- 
ing is  not  for  the  Apprentice.  The  adept  may  find  it  in  the  Ka- 
balah.  The  JUSTICE  and  MERCY  of  God  are  in  equilibrium,  and 
the  result  is  HARMONY,  because  a  Single  and  Perfect  Wisdom 
presides  over  both. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  are  an  entirely  modern  addition  to  the 
symbol,  like  the  terrestrial  and  celestial  globes  on  the  columns  of 
the  portico.  Thus  the  ancient  symbol  has  been  denaturalized  by 
incongruous  additions,  like  that  of  Isis  weeping  over  the  broken 
column  containing  the  remains  of  Osiris  at  Byblos. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

Masonry  has  its  decalogue,  which  is  a  law  to  its  Initiates.  These 
are  its  Ten  Commandments  : 

I.  ©.'.God  is  the  Eternal,  Omnipotent,  Immutable  WISDOM 

and  Supreme  INTELLIGENCE  and  Exhaustless  LOVE. 
Thou  shalt  adore,  revere,  and  love  Him ! 
Thou  shalt  honor  Him  by  practising  the  virtues ! 

II.  O.'.  Thy  religion  shall  be,  to  do  good  because  it  is  a  pleas- 

ure to  thee,  and  not  merely  because  it  is  a  duty. 
That  thoti  mayest  become  the  friend  of  the  wise  man,  thou 

shalt  obey  his  precepts ! 
Thy  soul  is  immortal !  Thou  shalt  do  nothing  to  degrade  it ! 

III.  ©.'.  Thou  shalt  unceasingly  war  against  vice! 

Thou  shalt  not  do  unto  others  that  which  thou  wouldst  not 

wish  them  to  do  unto  thee ! 
Thou  shalt  be  submissive  to  thy  fortunes,  and  keep  burning 

the  light  of  wisdom  ! 

IV.  O.'.  Thou  shalt  honor  thy  parents! 

Thou  shalt  pay  respect  and  homage  to  the  aged  ! 
Thou  shalt  instruct  the  young ! 

Thou  shalt  protect  and  defend  infancy  and  innocence! 
V.    ©.'.Thou  shalt  cherish  thy  wife  and  thy  children! 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  country,  and  obey  its  laws ! 


l8  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

VI.  O.'.  Thy  friend  shall  be  to  thee  a  second  self ! 
Misfortune  shall  not  estrange  thee  from  him ! 
Thou  shalt  do  for  his  memory  whatever  thou  wouldst  do 

for  him.  if  he  were  living! 

VII.   ©.*.  Thou  shalt  avoid  and  flee  from  insincere  friendships! 
Thou  shalt  in  everything  refrain  from  excess ! 
Thou  shalt  fear  to  be  the  cause  of  a  stain  on  thy  memory ! 
VIII.  O.'.  Thou  shalt  allow  no  passions  to  become  thy  master! 

Thou  shalt  make  the  passions  of  others  profitable  lessons 

to  thyself! 

Thou  shalt  be  indulgent  to  error! 
IX.   ©.'.  Thou  shalt  hear  much:  Thou  shalt  speak  little:  Thou 

shalt  act  well ! 
Thou  shalt  forget  injuries! 
Thou  shalt  render  good  for  evil ! 

Thou  shalt  not  misuse  either  thy  strength  or  thy  superiority ! 
X.  O.'.  Thou  shalt  study  to  know  men;  that  thereby  thou 

mayest  learn  to  know  thyself! 
Thou  shalt  ever  seek  after  virtue ! 
Thou  shalt  be  just! 
Thou  shalt  avoid  idleness  ! 

But  the  great  commandment  of  Masonry  is  this :  "A  new  com- 
mandment give  I  unto  you :  that  ye  love  one  another !  He  that 
saith  he  is  in  the  light,  and  hateth  his  brother,  remaineth  still  in 
the  darkness." 

Such  are  the  moral  duties  of  a  Mason.  But  it  is  also  the  duty 
of  Masonry  to  assist  in  elevating  the  moral  and  intellectual  level 
of  society ;  in  coining  knowledge,  bringing  ideas  into  circulation, 
and  causing  the  mind  of  youth  to  grow ;  and  in  putting,  gradually, 
by  the  teachings  of  axioms  and  the  promulgation  of  positive  laws, 
the  human  race  in  harmony  with  its  destinies. 

To  this  duty  and  work  the  Initiate  is  apprenticed.  He  must  not 
imagine  that  he  can  effect  nothing,  and,  therefore,  despairing,  be- 
come inert.  It  is  in  this,  as  in  a  man's  daily  life.  Many  great 
deeds  are  done  in  the  small  struggles  of  life.  There  is,  we  are  told, 
a  determined  though  unseen  bravery,  which  defends  itself,  foot  to 
foot,  in  the  darkness,  against  the  fatal  invasion  of  necessity  and  of 
baseness.  There  are  noble  and  mysterious  triumphs,  which  no  eye 
sees,  which  no  renown  rewards,  which  no  flourish  of  trumpets 
salutes.  Life,  misfortune,  isolation,  abandonment,  poverty,  are 


APPRENTICE.  19 

battle-fields,  which  have  their  heroes, — heroes  obscure,  but  some- 
times greater  than  those  who  become  illustrious.  The  Mason 
should  struggle  in  the  same  manner,  and  with  the  same  bravery, 
against  those  invasions  of  necessity  and  baseness,  which  come  to 
nations  as  well  as  to  men.  He  should  meet  them,  too,  foot  to  foot, 
even  in  the  darkness,  and  protest  against  the  national  wrongs  and 
follies;  against  usurpation  and  the  first  inroads  of  that  hydra, 
Tyranny.  There  is  no  more  sovereign  eloquence  than  the  truth  in 
indignation.  It  is  more  difficult  for  a  people  to  keep  than  to  gain 
their  freedom.  The  Protests  of  Truth  are  always  needed.  Con- 
tinually, the  right  must  protest  against  the  fact.  There  is,  in  fact, 
Eternity  in  the  Right.  The  Mason  should  be  the  Priest  and  Sol- 
dier of  that  Right.  If  his  country  should  be  robbed  of  her  liber- 
ties, he  should  still  not  despair.  The  protest  of  the  Right  against 
the  Fact  persists  forever.  The  robbery  of  a  people  never  becomes 
prescriptive.  Reclamation  of  its  rights  is  barred  by  no  length  of 
time.  Warsaw  can  no  more  be  Tartar  than  Venice  can  be  Teutonic. 
A  people  may  endure  military  usurpation,  and  subjugated  States 
kneel  to  States  and  wear  the  yoke,  while  under  the  stress  of 
necessity ;  but  when  the  necessity  disappears,  if  the  people  is  fit  to 
be  free,  the  submerged  country  will  float  to  the  surface  and  reappear, 
and  Tyranny  be  adjudged  by  History  to  have  murdered  its  victims. 
Whatever  occurs,  we  should  have  Faith  in  the  Justice  and  over- 
ruling Wisdom  of  God,  and  Hope  for  the  Future,  and  Loving- 
kindness  for  those  who  are  in  error.  God  makes  visible  to  men 
His  will  in  events ;  an  obscure  text,  written  in  a  mysterious  lan- 
guage. Men  make  their  translations  of  it  forthwith,  hasty,  incor- 
rect, full  of  faults,  omissions,  and  misreadings.  We  see  so  short  a 
way  along  the  arc  of  the  great  circle !  Few  minds  comprehend 
the  Divine  tongue.  The  most  sagacious,  the  most  calm,  the  most 
profound,  decipher  the  hieroglyphs  slowly ;  and  when  they  arrive 
with  their  text,  perhaps  the  need  has  long  gone  by ;  there  are 
already  twenty  translations  in  the  public  square — the  most  incor- 
rect being,  as  of  course,  the  most  accepted  and  popular.  From 
each  translation,  a  party  is  born  ;  and  from  each  misreading,  a 
faction.  Each  party  believes  or  pretends  that  it  has  the  only  true 
text,  and  each  faction  believes  or  pretends  that  it  alone  possesses 
the  light.  Moreover,  factions  are  blind  men,  who  aim  straight, 
*rrors  are  excellent  projectiles,  striking  skillfully,  and  with  all  the 
violence  that  springs  from  false  reasoning,  wherever  a  want  of  logic 


2O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

in  those  who  defend  the  right,  like  a  defect  in  a  cuirass,  makes 
them  vulnerable. 

Therefore  it  is  that  we  .shall  often  be  discomfited  in  combating 
error  before  the  people.  Antaeus  long  resisted  Hercules ;  and  the 
heads  of  the  Hydra  grew  as  fast  as  they  were  cut  off.  It  is  absurd 
to  say  that  Error,  wounded,  ivrithes  in  pain,  and  dies  amid  her 
worshippers.  Truth  conquers  slowly.  There  is  a  wondrous  vital- 
ity in  Error.  Truth,  indeed,  for  the  most  part,  shoots  over  the. 
heads  of  the  masses ;  or  if  an  error  is  prostrated  for  a  moment,  it 
is  up  again  in  a  moment,  and  as  vigorous  as  ever.  It  will  not  die 
when  the  brains  are  out,  and  the  most  stupid  and  irrational  errors 
are  the  longest-lived. 

Nevertheless,  Masonry,  which  is  Morality  and  Philosophy,  must 
not  cease  to  do  its  duty.  We  never  know  at  what  moment  success 
awaits  our  efforts — generally  when  most  unexpected — nor  with 
\vhat  effect  our  efforts  are  or  are  not  to  be  attended.  Succeed  or 
fail,  Masonry  must  not  bow  to  error,  or  succumb  under  discour- 
agement. There  were  at  Rome  a  few  Carthaginian  soldiers,  taken 
prisoners,  who  refused  to  bow  to  Flaminius,  and  had  a  little  of 
Hannibal's  magnanimity.  Masons  should  possess  an  equal  great- 
ness of  soul.  Masonry  should  be  an  energy ;  finding  its  aim  and 
effect  in  the  amelioration  of  mankind.  Socrates  should  enter  into 
Adam,  and  produce  Marcus  Aurelius,  in  other  words,  bring  forth 
from  the  man  of  enjoyments,  the  man  of  wisdom.  Masonry 
should  not  be  a  mere  watch-tower,  built  upon  mystery,  from  which 
to  gaze  at  ease  upon  the  world,  with  no  other  result  than  to  be  a 
convenience  for  the  curious.  To  hold  the  full  cup  of  thought  to  the 
thirsty  lips  of  men ;  to  give  to  all  the  true  ideas  of  Deity ;  to  har- 
monize conscience  and  science,  are  the  province  of  Philosophy. 
Morality  is  Faith  in  full  bloom.  Contemplation  should  lead  to 
action,  and  the  absolute  be  practical ;  the  ideal  be  made  air  and 
food  and  drink  to  the  human  mind.  Wisdom  is  a  sacred  commu- 
nion. It  is  only  on  that  condition  that  it  ceases  to  be  a  sterile  love 
of  Science,  and  becomes  the  one  and  supreme  method  by  which  to 
unite  Humanity  and  arouse  it  to  concerted  action.  Then  Philoso- 
phy becomes  Religion. 

And  Masonry,  like  History  and  Philosophy,  has  eternal  duties — • 
eternal,  and,  at  the  same  time,  simple — to  oppose  Caiaphas  as 
Bishop,  Draco  or  Jefferies  as  Judge,  Trimalcion  as  Legislator,  and 
Tiberius  as  Emperor.  These  are  the  symbols  of  the  tyrannv  that 


APPRENTICE.  21 

degrades  and  crushes,  and  the  corruption  that  defiles  and  infests. 
In  the  works  published  for  the  use  of  the  Craft  we  are  told  that 
the  three  great  tenets  of  a  Mason's  profession,  are  Brotherly  Love, 
Relief,  and  Truth.  And  it  is  true  that  a  Brotherly  affection  and 
kindness  should  govern  us  in  all  our  intercourse  and  relations  with 
our  brethren ;  and  a  generous  and  liberal  philanthropy  actuate  us 
in  regard  to  all  men.  To  relieve  the  distressed  is  peculiarly  the 
duty  of  Masons — a  sacred  duty,  not  to  be  omitted,  neglected,  or 
coldly  or  inefficiently  complied  with.  It  is  also  most  true,  that 
Truth  is  a  Divine  attribute  and  the  foundation  of  every  virtue. 
To  be  true,  and  to  seek  to  find  and  learn  the  Truth,  are  the  great 
objects  of  every  good  Mason. 

As  the  Ancients  did,  Masonry  styles  Temperance,  Fortitude, 
Prudence,  and  Justice,  the  four  cardinal  virtues.  They  are  as 
necessary  to  nations  as  to  individuals.  The  people  that  would  be 
Free  and  Independent,  must  possess  Sagacity,  Forethought,  Fore- 
sight, and  careful  Circumspection,  all  which  are  included  in  the 
meaning  of  the  word  Prudence.  It  must  be  temperate  in  asserting 
its  rights,  temperate  in  its  councils,  economical  in  its  expenses ;  it 
must  be  bold,  brave,  courageous,  patient  under  reverses,  undis- 
mayed by  disasters,  hopeful  amid  calamities,  like  Rome  when  she 
sold  the  field  at  which  Hannibal  had  his  camp.  No  Cannae  or 
Pharsalia  or  Pavia  or  Agincourt  or  Waterloo  must  discourage  her. 
Let  her  Senate  sit  hi  their  seats  until  the  Gauls  pluck  them  by  the 
beard.  She  must,  above  all  things,  be  just,  not  truckling  to  the 
strong  and  warring  on  or  plundering  the  weak ;  she  must  act  on 
the  square  with  all  nations,  and  the  feeblest  tribes ;  always  keep- 
ing her  faith,  honest  in  her  legislation,  upright  in  all  her  dealings. 
Whenever  such  a  Republic  exists,  it  will  be  immortal :  for  rash- 
ness, injustice,  intemperance  and  luxury  in  prosperity,  and  despair 
and  disorder  in  adversity,  are  the  causes  of  the  decay  and  dilapida- 
tion of  nations. 


IL 
THE   FELLOW-CRAFT. 

IN  the  Ancient  Orient,  all  religion  was  more  or  less  a  mystery 
and  there  was  no  divorce  from  it  of  philosophy.  The  popular 
theology,  taking  the  multitude  of  allegories  and  symbols  for  real- 
ities, degenerated  into  a  worship  of  the  celestial  luminaries,  of 
imaginary  Deities  with  human  feelings,  passions,  appetites,  and 
lusts,  of  idols,  stones,  animals,  reptiles.  The  Onion  was  sacred 
to  the  Egyptians,  because  its  different  layers  were  a  symbol  of  the 
concentric  heavenly  spheres.  Of  course  the  popular  religion  could 
not  satisfy  the  deeper  longings  and  thoughts,  the  loftier  aspirations 
of  the  Spirit,  or  the  logic  of  reason.  The  first,  therefore,  was 
taught  to  the  initiated  in  the  Mysteries.  There,  also,  it  was  taught 
by  symbols  The  vagueness  of  symbolism,  capable  of  many  inter- 
pretations, reached  what  the  palpable  and  conventional  creed 
could  not.  Its  indefmiteness  acknowledged  the  abstruseness  of  the 
subject:  it  treated  that  mysterious  subject  mystically:  it  endeav- 
ored to  illustrate  what  it  could  not  explain ;  to  excite  an  appro- 
priate feeling,  if  it  could  not  develop  an  adequate  idea;  and  to 
make  the  image  a  mere  subordinate  conveyance  for  the  conception, 
which  itself  never  became  obvious  or  familiar. 

Thus  the  knowledge  now  imparted  by  books  and  letters,  was  of 
old  conveyed  by  symbols ;  and  the  priests  invented  or  perpetuated 
a  display  of  rites  and  exhibitions,  which  were  not  only  more  at- 
tractive to  the  eye  than  words,  but  often  more  suggestive  and  more 
pregnant  with  meaning  to  the  mind. 

Masonry,  successor  of  the  Mysteries,  still  follows  the  ancient 
manner  of  teaching.  Her  ceremonies  are  like  the  ancient  mystic 
shows, — not  the  reading  of  an  essay,  but  the  opening  of  a  problem, 
requiring  research,  and  constituting  philosophy  the  arch-ex- 
pounder. Her  symbols  are  the  instruction  she  gives.  The  lectures 
are  endeavors,  often  partial  and  one-sided,  to  interpret  these  sym- 
bols. He  who  would  become  an  accomplished  Mason  must  not  be 
•ontent  merely  to  hear,  or  even  to  understand,  the  lectures;  he 

M 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  2^ 

must,  aided  by  them,  and  they  having,  as  it  were,  marked  out  the 
way  for  him,  study,  interpret,  and  develop  these  symbols  for 

himself. 

******** 

Though  Masonry  is  identical  with  the  ancient  Mysteries,  it  is  so 
only  in  this  qualified  sense :  that  it  presents  but  an  imperfect 
image  of  their  brilliancy,  the  ruins  only  of  their  grandeur,  and  a 
system  that  has  experienced  progressive  alterations,  the  fruits  of 
social  events,  political  circumstances,  and  the  ambitious  imbecility 
of  its  improvers.  After  leaving  Egypt,  the  Mysteries  were  modi- 
fied by  the  habits  of  the  different  nations  among  whom  they  were 
introduced,  and  especially  by  the  religious  systems  of  the  countries 
into  which  they  were  transplanted.  To  maintain  the  established 
government,  laws,  and  religion,  was  the  obligation  of  the  Initiate 
everywhere ;  and  everywhere  they  were  the  heritage  of  the  priests, 
who  were  nowhere  willing  to  make  the  common  people  co-proprie- 
tors with  themselves  of  philosophical  truth. 

Masonry  is  not  the  Coliseum  in  ruins.  It  is  rather  a  Roman 
palace  of  the  middle  ages,  disfigured  by  modern  architectural  im- 
provements, yet  built  on  a  Cyclopasan  foundation  laid  by  the  Etrus- 
cans, and  with  many  a  stone  of  the  superstructure  taken  from 
dwellings  and  temples  of  the  age  of  Hadrian  and  Antoninus. 

Christianity  taught  the  doctrine  of  FRATERNITY;  but  repudi- 
ated that  of  political  EQUALITY,  by  continually  inculcating  obedi- 
ence to  Caesar,  and  to  those  lawfully  in  authority.  Masonry  was 
the  first  apostle  of  EQUALITY.  In  the  Monastery  there  is  frater- 
nity and  equality,  but  no  liberty.  Masonry  added  that  also,  and 
claimed  for  man  the  three-fold  heritage,  LIBERTY,  EQUALITY,  and 
FRATERNITY. 

It  was  but  a  development  of  the  original  purpose  of  the  Myste- 
ries, which  was  to  teach  men  to  know  and  practice  their  duties  to 
themselves  and  their  fellows,  the  great  practical  end  of  all  philos- 
ophy and  all  knowledge. 

Truths  are  the  springs  from  which  duties  flow ;  and  it  is  but  a 
few  hundred  years  since  a  new  Truth  began  to  be  distinctly  seen  ; 

that    MAN    IS    SUPREME   OVER    INSTITUTIONS.    AND    NOT    THEY    OVER 

HIM.  Man  has  natural  empire  over  all  institutions.  They  are 
for  him,  according  to  his  development ;  not  he  for  them.  This 
seems  to  us  a  very  simple  statement,  one  to  which  all  men,  every- 
where, ought  to  assent.  But  once  it  was  a  great  new  Truth, — not 


24  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

revealed  until  governments  had  been  in  existence  for  at  least  five 
thousand  years.  Once  revealed,  it  imposed  new  duties  on  men. 
Man  owed  it  to  himself  to  be  free.  He  owed  it  to  his  country  to 
seek  to  give  her  freedom,  or  maintain  her  in  that  possession.  It 
made  Tyranny  and  Usurpation  the  enemies  of  the  Human  Race.  It 
created  a  general  outlawry  of  Despots  and  Despotisms,  temporal 
and  spiritual.  The  sphere  of  Duty  was  immensely  enlarged.  Pa- 
triotism had,  henceforth,  a  new  and  wider  meaning.  Free  Govern- 
ment, Free  Thought,  Free  Conscience,  Free  Speech !  All  these  came 
to  be  inalienable  rights,  which  those  who  had  parted  with  them  or 
been  robbed  of  them,  or  whose  ancestors  had  lost  them,  had  the 
right  summarily  to  retake.  Unfortunately,  as  Truths  always  be- 
come perverted  into  falsehoods,  and  are  falsehoods  when  misap- 
plied, this  Truth  became  the  Gospel  of  Anarchy,  soon  after  it  was 
first  preached. 

Masonry  early  comprehended  this  Truth,  and  recognized  its  own 
enlarged  duties.  Its  symbols  then  came  to  have  a  wider  meaning ; 
but  it  also  assumed  the  mask  of  Stone-masonry,  and  borrowed  its 
working-tools,  and  so  was  supplied  with  new  and  apt  symbols.  It 
aided  in  bringing  about  the  French  Revolution,  disappeared  with 
the  Girondists,  was  born  again  with  the  restoration  of  order,  and 
sustained  Napoleon,  because,  though  Emperor,  he  acknowledged 
the  right  of  the  people  to  select  its  rulers,  and  was  at  the  head  of 
a  nation  refusing  to  receive  back  its  old  kings.  He  pleaded,  with 
sabre,  musket,  and  cannon,  the  great  cause  of  the  People  against 
Royalty,  the  right  of  the  French  people  even  to  make  a  Corsican 
General  their  Emperor,  if  it  pleased  them. 

Masonry  felt  that  this  Truth  had  the  Omnipotence  of  God  on 
its  side ;  and  that  neither  Pope  nor  Potentate  could  overcome  it. 
It  was  a  truth  dropped  into  the  world's  wide  treasury,  and  forming 
a  part  of  the  heritage  which  each  generation  receives,  enlarges,  and 
holds  in  trust,  and  of  necessity  bequeaths  to  mankind ;  the  per- 
sonal estate  of  man,  entailed  of  nature  to  the  end  of  time.  And 
Masonry  early  recognized  it  as  true,  that  to  set  forth  and  develop 
a  truth,  or  any  human  excellence  of  gift  or  growth,  is  to  make 
greater  the  spiritual  glory  of  the  race ;  that  whosoever  aids  the 
march  of  a  Truth,  and  makes  the  thought  a  thing,  writes  in  the 
same  Hue  with  MOSES,  and  with  Him  who  died  upon  the  cross ; 
and  has  an  intellectual  sympathy  with  the  Deity  Himself. 

The  best  gift  we  can  bestow  on  man  is  manhood.     It  is  that 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  25 

which  Masonry  is  ordained  of  God  to  bestow  on  its  votaries :  not 
sectarianism  and  religious  dogma ;  not  a  rudirnental  morality,  that 
may  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Confucius,  Zoroaster,  Seneca,  and 
the  Rabbis,  in  the  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes ;  not  a  little  and  cheap 
common-school  knowledge ;  but  manhood  and  science  and  phi- 
losophy. 

Not  that  Philosophy  or  Science  is  in  opposition  to  Religion.  For 
Philosophy  is  but  that  knowledge  of  God  and  the  Soul,  which  is 
derived  from  observation  of  the  manifested  action  of  God  and  the 
Soul,  and  from  a  wise  analogy.  It  is  the  intellectual  guide  which 
the  religious  sentiment  needs.  The  true  religious  philosophy  of 
an  imperfect  being,  is  not  a  system  of  creed,  but,  as  SOCRATES 
thought,  an  infinite  search  or  approximation.  Philosophy  is  that 
intellectual  and  moral  progress,  which  the  religious  sentiment  in- 
spires and  ennobles. 

As  to  Science,  it  could  not  walk  alone,  while  religion  was  sta- 
tionary. It  consists  of  those  matured  inferences  from  experience 
which  all  other  experience  confirms.  It  realizes  and  unites  all  that 
was  truly  valuable  in  both  the  old  schemes  of  mediation, — one 
heroic,  or  the  system  of  action  and  effort ;  and  the  mystical  theory 
of  spiritual,  contemplative  communion.  "  Listen  to  me,"  says 
GALEN,  "  as  to  the  voice  of  the  Eleusinian  Hierophant,  and  believe 
that  the  study  of  Nature  is  a  mystery  no  less  important  than  theirs, 
nor  less  adapted  to  display  the  wisdom  and  power  of  the  Great  Cre- 
ator. Their  lessons  and  demonstrations  were  obscure,  but  ours  are 
clear  and  unmistakable." 

We  deem  that  to  be  the  best  knowledge  we  can  obtain  of  the 
Soul  of  another  man,  which  is  furnished  by  his  actions  and  his 
life-long  conduct.  Evidence  to  the  contrary,  supplied  by  what 
another  man  informs  us  that  this  Soul  has  said  to  his,  would  weigh 
little  against  the  former.  The  first  Scriptures  for  the  human  race 
were  written  by  God  on  the  Earth  and  Heavens.  The  reading  of 
these  Scriptures  is  Science.  Familiarity  with  the  grass  and  trees, 
the  insects  and  the  infusoria,  teaches  us  deeper  lessons  of  love  and 
faith,  than  we  can  glean  from  the  writings  of  FENKLON  and 
AUGUSTINE.  The  great  Bible  of  God  is  ever  open  before  mankind. 

Knowledge  is  convertible  into  power,  and  axioms  into  rules  of 

utility  and  duty.    But  knowledge  itself  is  not  Power.    Wisdom  is 

Power;  and  her  Prime  Minister  is  JUSTICE,  which  is  the  perfected 

law  of  TRUTH.   The  purpose,  therefore,  of  Education  and  Science 

1 


26  MORALS  AND  DOGMA, 

is  to  make  a  man  wise.  If  knowledge  does  not  make  him  so,  it  is 
wasted,  like  water  poured  on  the  sands.  To  know  the  formulas  of 
Masonry,  is  of  as  little  value,  by  itself,  as  to  know  so  many  words 
and  sentences  in  some  barbarous  African  or  Australasian  dialect. 
To  know  even  the  meaning  of  the  symbols,  is  but  little,  unless  that 
adds  to  our  wisdom,  and  also  to  our  charity,  which  is  to  justice 
like  one  hemisphere  of  the  brain  to  the  other. 

Do  not  lose  sight,  then,  of  the  true  object  of  your  studies  in 
Masonry.  It  is  to  add  to  your  estate  of  wisdom,  and  not  merely 
to  your  knowledge.  A  man  may  spend  a  lifetime  in  studying  a 
single  specialty  of  knowledge, — botany,  conchology,  or  entomol- 
ogy, for  instance, — in  committing  to  memory  names  derived  from 
the  Greek,  and  classifying  and  reclassifying ;  and  yet  be  no  wiser 
than  when  he  began.  It  is  the  great  truths  as  to  all  that  most 
concerns  a  man,  as  to  his  rights,  interests,  and  duties,  that  Ma- 
sonry seeks  to  teach  her  Initiates. 

The  wiser  a  man  becomes,  the  less  will  he  be  inclined  to  submit 
tamely  to  the  imposition  of  fetters  or  a  yoke,  on  his  conscience  or 
his  person.  For,  by  increase  of  wisdom  he  not  only  better  knows 
his  rights,  but  the  more  highly  values  them,  and  is  more  conscious 
of  his  worth  and  dignity.  His  pride  then  urges  him  to  assert  his 
independence.  He  becomes  better  able  to  assert  it  also ;  and  better 
able  to  assist  others  or  his  country,  when  they  or  she  stake  all,  even 
existence,  upon  the  same  assertion.  But  mere  knowledge  makes 
no  one  independent,  nor  fits  him  to  be  free.  It  often  only  makes 
him  a  more  useful  slave.  Liberty  is  a  curse  to  the  ignorant  and 
brutal. 

Political  science  has  for  its  object  to  ascertain  in  what  manner 
and  by  means  of  what  institutions  political  and  personal  freedom 
may  be  secured  and  perpetuated :  not  license,  or  the  mere  right 
of  every  man  to  vote,  but  entire  and  absolute  freedom  of  thought 
and  opinion,  alike  free  of  the  despotism  of  monarch  and  mob  and 
prelate ;  freedom  of  action  within  the  limits  of  the  general  law 
enacted  for  all ;  the  Courts  of  Justice,  with  impartial  Judges  and 
juries,  open  to  all  alike;  weakness  and  poverty  equally  potent 
in  those  Courts  as  power  and  wealth  ;  the  avenues  to  office  and 
honor  open  alike  to  all  the  worthy ;  the  military  powers,  in  war  or 
peace,  in  strict  subordination  to  the  civil  power;  arbitrary  ar- 
rests for  acts  not  known  to  the  law  as  crimes,  impossible ;  Romish 
Inquisitions,  Star-Chambers,  Military  Commissions,  unknown ;  the 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  2/ 

means  of  instruction  within  reach  of  the  children  of  all ;  the  right 
of  Free  Speech ;  and  accountability  of  all  public  officers,  civil  and 
military. 

If  Masonry  needed  to  be  justified  for  imposing  political  as  well 
as  moral  duties  on  its  Initiates,  it  would  be  enough  to  point  to  the 
sad  history  of  the  world.  It  would  not  even  need  that  she  should 
turn  back  the  pages  of  history  to  the  chapters  written  by  Tacitus : 
that  she  should  recite  the  incredible  horrors  of  despotism  under 
Caligula  and  Domitian,  Caracalla  and  Commodus,  Vitellius  and 
Maximin.  She  need  only  point  to  the  centuries  of  calamity 
through  which  the  gay  French  nation  passed ;  to  the  long  oppres- 
sion of  the  feudal  ages,  of  the  selfish  Bourbon  kings ;  to  those 
times  when  the  peasants  were  robbed  and  slaughtered  by  their  own 
lords  and  princes,  like  sheep ;  when  the  lord  claimed  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  peasant's  marriage-bed ;  when  the  captured  city  was 
given  up  to  merciless  rape  and  massacre ;  when  the  State-prisons 
groaned  with  innocent  victims,  and  the  Church  blessed  the  ban- 
ners of  pitiless  murderers,  and  sang  Te  Deums  for  the  crowning 
mercy  of  the  Eve  of  St.  Bartholomew. 

We  might  turn  over  the  pages,  to  a  later  chapter, — that  of  the 
reign  of  the  Fifteenth  Louis,  when  young  girls,  hardly  more  than 
children,  were  kidnapped  to  serve  his  lusts ;  when  lettres  de  cachet 
filled  the  Bastile  with  persons  accused  of  no  crime,  with  husbands 
who  were  in  the  way  of  the  pleasures  of  lascivious  wives  and  of 
villains  wearing  orders  of  nobility ;  when  the  people  were  ground 
between  the  upper  and  the  nether  millstone  of  taxes,  customs,  and 
excises ;  and  when  the  Pope's  Nuncio  and  the  Cardinal  de  la 
Roche-Ayman,  devoutly  kneeling,  one  on  each  side  of  Madame 
du  Barry,  the  king's  abandoned  prostitute,  put  the  slippers  on  her 
naked  feet,  as  she  rose  from  the  adulterous  bed.  Then,  indeed, 
suffering  and  toil  were  the  two  forms  of  man,  and  the  people  were 
but  beasts  of  burden. 

The  true  Mason  is  he  who  labors  strenuously  to  help  his  Order 
effect  its  great  purposes.  Not  that  the  Order  can  effect  them  by 
itself;  but  that  it,  too,  can  help.  It  also  is  one  of  God's  instru- 
ments. It  is  a  Force  and  a  Power ;  and  shame  upon  it,  if  it  did 
not  exert  itself,  and  if  need  be,  sacrifice  its  children  in  the  cause 
of  humanity,  as  Abraham  was  ready  to  offer  up  Isaac  on  the  altar 
of  sacrifice.  It  will  not  forget  that  noble  allegory  of  Curtius 
leaping,  all  in  armor,  into  the  great  yawning  gulf  that  opened  to 


28  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

swallow  Rome.  It  will  TRY.  It  shall  not  be  its  fault  if  the  day 
never  comes  when  man  will  no  longer  have  to  fear  a  conquest,  an 
invasion,  a  usurpation,  a  rivalry  of  nations  with  the  armed  hand, 
an  interruption  of  civilization  depending  on  a  marriage-royal,  or  a 
birth  in  the  hereditary  tyrannies ;  a  partition  of  the  peoples  by  a 
Congress,  a  dismemberment  by  the  downfall  of  a  dynasty,  a  com- 
bat of  two  religions,  meeting  head  to  head,  like  two  goats  of  dark- 
ness on  the  bridge  of  the  Infinite :  when  they  will  no  longer  have 
to  fear  famine,  spoliation,  prostitution  from  distress,  misery  from 
lack  of  work,  and  all  the  brigandages  of  chance  in  the  forest  of 
events:  when  nations  will  gravitate  about  the  Truth,  like  stars 
about  the  light,  each  in  its  own  orbit,  without  clashing  or  collision  ; 
and  everywhere  Freedom,  cinctured  with  stars,  crowned  with  the 
celestial  splendors,  and  with  wisdom  and  justice  on  either  hand, 
will  reign  supreme. 

In  your  studies  ».s  a  Fellow-Craft  you  must  be  guided  by  REA- 
SON, LOVE  and  FAITH. 

We  do  not  now  discuss  the  differences  between  Reason  and 
Faith,  and  undertake  to  define  the  domain  of  each.  But  it  is 
necessary  to  say,  that  even  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life  we  are 
governed  far  more  by  what  we  believe  than  by  what  we  know;  by 
FAITH  and  ANALOGY,  than  by  REASON.  The  "Age  of  Reason" 
of  the  French  Revolution  taught,  we  know,  what  a  folly  it  is  to 
enthrone  Reason  by  itself  as  supreme.  Reason  is  at  fault  when  it 
deals  with  the  Infinite.  There  we  must  revere  and  believe.  Not- 
withstanding the  calamities  of  the  virtuous,  the  miseries  of  the 
deserving,  the  prosperity  of  tyrants  and  the  murder  of  martyrs, 
we  must  believe  there  is  a  wise,  just,  merciful,  and  loving  God,  an 
Intelligence  and  a  Providence,  supreme  over  all,  and  caring  for 
the  minutest  things  and  events.  A  Faith  is  a  necessity  to  man. 
Woe  to  him  who  believes  nothing! 

We  believe  that  the  soul  of  another  is  of  a  certain  nature  and 
possesses  certain  qualities,  that  he  is  generous  and  honest,  or  pe- 
nurious and  knavish,  that  she  is  virtuous  and  amiable,  or  vicious 
and  ill-tempered,  from  the  countenance  alone,  from  little  more 
than  a  glimpse  of  it,  without  the  means  of  knowing.  We  venture 
our  fortune  on  the  signature  of  a  man  on  the  other  side  of  the 
world,  whom  we  never  saw,  upon  the  belief  that  he  is  honest 
and  trustworthy.  We  believe  that  occurrences  have  taken  place, 
upon  the  assertion  of  others.  We  believe  that  one  will  acts  upon 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  29 

another,  and  in  the  reality  of  a  multitude  of  other  phenomena, 
that  Reason  cannot  explain. 

But  we  ought  not  to  believe  what  Reason  authoritatively  denies, 
that  at  which  the  sense  of  right  revolts,  that  which  is  absurd  or 
self-contradictory,  or  at  issue  with  experience  or  science,  or  that 
which  degrades  the  character  of  the  Deity,  and  would  make  Him 
revengeful,  malignant,  cruel,  or  unjust. 

A  man's  Faith  is  as  much  his  own  as  his  Reason  is.  His  Free- 
dom consists  as  much  in  his  faith  being  free  as  in  his  will  being 
uncontrolled  by  power.  All  the  Priests  and  Augurs  of  Rome  or 
Greece  had  not  the  right  to  require  Cicero  or  Socrates  to  believe  in 
the  absurd  mythology  of  the  vulgar.  All  the  Imaums  of  Mo- 
hammedanism have  not  the  right  to  require  a  Pagan  to  believe  that 
Gabriel  dictated  the  Koran  to  the  Prophet.  All  the  Brahmin? 
that  ever  lived,  if  assembled  in  one  conclave  like  the  Cardinals, 
could  not  gain  a  right  to  compel  a  single  human  being  to  believe 
in  the  Hindu  Cosmogony.  No  man  or  body  of  men  can  be  infal- 
lible, and  authorized  to  decide  what  other  men  shall  believe,  as  to 
any  tenet  of  faith.  Except  to  those  who  first  receive  it,  every  reli- 
gion and  the  truth  of  all  inspired  writings  depend  on  human  tes- 
timony and  internal  evidences,  to  be  judged  of  by  Reason  and  the 
wise  analogies  of  Faith.  Each  man  must  necessarily  have  the 
right  to  judge  of  their  truth  for  himself;  because  no  one  man  can 
have  any  higher  or  better  right  to  judge  than  another  of  equal  in- 
formation and  intelligence. 

Domitian  claimed  to  be  the  Lord  God ;  and  statues  and  images 
of  him, in  silver  and  gold,  were  found  throughout  the  known  world. 
*He  claimed  to  be  regarded  as  the  God  of  all  men  ;  and,  according  to 
Suetonius,  began  his  letters  thus:  "  Our  Lord  and  God  commands 
that  it  should  be  done  so  and  so;"  and  formally  decreed  that  no 
one  should  address  him  otherwise,  either  in  writing  or  by  word  of 
mouth.  Palfurius  Sura,  the  philosopher,  who  was  his  chief  de- 
lator, accusing  those  who  refused  to  recognize  his  divinity,  however 
much  he  may  have  believed  in  that  divinity,  had  not  the  right  to 
demand  that  a  single  Christian  in  Rome  or  the  provinces  should  do 
the  same. 

Reason  is  far  from  being  the  only  guide,  in  morals  or  in  political 
science.  Love  or  loving-kindness  must  keep  it  company,  to  ex- 
dude  fanaticism,  intolerance,  and  persecution,  to  all  of  which  a 
morality  too  ascetic,  and  extreme  political  principles,  invariably 


3O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

lead.  We  must  also  have  faith  in  ourselves,  and  in  our  fellows  and 
the  people,  or  we  shall  be  easily  discouraged  by  reverses,  and  our 
ardor  cooled  by  obstacles.  We  must  not  listen  to  Reason  alone. 
Force  comes  more  from  Faith  and  Love:  and  it  is  by  the  aid  of 
these  that  man  scales  the  loftiest  heights  of  morality,  or  becomes 
the  Saviour  and  Redeemer  of  a  People.  Reason  must  hold  the 
helm ;  but  these  supply  the  motive  power.  They  are  the  wings  of 
the  soul.  Enthusiasm  is  generally  unreasoning;  and  without  it, 
and  Love  and  Faith,  there  would  have  been  no  RIENZI,  or  TELL, 
or  SYDNEY,  or  any  other  of  the  great  patriots  whose  names  are 
immortal.  If  the  Deity  had  been  merely  and  only  All-wise  and 
All-mighty,  He  would  never  have  created  the  Universe. 

****** 

It  is  GENIUS  that  gets  Power;  and  its  prime  lieutenants  are 
FORCE  and  WISDOM.  The  unruliest  of  men  bend  before  the 
leader  that  has  the  sense  to  see  and  the  will  to  do.  It  is  Genius 
that  rules  with  God-like  Power ;  that  unveils,  with  its  counsellors, 
the  hidden  human  mysteries,  cuts  asunder  with  its  word  the  huge 
knots,  and  builds  up  with  its  word  the  crumbled  ruins.  At  its 
glance  fall  down  the  senseless  idols,  whose  altars  have  been  on  all 
the  high  places  and  in  all  the  sacred  groves.  Dishonesty  and  im- 
becility stand  abashed  before  it.  Its  single  Yea  or  Nay  revokes 
the  wrongs  of  ages,  and  is  heard  among  the  future  generations. 
Its  power  is  immense,  because  its  wisdom  is  immense.  Genius  is 
the  Sun  of  the  political  sphere.  Force  and  Wisdom,  its  ministers, 
are  the  orbs  that  carry  its  light  into  darkness,  and  answer  it  with 
their  solid  reflecting  Truth. 

Development  is  symbolized  by  the  use  of  the  Mallet  and  Chisel ; 
the  development  of  the  energies  and  intellect,  of  the  individual 
and  the  people.  Genius  may  place  itself  at  the  head  of  an  unin- 
tellectual,  uneducated,  unenergetic  nation ;  but  in  a  free  country, 
to  cultivate  the  intellect  of  those  who  elect,  is  the  only  mode  of 
securing  intellect  and  genius  for  rulers.  The  world  is  seldom 
ruled  by  the  great  spirits,  except  after  dissolution  and  new  birth. 
In  periods  of  transition  and  convulsion,  the  Long  Parliaments,  the 
Robespierres  and  Marats,  and  the  semi-respectabilities  of  intellect, 
too  often  hold  the  reins  of  power.  The  Cromwells  and  Napoleons 
come  later.  After  Marius  and  Sulla  and  Cicero  the  rhetorician, 
OESAR.  The  great  intellect  is  often  too  sharp  for  the  granite  of 
life.  Legislators  may  be  very  ordinary  men;  for  legislation 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  3"1 

s»  very  ordinary  work ;  it  is  b.ut  the  final    issue    of    a    million 
minds. 

The  power  of  the  purse  or  the  sword,  compared  to  that  of  the 
spirit,  is  poor  and  contemptible.  As  to  lands,  you  may  have  agra- 
rian laws,  and  equal  partition.  But  a  man's  intellect  is  all  his 
own,  held  direct  from  God,  an  inalienable  fief.  It  is  the  most 
potent  of  weapons  in  the  hands  of  a  paladin.  If  the  people  com- 
prehend Force  in  the  physical  sense,  how  much  more  do  they  rev- 
erence the  intellectual !  Ask  Hildebrand,  or  Luther,  or  Loyola. 
They  fall  prostrate  before  it,  as  before  an  idol.  The  mastery  of 
mind  over  mind  is  the  only  conquest  worth  having.  The  other 
injures  both,  and  dissolves  at  a  breath;  rude  as  it  is,  the  great 
cable  falls  down  and  snaps  at  last.  But  this  dimly  resembles  the 
dominion  of  the  Creator.  It  does  not  need  a  subject  like  that  of 
Peter  the  Hermit.  If  the  stream  be  but  bright  and  strong,  it  will 
sweep  like  a  spring-tide  to  the  popular  heart.  Not  in  word  only, 
but  in  intellectual  act  lies  the  fascination.  It  is  the  homage  to 
the  Invisible.  This  power,  knotted  with  Love,  is  the  golden  chain 
let  down  into  the  well  of  Truth,  or  the  invisible  chain  that  binds 
the  ranks  of  mankind  together. 

Influence  of  man  over  man  is  a  law  of  nature,  whether  it  be  by 
a  great  estate  in  land  or  in  intellect.  It  may  mean  slavery,  a 
deference  to  the  eminent  human  judgment.  Society  hangs  spirit- 
ually together,  like  the  revolving  spheres  above.  The  free  country, 
in  which  intellect  and  genius  govern,  will  endure.  Where  they 
serve,  and  other  influences  govern,  the  national  life  is  short.  All 
the  nations  that  have  tried  to  govern  themselves  by  their  smallest, 
by  the  incapables,  or  merely  respectables,  have  come  to  nought. 
Constitutions  and  Laws,  without  Genius  and  Intellect  to  govern, 
will  not  prevent  decay.  In  that  case  they  have  the  dry-rot  and 
the  life  dies  out  of  them  by  degrees. 

To  give  a  nation  the  franchise  of  the  Intellect  is  the  only  sure 
mode  of  perpetuating  freedom.  This  will  compel  exertion  and 
generous  care  for  the  people  from  those  on  the  higher  seats,  and 
honorable  and  intelligent  allegiance  from  those  below.  Then  politi- 
cal public  life  will  protect  all  men  from  self-abasement  in  sensual 
pursuits,  from  vulgar  acts  and  low  greed,  by  giving  the  noble  am- 
bition of  just  imperial  rule.  To  elevate  the  people  by  teaching 
loving-kindness  and  wisdom,  with  power  to  him  who  teaches  best ; 
and  so  to  develop  the  free  State  from  the  rough  ashlar; — this 


32  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

is  the  great  labor  in  which  Masonry  desires  to  lend  a  helping 
hand. 

All  of  us  should  labor  in  building  up  the  great  monument  of  a 
nation,  the  Holy  House  of  the  Temple.  The  cardinal  virtues 
must  not  be  partitioned  among  men,  becoming  the  exclusive  prop- 
erty of  some,  like  the  common  crafts.  ALL  are  apprenticed  to 
the  partners,  Duty  and  Honor. 

Masonry  is  a  march  and  a  struggle  toward  the  Light.  For  the 
individual  as  well  as  the  nation,  Light  is  Virtue,  Manliness,  Intel- 
ligence, Liberty.  Tyranny  over  the  soul  or  body,  is  darkness. 
The  freest  people,  like  the  freest  man,  is  always  in  danger  of  re- 
lapsing into  servitude.  Wars  are  almost  always  fatal  to  Republics. 
They  create  tyrants,  and  consolidate  their  power.  They  spring,  for 
the  most  part,  from  evil  counsels.  When  the  small  and  the  base  are 
intrusted  with  power,  legislation  and  administration  become  but 
two  parallel  series  of  errors  and  blunders,  ending  in  war,  calam- 
ity, and  the  necessity  for  a  tyrant.  When  the  nation  feels  its  feet 
sliding  backward,  as  if  it  walked  on  the  ice,  the  time  has  come  for 
a  supreme  effort.  The  magnificent  tyrants  of  the  past  are  but  the 
types  of  those  of  the  future.  Men  and  nations  will  always  sell  them- 
selves into  slavery,  to  gratify  their  passions  and  obtain  revenge. 
The  tyrant's  plea,  necessity,  is  always  available ;  and  the  tyrant 
once  in  power,  the  necessity  of  providing  for  his  safety  makes  him 
savage.  Religion  is  a  power,  and  he  must  control  that.  Inde- 
pendent, its  sanctuaries  might  rebel.  Then  it  becomes  unlawful 
for  the  people  to  worship  God  in  their  ow'n  way,  and  the  old  spir- 
itual despotisms  revive.  Men  must  believe  as  Power  wills,  or  die ; 
and  even  if  they  may  believe  as  they  will,  all  they  have,  lands, 
houses,  body,  and  soul,  are  stamped  with  the  royal  brand.  "I  am 
the  State,"  said  Louis  the  Fourteenth  to  his  peasants ;  "the  very 
shirts  on  your  backs  arc  mine,  and  I  can  fake  them  if  I  n'ili" 

And  dynasties  so  established  endure,  like  that  of  the  Caesars  of 
Rome,  of  the  Caesars  of  Constantinople,  of  the  Caliphs,  the  Stu- 
arts, the  Spaniards,  the  Goths,  the  Valois,  until  the  race  wears  out, 
and  ends  with  lunatics  and  idiots,  who  still  rule.  There  is  no 
ccnoord  among  men,  to  end  the  horrible  bondage.  The  State 
fan's  inwardly,  as  well  as  by  the  outward  blows  of  the  incoherent 
elements.  The  furious  human  passions,  the  sleeping  human  indo- 
'ence,  the  stolid  human  ignorance,  the  rivalry  of  human  castes,  are 
s  good  for  the  kings  as  the  swords  of  the  Paladins.  The  worship- 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  33 

pers  have  all  bowed  so  long  to  the  old  idol,  that  they  cannot  go 
into  the  streets  and  choose  another  Grand  Llama.  And  so  the 
effete  State  floats  on  down  the  puddled  stream  of  Time,  until  the 
tempest  or  the  tidal  sea  discovers  that  the  worm  has  consumed  its 

strength,  and  it  crumbles  into  oblivion. 

****** 

Civil  and  religious  Freedom  must  go  hand  in  hand ;  and  Perse- 
cution matures  them  both.  A  people  content  with  the  thoughts 
made  for  them  by  the  priests  of  a  church  will  be  content  with 
Royalty  by  Divine  Right, — the  Church  and  the  Throne  mutually 
sustaining  each  other.  They  will  smother  schism  and  reap  infi- 
delity and  indifference ;  and  while  the  battle  for  freedom  goes  on 
around  them,  they  will  only  sink  the  more  apathetically  into  servi- 
tude and  a  deep  trance,  perhaps  occasionally  interrupted  by  furious 
fits  of  frenzy,  followed  by  helpless  exhaustion. 

Despotism  is  not  difficult  in  any  land  that  has  only  known  one 
master  from  its  childhood ;  but  there  is  no  harder  problem  than 
to  perfect  and  perpetuate  free  government  by  the  people  them- 
selves ;  for  it  is  not  one  king  that  is  needed :  all  must  be  kings.  It 
is  easy  to  set  up  Masaniello,  that  in  a  few  days  he  may  fall  lower 
than  before.  But  free  government  grows  slowly,  like  the  individual 
human  faculties ;  and  like  the  forest-trees,  from  the  inner  heart 
outward.  Liberty  is  not  only  the  common  birth-right,  but  it  is 
lost  as  well  by  non-user  as  by  mis-user.  It  depends  far  more  on 
the  universal  effort  than  any  other  human  property.  It  has  no 
single  shrine  or  holy  well  of  pilgrimage  for  the  nation ;  for  its 
waters  should  burst  out  freely  from  the  whole  soil. 

The  free  popular  power  is  one  that  is  only  known  in  its  strength 
in  the  hour  of  adversity :  for  all  its  trials,  sacrifices  and  expecta- 
tions are  its  own.  It  is  trained  to  think  for  itself,  and  also  to  act 
for  itself.  When  the  enslaved  people  prostrate  themselves  in  the 
dust  before  the  hurricane,  like  the  alarmed  beasts  of  the  field,  the 
free  people  stand  erect  before  it,  in  all  the  strength  of  unity,  in 
self-reliance,  in  mutual  reliance,  with  effrontery  against  all  but 
the  visible  hand  of  God.  It  is  neither  cast  down  by  calamity  nor 
elated  by  success. 

This  vast  power  of  endurance,  of  forbearance,  of  patience,  and 
of  performance,  is  only  acquired  by  continual  exercise  of  all  the 
functions,  like  the  healthful  physical  human  vigor,  like  the  indi- 
vidual moral  vigor. 


34  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

And  the  maxim  is  no  less  true  than  old,  that  eternal  vigilance  is 
the  price  of  liberty.  It  is  curious  to  observe  the  universal  pretext 
by  which  the  tyrants  of  all  times  take  away  the  national  liberties. 
It  is  stated  in  the  statutes  of  Edward  II. ,  that  the  justices  and  the 
sheriff  should  no  longer  be  elected  by  the  people,  on  account  of  the 
riots  and  dissensions  which  had  arisen.  The  same  reason  was  given 
long  before  for  the  suppression  of  popular  election  of  the  bishops ; 
and  there  is  a  witness  to  this  untruth  in  the  yet  older  times,  when 
Rome  lost  her  freedom,  and  her  indignant  citizens  declared  that 

tumultuous  liberty  is  better  than  disgraceful  tranquillity. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

With  the  Compasses  and  Scale,  we  can  trace  all  the  figures  used 
in  the  mathematics  of  planes,  or  in  what  are  called  GEOMETRY 
and  TRIGONOMETRY,  two  words  that  are  themselves  deficient 
in  meaning.  GEOMETRY,  which  the  letter  G.  in  most  Lodges  is 
said  to  signify,  means  measurement  of  land  or  the  earth — or  Sur- 
veying; and  TRIGONOMETRY,  the  measurement  of  triangles,  or 
figures  with  three  sides  or  angles.  The  latter  is  by  far  the  most 
appropriate  name  for  the  science  intended  to  be  expressed  by  the 
word  "Geometry."  Neither  is  of  a  meaning  sufficiently  wide : 
for  although  the  vast  surveys  of  great  spaces  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face, and  of  coasts,  by  which  shipwreck  and  calamity  to  mariners 
are  avoided,  are  effected  by  means  of  triangulation ; — though  it 
was  by  the  same  method  that  the  French  astronomers  measured  a 
degree  of  latitude  and  so  established  a  scale  of  measures  on  an 
immutable  basis ;  though  it  is  by  means  of  the  immense  triangle 
that  has  for  its  base  a  line  drawn  in  imagination  between  the  place 
of  the  earth  now  and  its  place  six  months  hence  in  space,  and  for 
its  apex  a  planet  or  star,  that  the  distance  of  Jupiter  or  Sirius  from 
the  earth  is  ascertained ;  and  though  there  is  a  triangle  still  more 
vast,  its  base  extending  either  way  from  us,  with  and  past  the 
horizon  into  immensity,  and  its  apex  infinitely  distant  above  us ; 
to  which  corresponds  a  similar  infinite  triangle  below — what  is 
above  equalling  what  is  below,  immensity  equalling  immensity ; — 
yet  the  Science  of  Numbers, to  which  Pythagoras  attached  so  much 
importance,  and  whose  mysteries  are  found  everywhere  in  the 
Ancient  religions,  and  most  of  all  in  the  Kabalah  and  in  the  Bible,  is 
not  sufficiently  expressed  by  either  the  word  "  Geometry"  or  the 
word  "Trigonometry."  For  that  science  includes  these,  with  Arith- 
metic, and  also  with  Algebra,  Logarithms,  the  Integral  and  Differ- 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  35 

ential  Calculus;  and  by  means  of  it  are  worked  out  the  great 

problems  of  Astronomy  or  the  Laws  of  the  Stars. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

Virtue  is  but  heroic  bravery,  to  do  the  thing  thought  to  be  true, 
in  spite  of  all  enemies  of  flesh  or  spirit,  in  despite  of  all  temp^a- 
tions  or  menaces.  Man  is  accountable  for  the  «/>rightness  of  his 
doctrine,  but  not  for  the  Tightness  of  it.  Devout  enthusiasm  is 
far  easier  than  a  good  action.  The  end  of  thought  is  action ;  the 
sole  purpose  of  Religion  is  an  Ethic.  Theory,  in  political  science, 
is  worthless,  except  for  the  purpose  of  being  realized  in  practice. 

In  every  credo,  religious  or  political  as  in  the  soul  of  man,  there 
are  two  regions,  the  Dialectic  and  the  Ethic ;  and  it  is  only  when 
the  two  are  harmoniously  blended,  that  a  perfect  discipline  is 
evolved.  There  are  men  who  dialectically  are  Christians,  as  there 
are  a  multitude  who  dialectically  are  Masons,  and  yet  who  are 
ethically  Infidels,  as  these  are  ethically  of  the  Profane,  in  the 
strictest  sense: — intellectual  believers,  but  practical  atheists: — 
men  who  will  write  you  "Evidences,"  in  perfect  faith  in  their  logic, 
but  cannot  carry  out  the  Christian  or  Masonic  doctrine,  owing  to 
the  strength,  or  weakness,  of  the  flesh.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  many  dialectical  skeptics,  but  ethical  believers,  as  there  are 
many  Masons  who  have  never  undergone  initiation ;  and  as  ethics 
are  the  end  and  purpose  of  religion,  so  are  ethical  believers  the 
most  worthy.  He  who  does  right  is  better  than  he  who  thinks  right. 

But  you  must  not  act  upon  the  hypothesis  that  all  men  are 
hypocrites,  whose  conduct  does  not  square  with  their  sentiments. 
No  vice  is  more  rare,  for  no  task  is  more  difficult,  than  systematic 
hypocrisy.  When  the  Demagogue  becomes  a  Usurper  it  does  not 
follow  that  he  was  all  the  time  a  hypocrite.  Shallow  men  only  so 
judge  of  others. 

The  truth  is,  that  creed  has,  in  general,  very  little  influence  on 
the  conduct ;  in  religion,  on  that  of  the  individual ;  in  politics,  on 
that  of  party.  As  a  general  thing,  the  Mahometan,  in  the  Orient, 
is  far  more  honest  and  trustworthy  than  the  Christian.  A  Gospel 
of  Love  in  the  mouth,  is  an  Avatar  of  Persecution  in  the  heart. 
Men  who  believe  in  eternal  damnation  and  a  literal  sea  of  fire  and 
brimstone,  incur  the  certainty  of  it,  according  to  their  creed,  on 
the  slightest  temptation  of  appetite  or  passion.  Predestination 
insists  on  the  necessity  of  good  works.  In  Masonry,  at  the  least 
flow  of  passion,  one  speaks  ill  of  another  behind  his  back ;  and  so 


36  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

far  from  the  "Brotherhood"  of  Blue  Masonry  being  real,  and  the 
solemn  pledges  contained  in  the  use  of  the  word  ''Brother"  being 
complied  with,  extraordinary  pains  are  taken  to  show  that  Masonry 
is  a  sort  of  abstraction,  which  scorns  to  interfere  in  worldly  mat- 
ters. The  rule  may  be  regarded  as  universal,  that,  where  there  is 
a  choice  to  be  made,  a  Mason  will  give  his  vote  and  influence,  in 
politics  and  business,  to  the  less  qualified  profane  in  preference  to 
the  better  qualified  Mason.  One  will  take  an  oath  to  oppose  any 
unlawful  usurpation  of  power,  and  then  become  the  ready  and  even 
eager  instrument  of  a  usurper.  Another  will  call  one  "Brother," 
and  then  play  toward  him  the  part  of  Judas  Iscariot,  or  strike 
him,  as  Joab  did  Abner,  under  the  fifth  rib,  with  a  lie  whose  au- 
thorship is  not  to  be  traced.  Masonry  does  not  change  human 
nature,  and  cannot  make  honest  men  out  of  born  knaves. 

While  you  are  still  engaged  in  preparation,  and  in  accumulating 
principles  for  future  use,  do  not  forget  the  words  of  the  Apostle 
James :  "For  if  any  be  a  hearer  of  the  word,  and  not  a  doer,  he  is 
like  unto  a  man  beholding  his  natural  face  in  a  glass,  for  he  be- 
holdeth  himself,  and  goeth  away,  and  straightway  forgetteth  what 
manner  of  man  he  was ;  but  whoso  looketh  into  the  perfect  law  of 
liberty,  and  continueth,  he  being  not  a  forgetful  hearer,  but  a  doer 
of  the  work,  this  man  shall  be  blessed  in  his  work.  If  any  man 
among  you  seem  to  be  religious,  and  bridleth  not  his  tongue,  but 
deceiveth  his  own  heart,  this  man's  religion  is  vain.  .  .  .  Faith,  if 
it  hath  not  works,  is  dead,  being  an  abstraction.  A  man  is  justi- 
fied by  works,  and  not  by  faith  only.  .  .  .  The  devils  believe, — and 
tremble.  ...  As  the  body  without  the  heart  is  dead,  so  is  faith 

without  works." 

***** 

In  political  science,  also,  free  governments  are  erected  and  free 
constitutions  framed,  upon  some  simple  and  intelligible  theory. 
Upon  whatever  theory  they  are  based,  no  sound  conclusion  is  to 
be  reached  except  by  carrying  the  theory  out  without  flinching, 
both  in  argument  on  constitutional  questions  and  in  practice. 
Shrink  from  the  true  theory  through  timidity,  or  wander  from  it 
through  want  of  the  logical  faculty,  or  transgress  against  it 
through  passion  or  on  the  plea  of  necessity  or  expediency,  and  you 
have  denial  or  invasion  of  rights,  laws  that  offend  against  first 
principles,  usurpation  of  illegal  powers,  or  abnegation  and  abdica- 
tion of  legitimate  authority. 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  37 

Do  not  forget,  either,  that  as  the  showy,  superficial,  impudent 
and  self-conceited  will  almost  always  be  preferred,  even  in  utmost 
stress  of  danger  and  calamity  of  the  State,  to  the  man  of  solid 
learning,  large  intellect,  and  catholic  sympathies,  because  he  is 
nearer  the  common  popular  and  legislative  level,  so  the  highest 
truth  is  not  acceptable  to  the  mass  of  mankind. 

When  SOLON  was  asked  if  he  had  given  his  countrymen  the  best 
laws,  he  answered,  "The  best  they  are  capable  of  receiving."  This 
is  one  of  the  profoundest  utterances  on  record ;  and  yet  like  all 
great  truths,  so  simple  as  to  be  rarely  comprehended.  It  contains 
the  whole  philosophy  of  History.  It  utters  a  truth  which,  had  it 
been  recognized,  would  have  saved  men  an  immensity  of  vain,  idle 
disputes,  and  have  led  them  into  the  clearer  paths  of  knowledge  in 
the  Past.  It  means  this, — that  all  truths  are  Truths  of  Period, 
and  not  truths  for  eternity ;  that  whatever  great  fact  has  had 
strength  and  vitality  enough  to  make  itself  real,  whether  of  re- 
ligion, morals,  government,  or  of  whatever  else,  and  to  find  place 
in  this  world,  has  been  a  truth  for  the  time,  and  as  good  as  men 
were  capable  of  receiving. 

So,  too,  with  great  men.  The  intellect  and  capacity  of  a  people 
has  a  single  measure, — that  of  the  great  men  whom  Providence 
gives  it,  and  whom  it  receives.  There  have  always  been  men  too 
great  for  their  time  or  their  people.  Every  people  makes  such  men 
only  its  idols,  as  it  is  capable  of  comprehending. 

To  impose  ideal  truth  or  law  upon  an  incapable  and  merely  real 
man,  must  ever  be  a  vain  and  empty  speculation.  The  laws  of 
sympathy  govern  in  this  as  they  do  in  regard  to  men  who  are  put 
at  the  head.  We  do  not  know,  as  yet,  what  qualifications  the  sheep 
insist  on  in  a  leader.  With  men  who  are  too  high  intellectually, 
the  mass  have  as  little  sympathy  as  they  have  with  the  stars.  When 
BURKE,  the  wisest  statesman  England  ever  had.  rose  to  speak,  the 
House  of  Commons  was  depopulated  as  upon  an  agreed  signal. 
There  is  as  little  sympathy  between  the  mass  and  the  highest 
TRUTHS.  The  highest  truth,  being  incomprehensible  to  the  man  of 
realities,  as  the  highest  man  is,  and  largely  above  his  level,  will  be 
a  great  unreality  and  falsehood  to  an  unintellectual  man.  The  pro- 
foundest doctrines  of  Christianity  and  Philosophy  would  be  mere 
jargon  and  babble  to  a  Potawatomie  Indian.  The  popular  expla- 
nations of  the  symbols  of  Masonry  are  fitting  for  the  multitude 
that  have  swarmed  into  the  Temples, — being  fully  up  to  the  level 


3#  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  their  capacity.  Catholicism  was  a  vital  truth  in  its  earliest  ages, 
but  it  became  obsolete,  and  Protestantism  arose,  flourished,  and 
deteriorated.  The  doctrines  of  ZOROASTER  were  the  best  which 
the  ancient  Persians  were  fitted  to  receive;  those  of  CONFUCIUS 
were  fitted  for  the  Chinese ;  those  of  MOHAMMED  for  the  idolatrous 
Arabs  of  his  age.  Each  was  Truth  for  the  time.  Each  was  a 
GOSPEL,  preached  by  a  REFORMER;  and  if  any  men  are  so  little 
fortunate  as  to  remain  content  therewith,  when  others  have  at- 
tained a  higher  truth,  it  is  their  misfortune  and  not  their  fault. 
They  are  to  be  pitied  for  it,  and  not  persecuted. 

Do  not  expect  easily  to  convince  men  of  the  truth,  or  to  lead 
them  to  think  aright.  The  subtle  human  intellect  can  weave  its 
mists  over  even  the  clearest  vision.  Remember  that  it  is  eccentric 
enough  to  ask  unanimity  from  a  jury;  but  to  ask  it  from  any 
large  number  of  men  on  any  point  of  political  faith  is  amazing. 
You  can  hardly  get  two  men  in  any  Congress  or  Convention  to 
agree ; — nay,  you  can  rarely  get  one  to  agree  with  himself.  The 
political  church  which  chances  to  be  supreme  anywhere  has  an 
indefinite  number  of  tongues.  How  then  can  we  expect  men  to 
agree  as  to  matters  beyond  the  cognizance  of  the  senses?  How 
can  we  compass  the  Infinite  and  the  Invisible  with  any  chain  of 
evidence?  Ask  the  small  sea-waves  what  they  murmur  among 
the  pebbles !  How  many  of  those  words  that  come  from  the  invis- 
ible shore  are  lost,  like  the  birds,  in  the  long  passage  ?  How  vainly 
do  we  strain  the  eyes  across  the  long  Infinite !  We  must  be  con- 
tent, as  the  children  are,  with  the  pebbles  that  have  been  stranded, 
since  it  is  forbidden  us  to  explore  the  hidden  depths. 

The  Fellow-Craft  is  especially  taught  by  this  not  to  become 
wise  in  his  own  conceit.  Pride  in  unsound  theories  is  worse  than 
ignorance.  Humility  becomes  a  Mason.  Take  some  quiet,  sober 
moment  of  life,  and  add  together  the  two  ideas  of  Pride  and  Man ; 
behold  him,  creature  of  a  span,  stalking  through  infinite  space  in 
all  the  grandeur  of  littleness !  Perched  on  a  speck  of  the  Universe, 
every  wind  of  Heaven  strikes  into  his  blood  the  coldness  of  death  ; 
his  soul  floats  away  from  his  body  like  the  melody  from  the  string. 
Day  and  night,  like  dust  on  the  wheel,  he  is  rolled  along  the  heav- 
ens, through  a  labyrinth  of  worlds,  and  all  the  creations  of  God  are 
flaming  on  every  side,  further  than  even  his  imagination  can  reach. 
Is  this  a  creature  to  make  for  himself  a  crown  of  glory,  to  deny  his 
own  flesh,  to  mock  at  his  fellow,  sprung  with  him  from  that  dust 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  39 

to  which  both  will  soon  return?  Does  the  proud  man  not  err? 
Does  he  not  suffer?  Does  he  not  die?  When  he  reasons,  is  he 
never  stopped  short  by  difficulties  ?  When  he  acts,  does  he  never 
succumb  to  the  temptations  of  pleasure  ?  When  he  lives,  is  he  free 
from  pain  ?  Do  the  diseases  not  claim  him  as  their  prey  ?  When 
he  dies,  can  he  escape  the  common  grave  ?  Pride  is  not  the  heri- 
tage of  man.  Humility  should  dwell  with  frailty,  and  atone  for 
ignorance,  error,  and  imperfection. 

Neither  should  the  Mason  be  over-anxious  for  office  and  honor, 
however  certainly  he  may  feel  that  he  has  the  capacity  to  serve  the 
State.  He  should  neither  seek  nor  spurn  honors.  It  is  good  to 
enjoy  the  blessings  of  fortune ;  it  is  better  to  submit  without  a 
pang  to  their  loss.  The  greatest  deeds  are  not  done  in  the  glare  of 
light,  and  before  the  eyes  of  the  populace.  He  whom  God  has 
gifted  with  a  love  of  retirement  possesses,  as  it  were,  an  additional 
sense ;  and  among  the  vast  and  noble  scenes  of  nature,  we  find  the 
balm  for  the  wounds  we  have  received  among  the  pitiful  shifts  of 
policy ;  for  the  attachment  to  solitude  is  the  surest  preservative 
from  the  ills  of  life. 

But  Resignation  is  the  more  noble  in  proportion  as  it  is  the  less 
passive.  Retirement  is  only  a  morbid  selfishness,  if  it  prohibit 
exertions  for  others ;  as  it  is  only  dignified  and  noble,  when  it  is 
the  shade  whence  the  oracles  issue  that  are  to  instruct  mankind; 
and  retirement  of  this  nature  is  the  sole  seclusion  which  a  good 
and  wise  man  will  covet  or  commend.  The  very  philosophy  which 
makes  such  a  man  covet  the  quiet,  will  make  him  eschew  the  inu- 
tility  of  the  hermitage.  Very  little  praiseworthy  would  LORD 
BOLINGBROKE  have  seemed  among  his  haymakers  and  ploughmen, 
if  among  haymakers  and  ploughmen  he  had  looked  with  an  indif- 
ferent eye  upon  a  profligate  minister  and  a  venal  Parliament. 
Very  little  interest  would  have  attached  to  his  beans  and  vetches, 
if  beans  and  vetches  had  caused  him  to  forget  that  if  he  was  hap- 
pier on  a  farm  he  could  be  more  useful  in  a  Senate,  and  made  him 
forego,  in  the  sphere  of  a  bailiff,  all  care  for  re-entering  that  of  a 
legislator. 

Remember,  also,  that  there  is  an  education  which  quickens  the 
Intellect,  and  leaves  the  heart  hollower  or  harder  than  -  before. 
There  are  ethical  lessons  in  the  laws  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  in  the 
properties  of  earthly  elements,  in  geography,  chemistry,  geology, 
and  all  the  material  sciences.  Things  are  symbols  of  Truths. 


MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

Properties  are  symbols  of  Truths.  Science,  not  teaching  moral 
and  spiritual  truths,  is  dead  and  dry,  of  little  more  real  value  than 
to  commit  to  the  memory  a  long  row  of  unconnected  dates,  or  of 
the  names  of  bugs  or  butterflies. 

Christianity,  it  is  said,  begins  from  the  burning  of  the  false  gods 
by  the  people  themselves.  Education  begins  with  the  burning  of 
our  intellectual  and  moral  idols :  our  prejudices,  notions,  conceits, 
our  worthless  or  ignoble  purposes.  Especially  it  is  necessary  to 
shake  off  the  love  of  worldly  gain.  With  Freedom  comes  the 
longing  for  worldly  advancement.  In  that  race  men  are  ever  fall- 
ing, rising,  running,  and  falling  again.  The  lust  for  wealth  and 
the  abject  dread  of  poverty  delve  the  furrows  on  many  a  noble 
brow.  The  gambler  grows  old  as  he  watches  the  chances.  Lawful 
hazard  drives  Youth  away  before  its  time ;  and  this  Youth  draws 
heavy  bills  of  exchange  on  Age.  Men  live,  like  the  engines,  at 
high  pressure,  a  hundred  years  in  a  hundred  months ;  the  ledger 
becomes  the  Bible,  and  the  day-book  the  Book  of  the  Morning 
Prayer. 

Hence  flow  overreachings  and  sharp  practice,  heartless  traffic  in 
which  the  capitalist  buys  profit  with  the  lives  of  the  laborers, 
speculations  that  coin  a  nation's  agonies  into  wealth,  and  all  the 
other  devilish  enginery  of  Mammon.  This,  and  greed  for  office, 
are  the  two  columns  at  the  entrance  to  the  Temple  of  Moloch.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  the  latter,  blossoming  in  falsehood,  trickery, 
and  fraud,  is  not  even  more  pernicious  than  the  former.  At  all 
events  they  are  twins,  and  fitly  mated  ;  and  as  either  gains  control 
of  the  unfortunate  subject,  his  soul  withers  away  and  decays,  and 
at  last  dies  out.  The  souls  of  half  the  human  race  leave  them 
long  before  they  die.  The  two  greeds  are  twin  plagues  of  the  lep- 
rosy, and  make  the  man  unclean ;  and  whenever  they  break  out 
they  spread  until  "they  cover  all  the  skin  of  him  that  hath  the 
plague,  from  his  head  even  to  his  foot."  Even  the  raw  flesh  of  the 

heart  becomes  unclean  with  it. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

Alexander  of  Macedon  has  left  a  saying  behind  him  which  has 
survived  his  conquests:  "Nothing  is  nobler  than  Work."  Work 
only  can  keep  even  kings  respectable.  And  when  a  king  is  a  king 
indeed,  it  is  an  honorable  office  to  give  tone  to  the  manners  and 
morals  of  a  nation  ;  to  set  the  example  of  virtuous  conduct,  and 
restore  in  spirit  the  old  schools  of  chivalry,  in  which  the  young 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  4! 

manhood  may  be  nurtured  to  real  greatness.  Work  and  wages 
will  go  together  in  men's  minds,  in  the  most  royal  institutions. 
We  must  ever  come  to  the  idea  of  real  work.  The  rest  that  fol- 
lows labor  should  be  sweeter  than  the  rest  which  follows  rest. 

Let  no  Fellow-Craft  imagine  that  the  work  of  the  lowly  and 
uninfluential  is  not  worth  the  doing.  There  is  no  legal  limit  to 
the  possible  influences  of  a  good  deed  or  a  wise  word  or  a  generous 
effort.  Nothing  is  really  small.  Whoever  is  open  to  the  deep  pen- 
etration of  nature  knows  this.  Although,  indeed,  no  absolute 
satisfaction  may  be  vouchsafed  to  philosophy,  any  more  in  circum- 
scribing the  cause  than  in  limiting  the  effect,  the  man  of  thought 
and  contemplation  falls  into  unfathomable  ecstacies  in  view  of  all 
the  decompositions  of  forces  resulting  in  unity.  All  works  for  all. 
Destruction  is  not  annihilation,  but  regeneration. 

Algebra  applies  to  the  clouds ;  the  radiance  of  the  star  benefits 
the  rose;  no  thinker  would  dare  to  say  that  the  perfume  of  the 
hawthorn  is  useless  to  the  constellations.  Who,  then,  can  calcu- 
late the  path  of  the  molecule?  How  do  we  know  that  the  crea- 
tions of  worlds  are  not  determined  by  the  fall  of  grains  of  sand? 
Who,  then,  understands  the  reciprocal  flow  and  ebb  of  the  infi- 
nitely great  and  the  infinitely  small ;  the  echoing  of  causes  in  the 
abysses  of  beginning,  and  the  avalanches  of  creation?  A  flesh- 
worm  is  of  account ;  the  small  is  great ;  the  great  is  small ;  all  is 
in  equilibrium  in  necessity.  There  are  marvellous  relations  be- 
tween beings  and  things ;  in  this  inexhaustible  Whole,  from  sun 
to  grub,  there  is  no  scorn :  all  need  each  other.  Light  does  not 
carry  terrestrial  perfumes  into  the  azure  depths,  without  knowing 
what  it  does  with  them ;  night  distributes  the  stellar  essence  to  the 
sleeping  plants.  Every  bird  which  flies  has  the  thread  of  the 
Infinite  in  its  claw.  Germination  includes  the  hatching  of  a  meteor, 
and  the  tap  of  a  swallow's  bill,  breaking  the  egg ;  and  it  leads  for- 
ward the  birth  of  an  earth-worm  and  the  advent  of  a  Socrates. 
Where  the  telescope  ends  the  microscope  begins.  Which  of  them 
the  grander  view?  A  bit  of  mould  is  a  Pleiad  of  flowers — a 
nebula  is  an  ant-hill  of  stars. 

There  is  the  same  and  a  still  more  wonderful  interpenetration 
between  the  things  of  the  intellect  and  the  things  of  matter.  Ele- 
ments and  principles  are  mingled,  combined,  espoused,  multiplied 
one  by  another,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  bring  the  material  world  and 
the  moral  world  into  the  same  light.  Phenomena  are  perpetually 


42  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

folded  back  upon  themselves.  In  the  vast  cosmical  changes  the 
universal  life  comes  and  goes  in  unknown  quantities,  enveloping 
all  in  the  invisible  mystery  of  the  emanations,  losing  no  dream 
from  no  single  sleep,  sowing  an  animalcule  here,  crumbling  a  star 
there,  oscillating,  and  winding  in  curves ;  making  a  force  of  Light, 
and  an  element  of  Thought;  disseminated  and  indivisible,  dis- 
solving all  save  that  point  without  length,  breadth,  or  thickness, 
The  MYSELF;  reducing  everything  to  the  Soul-atom;  making 
everything  blossom  into  God;  entangling  all  activities,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  in  the  obscurity  of  a  dizzying  mechanism ; 
hanging  the  flight  of  an  insect  upon  the  movement  of  the  earth ; 
subordinating,  perhaps,  if  only  by  the  identity  of  the  law,  the 
eccentric  evolutions  of  the  comet  in  the  firmament,  to  the  whirl- 
ings of  the  infusoria  in  the  drop  of  water.  A  mechanism  made  of 
mind,  the  first  motor  of  which  is  the  gnat,  and  its  last  wheel  the 
zodiac. 

A  peasant-boy,  guiding  Bliicher  by  the  right  one  of  two  roads,  the 
other  being  impassable  for  artillery,  enables  him  to  reach  Waterloo 
in  time  to  save  Wellington  from  a  defeat  that  would  have  been  a 
rout ;  and  so  enables  the  kings  to  imprison  Napoleon  on  a  barren 
rock  in  mid-ocean.  An  unfaithful  smith,  by  the  slovenly  shoeing  of 
a  horse,  causes  his  lameness,  and,  he  stumbling,  the  career  of  his 
world-conquering  rider  ends,  and  the  destinies  of  empires  are 
changed.  A  generous  officer  permits  an  imprisoned  monarch  to 
end  his  game  of  chess  before  leading  him  to  the  block ;  and  mean- 
while the  usurper  dies,  and  the  prisoner  reascends  the  throne. 
An  unskillful  workman  repairs  the  compass,  or  malice  or  stupidity 
disarranges  it,  the  ship  mistakes  her  course,  the  waves  swallow  a 
Caesar,  and  a  new  chapter  is  written  in  the  history  of  a  world. 
What  we  call  accident  is  but  the  adamantine  chain  of  indissoluble 
connection  between  all  created  things.  The  locust,  hatched  in  the 
Arabian  sands,  the  small  worm  that  destroys  the  cotton-boll,  one 
making  famine  in  the  Orient,  the  other  closing  the  mills  and  starv- 
ing the  workmen  and  their  children  in  the  Occident,  with  riots  and 
massacres,  are  as  much  the  ministers  of  God  as  the  earthquake; 
and  the  fate  of  nations  depends  more  on  them  than  on  the  intel- 
lect of  its  kings  and  legislators.  A  civil  war  in  America  will  end 
in  shaking  the  world ;  and  that  war  may  be  caused  by  the  vote  of 
some  ignorant  prize-fighter  or  crazed  fanatic  in  a  city  or  in  a  Con- 
gress, or  of  some  stupid  boor  in  an  obscure  country  parish.  The 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  43 

electricity  of  universal  sympathy,  of  action  and  reaction,  pervades 
everything,  the  planets  and  the  motes  in  the  sunbeam.  FAUST, 
with  his  types,  or  LUTHER,  with  his  sermons,  worked  greater  re- 
sults than  Alexander  or  Hannibal..  A  single  thought  sometimes 
suffices  to  overturn  a  dynasty.  A  silly  song  did  more  to  unseat 
James  the  Second  than  the  acquittal  of  the  Bishops.  Voltaire, 
Condorcet,  and  Rousseau  uttered  words  that  will  ring,  in  change 
and  revolutions,  throughout  all  the  ages. 

Remember,  that  though  life  is  short,  Thought  and  the  influences 
of  what  we  do  or  say,  are  immortal ;  and  that  no  calculus  has  yet 
pretended  to  ascertain  the  law  of  proportion  between  cause  and 
effect.  The  hammer  of  an  English  blacksmith,  smiting  down  an 
insolent  official,  led  to  a  rebellion  which  came  near  being  a  revo- 
lution. The  word  well  spoken,  the  deed  fitly  done,  even  by  the 
feeblest  or  humblest,  cannot  help  but  have  their  effect.  More  or 
less,  the  effect  is  inevitable  and  eternal.  The  echoes  of  the  great- 
est deeds  may  die  away  like  the  echoes  of  a  cry  among  the  cliffs, 
and  what  has  been  done  seem  to  the  human  judgment  to  have 
been  without  result.  The  unconsidered  act  of  the  poorest  of 
men  may  fire  the  train  that  leads  to  the  subterranean  mine,  and 
an  empire  be  rent  by  the  explosion. 

The  power  of  a  free  people  is  often  at  the  disposal  of  a  single 
and  seemingly  an  unimportant  individual ; — a  terrible  and  truth- 
ful power ;  for  such  a  people  feel  with  one  heart,  and  therefore  can 
lift  up  their  myriad  arms  for  a  single  blow.  And,  again,  there  is 
no  graduated  scale  for  the  measurement  of  the  influences  of  differ- 
ent intellects  upon  the  popular  mind.  Peter  the  Hermit  held  no 

office,  yet  what  a  work  he  wrought ! 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

From  the  political  point  of  view  there  is  but  a  single  principle, — 
the  sovereignty  of  man  over  himself.  This  sovereignty  of  one's 
self  over  one's  self  is  called  LIBERTY.  Where  two  or  several  of 
these  sovereignties  associate,  the  State  begins.  But  in  this  associa- 
tion there  is  no  abdication.  Each  sovereignty  parts  with  a  certain 
portion  of  itself  to  form  the  common  right.  That  portion  is  the 
same  for  all.  There  is  equal  contribution  by  all  to  the  joint  sov- 
ereignty. This  identity  of  concession  which  each  makes  to  all,,  is 
EQUALITY.  The  common  right  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  the 
protection  of  all,  pouring  its  rays  on  each.  This  protection  of 
each  by  all,  is  FRATERNITY. 


44  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

Liberty  is  the  summit,  Equality  the  base.  Equality  is  not  all 
vegetation  on  a  level,  a  society  of  big  spears  of  grass  and  stunted 
oaks,  a  neighborhood  of  jealousies,  emasculating  each  other.  It  is 
civilly,  all  aptitudes  having  equal  opportunity ;  politically,  all  votes 
having  equal  weight;  religiously,  all  consciences  having  equal 
rights. 

Equality  has  an  organ; — gratuitous  and  obligatory  instruction. 
We  must  begin  with  the  right  to  the  alphabet.  The  primary 
school  obligatory  upon  all ;  the  higher  school  offered  to  all.  Such 
is  the  law.  From  the  same  school  for  all  springs  equal  society. 
Instruction !  Light !  all  comes  from  Light,  and  all  returns  to  it. 

We  must  learn  the  thoughts  of  the  common  people,  if  we  would 
be  wise  and  do  any  good  work.  We  must  look  at  men,  not  so  much 
for  what  Fortune  has  given  to  them  with  her  blind  old  eyes,  as  for 
the  gifts  Nature  has  brought  in  her  lap,  and  for  the  use  that  has 
been  made  of  them.  We  profess  to  be  equal  in  a  Church  and  in 
the  Lodge:  we  shall  be  equal  in  the  sight  of  God  when  He  judges 
the  earth.  We  may  well  sit  on  the  pavement  together  here,  in  com- 
munion and  conference,  for  the  few  brief  moments  that  constitute 
life. 

A  Democratic  Government  undoubtedly  has  its  defects,  because 
it  is  made  and  administered  by  men,  and  not  by  the  Wise  Gods. 
It  cannot  be  concise  and  sharp,  like  the  despotic.  When  its  ire  is 
aroused  it  develops  its  latent  strength,  and  the  sturdiest  rebel  trem- 
bles. But  its  habitual  domestic  rule  is  tolerant,  patient,  and  inde- 
cisive. Men  are  brought  together,  first  to  differ,  and  then  to  agree. 
Affirmation,  negation,  discussion,  solution:  these  are  the  means 
of  attaining  truth.  Often  the  enemy  will  be  at  the  gates  before 
the  babble  of  the  disturbers  is  drowned  in  the  chorus  of  consent. 
In  the  Legislative  office  deliberation  will  often  defeat  decision. 
Liberty  can  play  the  fool  like  the  Tyrants. 

Refined  society  requires  greater  minuteness  of  regulation ;  and 
the  steps  of  all  advancing  States  are  more  and  more  to  be  picked 
among  the  old  rubbish  and  the  new  materials.  The  difficulty  lies 
in  discovering  the  right  path  through  the  chaos  of  confusion.  The 
adjustment  of  mutual  rights  and  wrongs  is  also  more  difficult  in 
democracies.  We  do  not  see  and  estimate  the  relative  importance 
of  objects  so  easily  and  clearly  from  the  level  or  the  waving  land 
as  from  the  elevation  of  a  lone  peak,  towering  above  the  plain ;  for 
each  looks  through  his  own  mist. 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  45 

Abject  dependence  on  constituents,  also,  is  too  common.  It  is 
as  miserable  a  thing  as  abject  dependence  on  a  minister  or  the 
favorite  of  a  Tyrant.  It  is  rare  to  find  a  man  who  can  speak  out 
the  simple  truth  that  is  in  him,  honestly  and  frankly,  without  fear, 
favor,  or  affection,  either  to  Emperor  or  People. 

Moreover,  in  assemblies  of  men,  faith  in  each  other  is  almost 
always  wanting,  unless  a  terrible  pressure  of  calamity  or  danger 
from  without  produces  cohesion.  Hence  the  constructive  power  of 
such  assemblies  is  generally  deficient.  The  chief  triumphs  of 
modern  days,  in  Europe,  have  been  in  pulling  down  and  obliterat- 
ing; not  in  building  up.  But  Repeal  is  not  Reform.  Time  must 
bring  with  him  the  Restorer  and  Rebuilder. 

Speech,  also,  is  grossly  abused  in  Republics ;  and  if  the  use  of 
speech  be  glorious,  its  abuse  is  the  most  villainous  of  vices.  Rhet- 
oric, Plato  says,  is  the  art  of  ruling  the  minds  of  men.  But  in 
democracies  it  is  too  common  to  hide  thought  in  words,  to  overlay 
it,  to  babble  nonsense.  The  gleams  and  glitter  of  intellectual 
soap-and-water  bubbles  are  mistaken  for  the  rainbow-glories  of 
genius.  The  worthless  pyrites  is  continually  mistaken  for  gold. 
Even  intellect  condescends  to  intellectual  jugglery,  balancing 
thoughts  as  a  juggler  balances  pipes  on  his  chin.  In  all  Congresses 
we  have  the  inexhaustible  flow  of  babble,  and  Faction's  clamorous 
knavery  in  discussion,  until  the  divine  power  of  speech,  that  priv- 
ilege of  man  and  great  gift  of  God,  is  no  better  than  the  screech 
of  parrots  or  the  mimicry  of  monkeys.  The  mere  talker,  however 
fluent,  is  barren  of  deeds  in  the  day  of  trial. 

There  are  men  voluble  as  women,  and  as  well  skilled  in  fencing 
with  the  tongue :  prodigies  of  speech,  misers  in  deeds.  Too  much 
talking,  like  too  much  thinking,  destroys  the  power  of  action.  In 
human  nature,  the  thought  is  only  made  perfect  by  deed.  Silence 
is  the  mother  of  both.  The  trumpeter  is  not  the  bravest  of  the 
brave.  Steel  and  not  brass  wins  the  day.  The  great  doer  of  great 
deeds  is  mostly  slow  and  slovenly  of  speech.  There  are  some  men 
born  and  bred  to  betray.  Patriotism  is  their  trade,  and  their  cap- 
ital is  speech.  But  no  noble  spirit  can. plead  like  Paul  and  be  false 
to  itself  as  Judas. 

Imposture  too  commonly  rules  in  republics ;  they  seem  to  be 
ever  in  their  minority ;  their  guardians  are  self-appointed ;  and 
the  unjust  thrive  better  than  the  just.  The  Despot,  like  the 
night-lion  roaring,  drowns  all  the  clamor  of  tongues  at  once,  and 


46  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

speech,  the  birthright  of  the  free  man,  becomes  the  bauble  of  the 
enslaved. 

It  is  quite  true  that  republics  only  occasionally,  and  as  it  were 
accidentally,  select  their  wisest,  or  even  the  less  incapable  among 
the  incapables,  to  govern  them  and  legislate  for  them.  If  genius, 
armed  with  learning  and  knowledge,  will  grasp  the  reins,  the  people 
will  reverence  it ;  if  it  only  modestly  offers  itself  for  office,  it  will 
be  smitten  on  the  face,  even  when,  in  the  straits  of  distress  and 
the  agonies  of  calamity,  it  is  indispensable  to  the  salvation  of  the 
State.  Put  it  upon  the  track  with  the  showy  and  superficial,  the 
conceited,  the  ignorant,  and  impudent,  the  trickster  and  charlatan, 
and  the  result  shall  not  be  a  moment  doubtful.  The  verdicts  of 
Legislatures  and  the  People  are  like  the  verdicts  of  juries, — some- 
times right  by  accident. 

Offices,  it  is  true,  are  showered,  like  the  rains  of  Heaven,  upon 
the  just  and  the  unjust.  The  Roman  Augurs  that  used  to  laugh 
in  each  other's  faces  at  the  simplicity  of  the  vulgar,  were  also 
tickled  with  their  own  guile ;  but  no  Augur  is  needed  to  lead  the 
people  astray.  They  readily  deceive  themselves.  Let  a  Republic 
begin  as  it  may,  it  will  not  be  out  of  its  minority  before  imbecility 
will  be  promoted  to  high  places ;  and  shallow  pretence,  getting 
itself  puffed  into  notice,  will  invade  all  the  sanctuaries.  The  most 
unscrupulous  partisanship  will  prevail,  even  in  respect  to  judicial 
trusts ;  and  the  most  unjust  appointments  constantly  be  made, 
although  every  improper  promotion  not  merely  confers  one  unde- 
served favor,  but  may  make  a  hundred  honest  cheeks  smart  with 
injustice. 

The  country  is  stabbed  in  the  front  when  those  are  brought  into 
the  stalled  seats  who  should  slink  into  the  dim  gallery.  Even' 
stamp  of  Honor,  ill-clutched,  is  stolen  from  the  Treasury  of 
Merit. 

Yet  the  entrance  into  the  public  service,  and  the  promotion  in 
it,  affect  both  the  rights  of  individuals  and  those  of  the  nation. 
Injustice  in  bestowing  or  withholding  office  ought  to  be  so  intoler- 
able in  democratic  communities  that  the  least  trace  of  it  should  be 
like  the  scent  of  Treason.  It  is  not  universally  true  that  all  citi- 
zens of  equal  character  have  an  equal  claim  to  knock  at  the  door 
of  every  public  office  and  demand  admittance.  When  any  man 
presents  himself  for  service  he  has  a  right  to  aspire  to  the  highest 
body  at  once,  if  he  can  show  his  fitness  for  such  a  beginning, — that 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  47 

he  is  fitter  than  the  rest  who  offer  themselves  for  the  same  post. 
The  entry  into  it  can  only  justly  be  made  through  the  door  of 
merit.  And  whenever  any  one  aspires  to  and  attains  such  high 
post,  especially  if  by  unfair  and  disreputable  and  indecent  means, 
and  is  afterward  found  to  be  a  signal  failure,  he  should  at  once  be 
beheaded.  He  is  the  worst  among  the  public  enemies. 

When  a  man  sufficiently  reveals  himself,  all  others  should  be 
proud  to  give  him  clue  precedence.  When  the  power  of  promotion 
is  abused  in  the  grand  passages  of  life  whether  by  People,  Legis- 
lature, or  Executive,  the  unjust  decision  recoils  on  the  judge  at 
once.  That  is  not  only  a  gross,  but  a  willful  shortness  of  sight,  that 
cannot  discover  the  deserving.  If  one  will  look  hard,  long,  and 
honestly,  he  will  not  fail  to  discern  merit,  genius,  and  qualification ; 
and  the  eyes  and  voice  of  the  Press  and  Public  should  condemn 
and  denounce  injustice  wherever  she  rears  her  horrid  head. 

"The  tools  to  the  workmen!"  no  other  principle  will  save  a  Re- 
public from  destruction,  either  by  civil  war  or  the  dry-rot.  They 
tend  to  decay,  do  all  we  can  to  prevent  it,  like  human  bodies.  If 
they  try  the  experiment  of  governing  themselves  by  their  smallest, 
they  slide  downward  to  the  unavoidable  abyss  with  tenfold  ve- 
locity ;  and  there  never  has  been  a  Republic  that  has  not  followed 
that  fatal  course. 

But  however  palpable  and  gross  the  inherent  defects  of  demo- 
cratic governments,  and  fatal  as  the  results  finally  and  inevitably 
are,  we  need  only  glance  at  the  reigns  of  Tiberius,  Nero,  and  Ca- 
ligula, of  Heliogabalus  and  Caracalla,of  Domitian  and  Commodus, 
to  recognize  that  the  difference  between  freedom  and  despotism  is 
as  wide  as  that  between  Heaven  and  Hell.  The  cruelty,  baseness, 
and  insanity  of  tyrants  are  incredible.  Let  him  who  complains  of 
the  fickle  humors  and  inconstancy  of  a  free  people,  read  Pliny's 
character  of  Domitian.  If  the  great  man  in  a  Republic  cannot 
win  office  without  descending  to  low  arts  and  whining  beggary  and 
the  judicious  use  of  sneaking  lies,  let  him  remain  in  retirement, 
and  use  the  pen.  Tacitus  and  Juvenal  held  no  office.  Let  His- 
tory and  Satire  punish  the  pretender  as  they  crucify  the  despot. 
The  revenges  of  the  intellect  are  terrible  and  just. 

Let  Masonry  use  the  pen  and  the  printing-press  in  the  free 
State  against  the  Demagogue ;  in  the  Despotism  against  the 
Tyrant.  History  offers  examples  and  encouragement.  All  history, 
for  four  thousand  years,  being  filled  with  violated  rights  and  the 


48  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

sufferings  of  the  people,  each  period  of  history  brings  with  it  such 
protest  as  is  possible  to  it.  Under  the  Csesars  there  was  no  insur- 
rection, but  there  was  a  Juvenal.  The  arousing  of  indigna- 
tion replaces  the  Gracchi.  Under  the  Caesars  there  is  the  exile  of 
Syene ;  there  is  also  the  author  of  the  Annals.  As  the  Neros 
reign  darkly  they  should  be  pictured  so.  Work  with  the  graver 
only  would  be  pale ;  into  the  grooves  should  be  poured  a  concen- 
trated prose  that  bites. 

Despots  are  an  aid  to  thinkers.  Speech  enchained  is  speech  ter- 
rible. The  writer  doubles  and  triples  his  style,  when  silence  is 
imposed  by  a  master  upon  the  people.  There  springs  from  this 
silence  a  certain  mysterious  fullness,  which  filters  and  freezes  into 
brass  in  the  thoughts.  Compression  in  the  history  produces  con- 
ciseness in  the  historian.  The  granitic  solidity  of  some  celebrated 
prose  is  only  a  condensation  produced  by  the  Tyrant.  Tyranny 
constrains  the  writer  to  shortenings  of  diameter  which  are  in- 
creases of  strength.  The  Ciceronian  period,  hardly  sufficient  upon 
Verres,  would  lose  its  edge  upon  Caligula. 

The  Demagogue  is  the  predecessor  of  the  Despot.  One  springs 
from  the  other's  loins.  He  who  will  basely  fawn  on  those  who 
have  office  to  bestow,  will  betray  like  Iscariot,  and  prove  a  miser- 
able and  pitiable  failure.  Let  the  new  Junius  lash  such  men  as 
they  deserve,  and  History  make  them  immortal  in  infamy ;  since 
their  influences  culminate  in  ruin.  The  Republic  that  employs 
and  honors  the  shallow,  the  superficial,  the  base, 

"who  crouch 
Unto  the  offal  of  an  office  promised," 

at  last  weeps  tears  of  blood  for  its  fatal  error.  Of  such  supreme 
folly,  the  sure  fruit  is  damnation.  Let  the  nobility  of  every  great 
heart,  condensed  into  justice  and  truth,  strike  such  creatures  like 
a  thunderbolt !  If  you  can  do  no  more,  you  can  at  least  condemn 
by  your  vote,  and  ostracise  by  denunciation. 

It  is  true  that,  as  the  Czars  are  absolute,  they  have  it  in  their 
power  to  select  the  best  for  the  public  service.  It  is  true  that  the 
beginner  of  a  dynasty  generally  does  so ;  and  that  when  monarch- 
ies are  in  their  prime,  pretence  and  shallowness  do  not  thrive  and 
prosper  and  get  power,  as  they  do  in  Republics.  All  do  not  gabble 
in  the  Parliament  of  a  Kingdom,  as  in  the  Congress  of  a  Democ- 
racy. The  incapables  do  not  go  undetected  there,  all  their  lives. 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  49 

But  dynasties  speedily  decay  and  run  out.  At  last  they  dwindle 
down  into  imbecility;  and  the  dull  or  flippant  Members  of  Con- 
gresses are  at  least  the  intellectual  peers  of  the  vast  majority  of 
kings.  The  great  man,  the  Julius  Caesar,  the  Charlemagne,  Crom- 
well, Napoleon,  reigns  of  right.  He  is  the  wisest  and  the  strong- 
est. The  incapables  and  imbeciles  succeed  and  are  usurpers ;  and 
fear  makes  them  cruel.  After  Julius  came  Caracalla  and  Galba ; 
after  Charlemagne,  the  lunatic  Charles  the  Sixth.  So  the  Sara- 
cenic dynasty  dwindled  out;  the  Capets,  the  Stuarts,  the  Bour- 
bons ;  the  last  of  these  producing  Bomba,  the  ape  of  Domitian. 
*  ***** 

Man  is  by  nature  cruel,  like  the  tigers.  The  barbarian,  and  the 
tool  of  the  tyrant,  and  the  civilized  fanatic,  enjoy  the  sufferings  of 
others,  as  the  children  enjoy  the  contortions  of  maimed  flies.  Ab- 
solute Power,  once  in  fear  for  the  safety  of  its  tenure,  cannot  but 
be  cruel. 

As  to  ability,  dynasties  invariably  cease  to  possess  any  after  a 
few  lives.  They  become  mere  shams,  governed  by  ministers,  favor- 
ites, or  courtesans,  like  those  old  Etruscan  kings,  slumbering  for 
long  ages  in  their  golden  royal  robes,  dissolving  forever  at  the  first 
breath  of  day.  Let  him  who  complains  of  the  short-comings  of 
democracy  ask  himself  if  he  would  prefer  a  Du  Barry  or  a  Pompa- 
dour, governing  in  the  name  of  a  Louis  the  Fifteenth,  a  Caligula 
making  his  horse  a  consul,  a  Domitian,  "that  most  savage  mon- 
ster," who  sometimes  drank  the  blood  of  relatives,  sometimes  em- 
ploying himself  with  slaughtering  the  most  distinguished  citizens 
before  whose  gates  fear  and  terror  kept  watch ;  a  tyrant  of  fright- 
ful aspect,  pride  on  his  forehead,  fire  in  his  eye,  constantly  seeking 
darkness  and  secrecy,  and  only  emerging  from  his  solitude  to  make 
solitude.  After  all,  in  a  free  government,  the  Laws  and  the  Con- 
stitution are  above  the  Incapables,  the  Courts  correct  their  legisla- 
tion, and  posterity  is  the  Grand  Inquest  that  passes  judgment  on 
them.  What  is  the  exclusion  of  worth  and  intellect  and  knowl- 
edge from  civil  office  compared  with  trials  before  Jeffries,  tortures 
in  the  dark  caverns  of  the  Inquisition,  Alva-butcheries  in  the 
Netherlands,  the  Eve  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  and  the  Sicilian 

Vespers  ? 

*  ***** 

The  Abbe  Barruel  in  his  Memoirs  for  the  History  of  Jaco- 
bmistn,  declares  that  Masonry  in  France  gave,  as  its  secret,  the 


5O  MORALS    AND    DOGMA. 

words  Equality  and  Liberty,  leaving  it  for  every  honest  and  reli- 
gious Mason  to  explain  them  as  would  best  suit  his  principles ;  but 
retained  the  privilege  of  unveiling  in  the  higher  Degrees  the  mean- 
ing of  those  words,  as  interpreted  by  the  French  Revolution.  And 
he  also  excepts  English  Masons  from  his  anathemas,  because  in 
England  a  Mason  is  a  peaceable  subject  of  the  civil  authorities, 
no  matter  where  he  resides,  engaging  in  no  plots  or  conspiracies 
igainst  even  the  worst  government.  England,  he  says,  disgusted 
with  an  Equality  and  a  Liberty,  the  consequences  of  which  she 
had  felt  in  the  struggles  of  her  Lollards,  Anabaptists,  and  Presby- 
terians, had  "purged  her  Masonry"  from  all  explanations  tending 
to  overturn  empires ;  but  there  still  remained  adepts  whom  disor- 
ganizing principles  bound  to  the  Ancient  Mysteries. 

Because  true  Masonry,  unemasculated,  bore  the  banners  of  Free- 
dom and  Equal  Rights,  and  was  in  rebellion  against  temporal  and 
spiritual  tyranny,  its  Lodges  were  proscribed  in  1735,  by  an  edict 
of  the  States  of  Holland.  In  1737,  Louis  XV.  forbade  them  in 
France.  In  1738,  Pope  Clement  XII.  issued  against  them  his 
famous  Bull  of  Excommunication,  which  was  renewed  by.  Benedict 
XIV.;  and  in  1743  the  Council  of  Berne  also  proscribed  them. 
The  title  of  the  Bull  of  Clement  is,  "The  Condemnation  of  the 
Society  of  Conventicles  de  Libcri  Muratori,  or  of  the  Freemasons, 
under  the  penalty  of  ipso  facto  excommunication,  the  absolution 
from  which  is  reserved  to  the  Pope  alone,  except  at  the  point 
of  death."  And  by  it  all  bishops,  ordinaries,  and  inquisitors 
were  empowered  to  punish  Freemasons,  "as  vehemently  sus- 
pected of  heresy,"  and  to  call  in,  if  necessary,  the  help  of  the 
secular  arm ;  that  is,  to  cause  the  civil  authority  to  put  them  to 

death. 

#  *  *  *  *  * 

Also,  false  and  slavish  political  theories  end  in  brutalizing  the 
State.  For  example,  adopt  the  theory  that  offices  and  employ- 
ments in  it  are  to  be  given  as  rewards  for  services  rendered  to 
party,  and  they  soon  become  the  prey  and  spoil  of  faction,  the 
booty  of  the  victory  of  faction  ; — and  leprosy  is  in  the  flesh  of  the 
State.  The  body  of  the  commonwealth  becomes  a  mass  of  corrup- 
tion, like  a  living  carcass  rotten  with  syphilis.  All  unsound  theories 
in  the  end  develop  themselves  in  one  foul  and  loathsome  disease 
or  other  of  the  body  politic.  The  State,  like  the  man,  must  use 
constant  effort  to  stay  in  the  paths  of  virtue  and  rnanliness.  The 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  51 

habit  of  electioneering  and  begging  for  office  culminates  in  bribery 
with  office,  and  corruption  in  office. 

A  chosen  man  has  a  visible  trust  from  God,  as  plainly  as  if  the 
commission  were  engrossed  by  the  notary.  A  nation  cannot  re- 
nounce the  executorship  of  the  Divine  decrees.  As  little  can  Ma- 
sonry. It  must  labor  to  do  its  duty  knowingly  and  wisely.  We 
must  remember  that,  in  free  States,  as  well  as  in  despotisms,  Injus- 
tice, the  spouse  of  Oppression,  is  the  fruitful  parent  of  Deceit,  Dis- 
trust, Hatred,  Conspiracy,  Treason,  and  Unfaithfulness.  Even  in 
assailing  Tyranny  we  must  have  Truth  and  Reason  as  our  chief 
weapons.  We  must  march  into  that  fight  like  the  old  Puritans, 
or  into  the  battle  with  the  abuses  that  spring  up  in  free  govern- 
ment, with  the  flaming  sword  in  one  hand,  and  the  Oracles  of  God 
in  the  other. 

The  citizen  who  cannot  accomplish  well  the  smaller  purposes  of 
public  life,  cannot  compass  the  larger.  The  vast  power  of  endu- 
rance, forbearance,  patience,  and  performance,  of  a  free  people,  is 
acquired  only  by  continual  exercise  of  all  the  functions,  like  the 
healthful  physical  human  vigor.  If  the  individual  citizens  have 
it  not,  the  State  must  equally  be  without  it.  It  is  of  the  essence 
of  a  free  government,  that  the  people  should  not  only  be  concerned 
in  making  the  laws,  but  also  in  their  execution.  No  man  ought  to 
be  more  ready  to  obey  and  administer  the  law  than  he  who  has 
helped  to  make  it.  The  business  of  government  is  carried  on  for 
the  benefit  of  all,  and  every  co-partner  should  give  counsel  and  co- 
operation. 

Remember  also,  as  another  shoal  on  which  States  are  wrecked, 
that  free  States  always  tend  toward  the  depositing  of  the  citizens 
in  strata,  the  creation  of  castes,  the  perpetuation  of  the  jus  divinum 
to  office  in  families.  The  more  democratic  the  State,  the  more 
sure  this  result.  For,  as  free  States  advance  in  power,  there  is  a 
strong  tendency  toward  centralization,  not  from  deliberate  evil 
intention,  but  from  the  course  of  events  and  the  indolence  of  hu- 
man nature.  The  executive  powers  swell  and  enlarge  to  inordinate 
dimensions ;  and  the  Executive  is  always  aggressive  with  respect 
to  the  nation.  Offices  of  all  kinds  are  multiplied  to  reward  parti- 
sans ;  the  brute  force  of  the  sewerage  and  lower  strata  of  the  mob 
obtains  large  representation,  first  in  the  lower  offices,  and  at  last 
in  Senates ;  and  Bureaucracy  raises  its  bald  head,  bristling  with 
pens,  girder1  with  spectacles,  and  bunched  with  ribbon.  The  art 


52  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  Government  becomes  like  a  Craft,  and  its  guilds  tend  to  become 
exclusive,  as  those  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Political  science  may  be  much  improved  as  a  subject  of  specu- 
lation; but  it  should  never  be  divorced  from  the  actual  national 
necessity.  The  science  of  governing  men  must  always  be  practi- 
cal, rather  than  philosophical.  There  is  not  the  same  amount  of 
positive  or  universal  truth  here  as  in  the  abstract  sciences ;  what 
is  true  in  one  country  may  be  very  false  in  another ;  what  is  untrue 
to-day  may  become  true  in  another  generation,  and  the  truth  of 
to-day  be  reversed  by  the  judgment  of  to-morrow.  To  distinguish 
the  casual  from  the  enduring,  to  separate  the  unsuitable  from  the 
suitable,  and  to  make  progress  even  possible,  are  the  proper  ends 
of  policy.  But  without  actual  knowledge  and  experience,  and 
communion  of  labor,  the  dreams  of  the  political  doctors  may  be 
no  better  than  those  of  the  doctors  of  divinity.  The  reign  of  such 
a  caste,  with  its  mysteries,  its  myrmidons,  and  its  corrupting  influ- 
ence, may  be  as  fatal  as  that  of  the  despots.  Thirty  tyrants  are 
thirty  times  worse  than  one. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  strong  temptation  for  the  governing  people 
to  become  as  much  slothful  and  sluggards  as  the  weakest  of  abso- 
lute kings.  Only  give  them  the  power  to  get  rid,  when  caprice 
prompts  them,  cf  the  great  and  wise  men,  and  elect  the  little,  and 
as  to  all  the  rest  they  will  relapse  into  indolence  and  ipdifference. 
The  central  power,  creation  of  the  people,  organized  and  cunning 
if  not  enlightened,  is  the  perpetual  tribunal  set  up  by  them  for  the 
redress  of  wrong  and  the  rule  of  justice.  It  soon  supplies  itself 
with  all  the  requisite  machinery,  and  is  ready  and  apt  for  all  kinds 
of  interference.  The  people  may  be  a  child  all  its  life.  The  cen- 
tral power  may  not  be  able  to  suggest  the  best  scientific  solution 
of  a  problem ;  but  it  has  the  easiest  means  of  carrying  an  idea 
into  effect.  If  the  purpose  to  be  attained  is  a  large  one,  it  requires 
a  large  comprehension ;  it  is  proper  for  the  action  of  the  central 
power.  If  it  be  a  small  one,  it  may  be  thwarted  by  disagreement. 
The  central  power  must  step  in  as  an  arbitrator  and  prevent  this. 
The  people  may  be  too  averse  to  change,  too  slothful  in  their  own 
business,  unjust  to  a  minority  or  a  majority.  The  central  power 
must  take  the  reins  when  the  people  drop  them. 

France  became  centralized  in  its  government  more  by  the  apa- 
thy and  ignorance  of  its  people  than  by  the  tyranny  of  its  kings. 
When  the  inmost  parish-life  is  given  up  to  the  direct  guardian- 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  53 

ship  of  the  State,  and  the  repair  of  the  belfry  of  a  country  church 
requires  a  written  order  from  the  central  power,  a  people  is  in  its 
dotage.  Men  are  thus  nurtured  in  imbecility,  from  the  dawn  of 
social  life.  When  the  central  government  feeds  part  of  the  people 
it  prepares  all  to  be  slaves.  When  it  directs  parish  and  county 
affairs,  they  are  slaves  already.  The  next  step  is  to  regulate  labor 
and  its  wages. 

Nevertheless,  whatever  follies  the  free  people  may  commit,  even 
to  the  putting  of  the  powers  of  legislation  in  the  hands  of  the 
little  competent  and  less  honest,  despair  not  of  the  final  result. 
The  terrible  teacher,  EXPERIENCE,  writing  his  lessons  on  hearts 
desolated  with  calamity  and  wrung  by  agony,  will  make  them  wiser 
in  time.  Pretence  and  grimace  and  sordid  beggary  for  votes  will 
some  day  cease  to  avail.  Have  FAITH,  and  struggle  on,  against  all 
evil  influences  and  discouragements !  FAITH  is  the  Saviour  and 
Redeemer  of  nations.  When  Christianity  had  grown  weak,  profit- 
less, and  powerless,  the  Arab  Restorer  and  Iconoclast  came,  like  a 
cleansing  hurricane.  When  the  battle  of  Damascus  was  about  to 
be  fought,  the  Christian  bishop,  at  the  early  dawn,  in  his  robes,  at 
the  head  of  his  clergy,  with  the  Cross  once  so  triumphant  raised 
in  the  air,  came  down  to  the  gates  of  the  city,  and  laid  open  be- 
fore the  army  the  Testament  of  Christ.  The  Christian  general, 
THOMAS,  laid  his  hand  on  the  book,  and  said,  "Oh  God!  IF  our 
faith  be  true,  aid  us,  and  deliver  us  not  into  the  hands  of  its  ene- 
mies!" But  KHALED,  "the  Sword  of  God,"  who  had  marched 
from  victory  to  victory,  exclaimed  to  his  wearied  soldiers,  "Let  no 
man  sleep!  There  will  be  rest  enough  in  the  bowers  of  Paradise; 
sivcet  ivill  be  the  repose  never  more  to  be  followed  by  labor."  The 
faith  of  the  Arab  had  become  stronger  than  that  of  the  Christian, 
and  he  conquered. 

The  Sword  is  also,  in  the  Bible,  an  emblem  of  SPEECH,  or  of  the 
utterance  of  thought.  Thus,  in  that  vision  or  apocalypse  of  the 
sublime  exile  of  Patmos,  a  protest  in  the  name  of  the  ideal,  over- 
whelming the  real  world,  a  tremendous  satire  tittered  in  the  name 
of  Religion  and  Liberty,  and  with  its  fiery  reverberations  smiting 
the  throne  of  the  Caesars,  a  sharp  two-edged  sword  comes  out  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Semblance  of  the  Son  of  Man,  encircled  by  the 
seven  golden  candlesticks,  and  holding  in  his  right  hand  seven 
stars.  "The  Lord,"  says  Isaiah,  "hath  made  my  mouth  like  a 
sharp  sword."  "I  have  slain  them,'"'  says  Hosea,  "by  the  words 


54  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  my  mouth."  "The  word  of  God,"  says  the  writer  of  the  apos- 
tolic letter  to  the  Hebrews,  "is  quick  and  powerful,  and  sharper 
than  any  two-edged  sword,  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  asunder 
of  soul  and  spirit."  "The  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word 
of  God,"  says  Paul,  writing  to  the  Christians  at  Ephesus.  "I  will 
fight  against  them  with  the  sword  of  my  mouth,"  it  is  said  in  the 
Apocalypse,  to  the  angel  of  the  church  at  Pergamos. 

****** 

The  spoken  discourse  may  roll  on  strongly  as  the  great  tidal 
wave ;  but,  like  the  wave,  it  dies  at  last  feebly  on  the  sands.  It  is 
heard  by  few,  remembered  by  still  fewer,  and  fades  away,  like  an 
echo  in  the  mountains,  leaving  no  token  of  power.  It  is  nothing 
to  the  living  and  coming  generations  of  men.  It  was  the  written 
human  speech,  that  gave  power  and  permanence  to  human  thought. 
It  is  this  that  makes  the  whole  human  history  but  one  individual 
life. 

To  write  on  the  rock  is  to  write  on  a  solid  parchment;  but  it 
requires  a  pilgrimage  to  see  it.  There  is  but  one  copy,  and  Time 
wears  even  that.  To  write  on  skins  or  papyrus  was  to  give,  as  it 
were,  but  one  tardy  edition,  and  the  rich  only  could  procure  it. 
The  Chinese  stereotyped  not  only  the  unchanging  wisdom  of  old 
sages,  but  also  the  passing  events.  The  process  tended  to  suffocate 
thought,  and  to  hinder  progress ;  for  there  is  continual  wandering 
in  the  wisest  minds,  and  Truth  writes  her  last  words,  not  on  clean 
tablets,  but  on  the  scrawl  that  Error  has  made  and  often  mended. 

Printing  made  the  movable  letters  prolific.  Thenceforth  the 
orator  spoke  almost  visibly  to  listening  nations ;  and  the  author 
wrote,  like  the  Pope,  his  oecumenic  decrees,  urbi  et  orbi,  and  or- 
dered them  to  be  posted  up  in  all  the  market-places ;  remaining, 
if  he  chose,  impervious  to  human  sight.  The  doom  of  tyrannies 
was  thenceforth  sealed.  Satire  and  invective  became  potent  as 
armies.  The  unseen  hands  of  the  Juniuses  could  launch  the  thun- 
derbolts, and  make  the  ministers  tremble.  One  whisper  from  this 
giant  fills  the  earth  as  easily  as  Demosthenes  filled  the  Agora.  It 
will  soon  be  heard  at  the  antipodes  as  easily  as  in  the  next  street. 
It  travels  with  the  lightning  tinder  the  oceans.  It  makes  the 
mass  one  man,  speaks  to  it  in  the  same  common  language,  and 
elicits  a  sure  and  single  response.  Speech  passes  into  thought,  and 
thence  promptly  into  act.  A  nation  becomes  truly  one,  with  one 
large  heart  and  a  single  throbbing  pulse.  Men  are  invisibly  pres- 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  55 

em  to  each  other,  as  if  already  spiritual  beings;  and  the  thinker 
who  sits  in  an  Alpine  solitude,  unknown  to  or  forgotten  by  all  the 
world,  among  the  silent  herds  and  hills,  may  flash  his  words  to  all 
the  cities  and  over  all  the  seas. 

Select  the  thinkers  to  be  Legislators ;  and  avoid  the  gabblers. 
Wisdom  is  rarely  loquacious.  Weight  and  depth  of  thought  are 
unfavorable  to  volubility.  The  shallow  and  superficial  are  gen- 
erally voluble  and  often  pass  for  eloquent.  More  words,  less 
thought, — is  the  general  rule.  The  man  who  endeavors  to  say 
something  worth  remembering  in  every  sentence,  becomes  fastidi- 
ous, and  condenses  like  Tacitus.  The  vulgar  love  a  more  diffuse 
stream.  The  ornamentation  that  does  not  cover  strength^  is  the 
gewgaws  of  babble. 

Neither  is  dialectic  subtlety  valuable  to  public  men.  The  Chris- 
tian faith  has  it,  had  it  formerly  more  than  now ;  a  subtlety  that 
might  have  entangled  Plato,  and  which  has  rivalled  in  a  fruitless 
fashion  the  mystic  lore  of  Jewish  Rabbis  and  Indian  Sages.  It  is 
not  this  which  converts  the  heathen.  It  is  a  vain  task  to  balance 
the  great  thoughts  of  the  earth,  like  hollow  straws,  on  the  finger- 
tips of  disputation.  It  is  not  this  kind  of  warfare  which  makes 
the  Cross  triumphant  in  the  hearts  of  the  unbelievers ;  but  the 
actual  power  that  lives  in  the  Faith. 

So  there  is  a  political  scholasticism  that  is  merely  useless.  The 
dexterities  of  subtle  logic  rarely  stir  the  hearts  of  the  people,  or 
convince  them.  The  true  apostle  of  Liberty,  Fraternity,  and  Equal- 
ity makes  it  a  matter  of  life  and  death.  His  combats  are  like 
those  of  Bossuet, — combats  to  the  death.  The  true  apostolic  fire 
is  like  the  lightning:  it  flashes  conviction  into  the  soul.  The  true 
word  is  verily  a  two-edged  sword.  Matters  of  government  and 
political  science  can  be  fairly  dealt  with  only  by  sound  reason,  and 
the  logic  of  common  sense :  not  the  common  sense  of  the  igno- 
rant, but  of  the  wise.  The  acutest  thinkers  rarely  succeed  in  be- 
coming leaders  of  men.  A  watchword  or  a  catchword  is  more 
potent  with  the  people  than  logic,  especially  if  this  be  the  least 
metaphysical.  When  a  political  prophet  arises,  to  stir  the  dream- 
ing, stagnant  nation,  and  hold  back  its  feet  from  the  irretrievable 
descent,  to  heave  the  land  as  with  an  earthquake,  and  shake  the 
silly-shallow  idols  from  their  seats,  his  words  will  come  straight 
from  God's  own  mouth,  and  be  thundered  into  the  conscience.  He 
will  reason,  teach,  warn,  and  rule.  The  real  "Sword  of  the  Spirit" 


56  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

is  keener  than  the  brightest  blade  of  Damascus.  Such  men  rule 
a  land,  in  the  strength  of  justice,  with  wisdom  and  with  power. 
Still,  the  men  of  dialectic  subtlety  often  rule  well,  because  in  prac- 
tice they  forget  their  finely-spun  theories,  and  use  the  trenchant 
logic  of  common  sense.  But  when  the  great  heart  and  large  intel- , 
lect  are  left  to  the  rust  in  private  life,  and  small  attorneys,  brawlers 
in  politics,  and  those  who  in  the  cities  would  be  only  the  clerks  of 
notaries,  or  practitioners  in  the  disreputable  courts,  are  made  na- 
tional Legislators,  the  country  is  in  her  dotage,  even  if  the  beard 
has  not  yet  grown  upon  her  chin. 

In  a  free  country,  human  speech  must  needs  be  free ;  and  the 
State  jntist  listen  to  the  maunderings  of  folly,  and  the  screechings 
of  its  geese,  and  the  brayings  of  its  asses,  as  well  as  to  the  golden 
oracles  of  its  wise  and  great  men.  Even  the  despotic  old  kings 
allowed  their  wise  fools  to  say  what  they  liked.  The  true  alchem- 
ist will  extract  the  lessons  of  wisdom  from  the  babblings  of  folly. 
He  will  hear  what  a  man  has  to  say  on  any  given  subject,  even  if 
the  speaker  end  only  in  proving  himself  prince  of  fools.  Even  a 
fool  will  sometimes  hit  the  mark.  There  is  some  truth  in  all  men 
who  are  not  compelled  to  suppress  their  souls  and  speak  other 
men's  thoughts.  The  ringer  even  of  the  idiot  may  point  to  the 
great  highway. 

A  people,  as  well  as  the  sages,  must  learn  to  forget.  If  it  neither 
learns  the  new  nor  forgets  the  old,  it  is  fated,  even  if  it  has  been 
royal  for  thirty  generations.  To  unlearn  is  to  learn ;  and  also  it  is 
sometimes  needful  to  learn  again  the  forgotten.  The  antics  of 
fools  make  the  current  follies  more  palpable,  as  fashions  are  shown 
to  be  absurd  by  caricatures,  which  so  lead  to  their  extirpation.  The 
buffoon  and  the  zany  are  useful  in  their  places.  The  ingenious 
artificer  and  craftsman,  like  Solomon,  searches  the  earth  for  his 
materials,  and  transforms  the  misshapen  matter  into  glorious 
workmanship.  The  world  is  conquered  by  the  head  even  more 
than  by  the  hands.  Nor  will  any  assembly  talk  forever.  After  a 
time,  when  it  has  listened  long  enough,  it  quietly  puts  the  silly, 
the  shallow,  and  the  superficial  to  one  side, — it  thinks,  and  sets  to 
work. 

The  human  thought,  especially  in  popular  assemblies,  runs  in 
the  most  singularly  crooked  channels,  harder  to  trace  and  follow 
than  the  blind  currents  of  the  ocean.  No  notion  is  so  absurd  that 
it  may  not  find  a  place  there.  The  master-workman  must  train 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  57 

these  notions  and  vagaries  with  his  two-handed  hammer.  They 
twist  out  of  the  way  of  the  sword-thrusts ;  and  are  invulnerable 
all  over,  even  in  the  heel,  against  logic.  The  martel  or  mace,  the 
battle-axe,  the  great  double-edged  two-handed  sword  must  deal 
with  follies ;  the  rapier  is  no  better  against  them  than  a  wand, 
unless  it  be  the  rapier  of  ridicule. 

The  SWORD  is  also  the  symbol  of  war  and  of  the  soldier.  Wars, 
like  thunder-storms,  are  often  necessary,  to  purify  the  stagnant 
atmosphere.  War  is  not  a  demon,  without  remorse  or  reward.  It 
restores  the  brotherhood  in  letters  of  fire.  When  men  are  seated 
in  their  pleasant  places,  sunken  in  ease  and  indolence,  with  Pre- 
tence and  Incapacity  and  littleness  usurping  all  the  high  places 
of  State,  war  is  the  baptism  of  blood  and  fire,  by  which  alone, 
they  can  be  renovated.  It  is  the  hurricane  that  brings  the  ele- 
mental equilibrium,  the  concord  of  Power  and  Wisdom.  So 
long  as  these  continue  obstinately  divorced,  it  will  continue  to 
chasten. 

In  the  mutual  appeal  of  nations  to  God,  there  is  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  His  might.  It  lights  the  beacons  of  Faith  and  Free- 
dom, and  heats  the  furnace  through  which  the  earnest  and  loyal 
pass  to  immortal  glory.  There  is  in  war  the  doom  of  defeat,  the 
quenchless  sense  of  Duty,  the  stirring  sense  of  Honor,  the  meas- 
ureless solemn  sacrifice  of  devotedness,  and  the  incense  of  success. 
Even  in  the  flame  and  smoke  of  battle,  the  Mason  discovers  his 
brother,  and  fulfills  the  sacred  obligations  of  Fraternity. 

Two,  or  the  Duad,  is  the  symbol  of  Antagonism ;  of  Good  and 
Evil,  Light  and  Darkness.  It  is  Cain  and  Abel,  Eve  and  Lilith. 
Jachin  and  Boaz,  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  Osiris  and  Typhon. 

THREE,  or  the  Triad,  is  most  significantly  expressed  by  the  equi- 
lateral and  the  right-angled  triangles.     There  are  three  principal 
colors  or  rays  in  the  rainbow,  which  by  intermixture  make  seven. 
The  three  are  the  green,  the  yellow,  and  the  red.    The  Trinity  of 
the  Deity,  in  one  mode  or  other,  has  been  an  article  in  all  creeds. 
He  creates,  preserves,  and  destroys.    He  is  the  generative  power, 
the  productive  capacity,  and  the  result.    The  immaterial  man.  ac- 
cording to  the  Kabalah,  is  composed  of  vitality,  or  life,  the  breath 
of  life;  of  soul  or  mind,  and  spirit.     Salt,  sulphur,  and  mercury 
are  the  great  symbols  of  the  alchemists.    To  them  man  was  body, 
soul,  and  spirit. 

FOUR  is  expressed  by  the  square,  or  four-sided   right-angled 


58  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

figure.  Out  of  the  symbolic  Garden  of  Eden  flowed  a  river,  divid- 
ing into  four  streams, — PISON,  which  flows  around  the  land  of 
gold,  or  light;  GIHON,  which  flows  around  the  land  of  Ethiopia 
or  Darkness ;  HIDDEKEL,  running  eastward  to  Assyria ;  and  the 
EUPHRATES.  Zechariah  saw  four  chariots  coming  out  from  be- 
tween two  mountains  of  bronze,  in  the  first  of  which  were  red 
horses;  in  the  second,  black;  in  the  third,  white;  and  in  the 
fourth,  grizzled:  "and  these  were  the  four  winds  of  the  heavens, 
that  go  forth  from  standing  before  the  Lord  of  all  the  earth." 
Ezekiel  saw  the  four  living  creatures,  each  with  four  faces  and 
four  wings,  the  faces  of  a  man  and  a  lion,^  an  o.r  and  an  eagle; 
and  the  four  wheels  going  upon  their  four  sides ;  and  Saint  John 
beheld  the  four  beasts,  full  of  eyes  before  and  behind,  the  LION, 
the  young  Ox,  the  MAN,  and  the  flying  EAGLE.  Four  was  the 
signature  of  the  Earth.  Therefore,  in  the  I48th  Psalm,  of  those 
who  must  praise  the  Lord  on  the  land,  there  are  four  times  four, 
and  four  in  particular  of  living  creatures.  Visible  nature  is  de- 
scribed as  the  four  quarters  of  the  world,  and  the  four  corners  of 
the  earth.  "There  are  four,"  says  the  old  Jewish  saying,  "which 
take  the  first  place  in  this  world ;  man,  among  the  creatures ; 
the  eagle  among  birds ;  the  o.v  among  cattle ;  and  the  lion 
among  wild  beasts."  Daniel  saw  four  great  beasts  come  up  from 
the  sea. 

FIVE  is  the  Duad  added  to  the  Triad.  It  is  expressed  by  the 
five-pointed  or  blazing  star,  the  mysterious  Pentalpha  of  Pythago- 
ras. It  is  indissolubly  connected  with  the  number  seven.  Christ 
fed  His  disciples  and  the  multitude  with  five  loaves  and  two  fishes, 
and  of  the  fragments  there  remained  tivelve,  that  is,  fire  and  seven, 
baskets  full.  Again  He  fed  them  with  seven  loaves  and  a  few  little 
fishes,  and  there  remained  seven  baskets  full.  The  fire  apparently 
small  planets,  Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn,  with 
the  two  greater  ones,  the  Sun  and  Moon,  constituted  the  seven 
celestial  spheres. 

SEVEN  was  the  peculiarly  sacred  number.  There  were  seven 
planets  and  spheres  presided  over  by  seven  archangels.  There  were 
seven  colors  in  the  rainbow ;  and  the  Phoenician  Deity  was  called 
the  HEPTAKIS  or  God  of  seven  rays ;  seven  days  of  the  week : 
and  seven  and  five  made  the  number  of  months,  tribes,  and  apos- 
tles. Zechariah  saw^  a  golden  candlestick,  with  seven  lamps  and 
seven  pipes  to  the  lamps,  and  an  olive-tree  on  each  side.  "Since 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  59 

he  says,  "the  seven  eyes  of  the  Lord  shall  rejoice,  and  shall  see  the 
plummet  in  the  hand  of  Zerubbabel."  John,  in  the  Apocalypse, 
writes  seven  epistles  to  the  seven  churches.  In  the  seven  epistles 
there  arc  ticelvc  promises.  What  is  said  of  the  churches  in  praise 
or  blame,  is  completed  in  the  number  three.  The  refrain,  "who 
has  cars  to  hear,''  etc.,  has  ten  words,  divided  by  three  and  seven, 
and  the  seven  by  three  and  four;  and  the  seven  epistles  are  also  so 
divided.  In  the  seals,  trumpets,  and  vials,  also,  of  this  symbolic 
vision,  the  seven  are  divided  by  four  and  three.  He  who  sends  his 
message  to  Ephesus,  "holds  the  seven  stars  in  his  right  hand,  and 
walks  amid  the  seven  golden  lamps." 

In  six  days,  or  periods,  God  created  the  Universe,  and  paused  on 
the  seventh  day.  Of  clean  beasts,  Noah  was  directed  to  take  by 
sevens  into  the  ark ;  and  of  fowls  by  sevens;  because  in  seven  days 
the  rain  was  to  commence.  On  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  month, 
the  rain  began ;  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  seventh  month,  the 
ark  rested  on  Ararat.  When  the  dove  returned,  Noah  waited 
seven  days  before  he  sent  her  forth  again ;  and  again  seven,  after 
she  returned  with  the  olive-leaf.  Enoch  was  the  seventh  patriarch, 
Adam  included,  and  Lamech  lived  777  years. 

There  were  seven  lamps  in  the  great  candlestick  of  the  Taberna- 
cle and  Temple,  representing  the  seven  planets.  Seven  times  Moses 
sprinkled  the  anointing  oil  upon  the  altar.  The  days  of  consecra- 
tion of  Aaron  and  his  sons  were  seven  in  number.  A  woman  was 
unclean  seven  days  after  child-birth ;  one  infected  with  leprosy 
was  shut  up  seven  days ;  seven  times  the  leper  was  sprinkled  with 
the  blood  of  a  slain  bird ;  and  seven  days  afterwards  he  must  re- 
main abroad  out  of  his  tent.  Seven  times,  in  purifying  the  leper, 
the  priest  was  to  sprinkle  the  consecrated  oil ;  and  seven  times  to 
sprinkle  with  the  blood  of  the  sacrificed  bird  the  house  to  be  puri- 
fied. Seven  times  the  blood  of  the  slain  bullock  was  sprinkled  on 
the  mercy-seat ;  and  seven  times  on  the  altar.  The  seventh  year 
was  a  Sabbath  of  rest ;  and  at  the  end  of  seven  times  seven  years 
came  the  great  year  of  jubilee.  Seven  days  the  people  ate  unleav- 
ened bread,  in  the  month  of  Abib.-  Seven  weeks  were  counted 
from  the  time  of  first  putting  the  sickle  to  the  .vheat.  The  Eeast 
of  the  Tabernacles  lasted  screen  days. 

Israel  was  in  the  land  of  Midian  seven  years,  before  Gideon  de- 
livered them.  The  bullock  sacrificed  by  him  was  seven  years  old. 
Samson  told  Delilah  to  bind  him  with  seven  green  withes;  and 


60  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

she  wove  the  seven  locks  of  his  head,  and  afterwards  shaved  them 
off.  Balaam  told  Barak  to  build  for  him  seven  altars.  Jacob 
served  seven  years  for  Leah  and  seven  for  Rachel.  Job  had  seven 
sons  and  three  daughters,  making  the  perfect  number  ten.  He 
had  also  seven  thousand  sheep  and  thre.e  thousand  camels.  His 
friends  sat  down  with  him  seven  days  and  seven  nights.  His  friends 
were  ordered  to  sacrifice  seven  bullocks  and  seven  rams ;  and  again, 
at  the  end,  he  had  seven  sons  and  three  daughters,  and  twice  seven 
thousand  sheep,  and  lived  an  hundred  and  forty,  or  twice  seven 
times  ten  years.  Pharaoh  saw  in  his  dream  seven  fat  and  seven 
lean  kine,  seven  good  ears  and  seven  blasted  ears  of  wheat;  and 
there  were  seven  years  of  plenty,  and  seven  of  famine.  Jericho 
fell,  when  seven  priests,  with  seven  trumpets,  made  the  circuit  of 
the  city  on  seven  successive  days ;  once  each  day  for  six  days,  and 
seven  times  on  the  seventh.  "The  seven  eyes  of  the  Lord,"  says 
Zechariah,  "run  to  and  fro  through  the  whole  earth."  Solomon  was 
seven  years  in  building  the  Temple.  Seven  angels,  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse, pour  out  seven  plagues,  from  seven  vials  of  wrath.  The 
scarlet-colored  beast,  on  which  the  woman  sits  in  the  wilderness, 
has  seven  heads  and  ten  horns.  So  also  has  the  beast  that  rises 
up  out  of  the  sea.  Seven  thunders  uttered  their  voices.  Seven 
angels  sounded  seven  trumpets.  Seven  lamps  of  fire,  the  seven 
spirits  of  God,  burned  before  the  throne ;  and  the  Lamb  that  was 
slain  had  seven  horns  and  seven  eyes. 

EIGHT  is  the  first  cube,  that  of  two.  NINE  is  the  square  of 
three,  and  represented  by  the  triple  triangle. 

TEN  includes  all  the  other  numbers.  It  is  especially  seven  and 
three;  and  is  called  the  number  of  perfection.  Pythagoras  rep- 
resented it  by  the  TETRACTYS,  which  had  many  mystic  meanings. 
This  symbol  is  sometimes  composed  of  dots  or  points,  sometimes 
of  commas  or  yods,  and  in  the  Kabalah,  of  the  letters  of  the  name 
of  Deity.  It  is  thus  arranged  : 

9 

9          9 
999 
9        99         9 


FELLOW-CRAFT.  6l 

The  Patriarchs  from  Adam  to  Noah,  inclusive,  are  ten  in  num- 
ber, and  the  same  number  is  that  of  the  Commandments. 

TWELVE  is  the  number  of  the  lines  of  equal  length  that  form  a 
cube.  It  is  the  number  of  the  months,  the  tribes,  and  the  apos- 
tles ;  of  the  oxen  under  the  Brazen  Sea,  of  the  stones  on  the 
breast-plate  of  the  high  priest. 


III.  , 

THE    MASTER. 

****** 

To  understand  literally  the  symbols  and  allegories  of  Oriental 
books  as  to  ante-historical  matters,  is  willfully  to  close  our  eyes 
against  the  Light.  To  translate  the  symbols  into  the  trivial  and 
commonplace,  is  the  blundering  of  mediocrity. 

All  religious  expression  is  symbolism ;  since  we  can  describe  only 
what  we  see,  and  the  true  objects  of  religion  are  THE  SEEN.  The 
earliest  instruments  of  education  were  symbols ;  and  they  and  all 
other  religious  forms  differed  and  still  differ  according  to  external 
circumstances  and  imagery,  and  according  to  differences  of  knowl- 
edge, and  mental  cultivation.  All  language  is  symbolic,  so  far  as 
it  is  applied  to  mental  and  spiritual  phenomena  and  action.  All 
words  have,  primarily,  a  material  sense,  however  they  may  after- 
ward get,  for  the  ignorant,  a  spiritual  non-sense.  "To  retract," 
for  example,  is  to  drazv  back,  and  when  applied  to  a  statement,  is 
symbolic,  as  much  so  as  a  picture  of  an  arm  drawn  back,  to  express 
the  same  thing,  would  be.  The  very  word  "spirit"  means  "breath," 
from  the  Latin  verb  spiro,  breathe. 

To  present  a  visible  symbol  to  the  eye  of  another,  is  not  neces- 
sarily to  inform  him  of  the  meaning  which  that  symbol  has  to  you. 
Hence  the  philosopher  soon  superadded  to  the  symbols  explana- 
tions addressed  to  the  ear.  susceptible  of  more  precision,  but  less 
effective  and  impressive  than  the  painted  or  sculptured  forms 
which  he  endeavored  to  explain.  Out  of  these  explanations  grew 
by  degrees  a  variety  of  narrations,  \vhose  true  object  and  meaning 
were  gradually  forgotten,  or  lost  in  contradictions  and  incongrui- 
ties. And  when  these  were  abandoned,  and  Philosophy  resorted 
to  definitions  and  formulas,  its  language  was  but  a  more  compli- 
cated symbolism,  attempting  in  the  dark  to  grapple  with  and  pic- 
ture ideas  impossible  to  be  expressed.  For  as  with  the  visible 
symbol,  so  with  the  word :  to  utter  it  to  you  does  not  inform  you 
of  the  exact  meaning  which  it  has  to  me;  and  thus  religion  and 
philosophy  became  to  a  great  extent  disputes  as  to  the  meaning 
6a 


THE  MASTER.  63 

of  words.  The  most  abstract  expression  for  DEITY,  which  language 
can  supply,  is  but  a  sign  or  symbol  for  an  object  beyond  our  com- 
prehension, and  not  more  truthful  and  adequate  than  the  images 
of  OSIRIS  and  VISHNU,  or  their  names,  except  as  being  less  sensu- 
ous and  explicit.  We  avoid  sensuousness,  only  by  resorting  to 
simple  negation.  We  come  at  last  to  define  spirit  by  saying  that 
it  is  not  matter.  Spirit  is — spirit. 

A  single  example  of  the  symbolism  of  words  will  indicate  to  you 
one  branch  of  Masonic  study.  We  find  in  the  English  Rite  this 
phrase :  "I  will  always  hail,  ever  conceal,  and  never  reveal ;"  and 
in  the  Catechism,  these : 

Q.\  "I  Mil," 

A.'.  "/  conceal;" 

and  ignorance,  misunderstanding  the  word  "hail,"  has  interpolated 
the  phrase,  "From  whence  do  you  hail?" 

But  the  word  is  really  "hele,"  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  verb  pelan, 
helan,  to  cover,  hide,  or  conceal.  And  this  word  is  rendered  by  the 
Latin  verb  tegere,  to  cover  or  roof  over.  "That  ye  fro  me  no 
thynge  woll  hele,"  says  Gower.  "They  hele  fro  me  no  priuyte," 
says  the  Romaunt  of  the  Rose.  "To  heal  a  house,"  is  a  common 
phrase  in  Sussex ;  and  in  the  west  of  England,  he  that  covers  a 
house  with  slates  is  called  a  Healer.  Wherefore,  to  "heal"  means 
the  same  thing  as  to  "tile" — itself  symbolic,  as  meaning,  prima- 
rily, to  cover  a  house  with  tiles, — and  means  to  cover,  hide,  or  con- 
ceal. Thus  language  too  is  symbolism,  and  words  are  as  much 
misunderstood  and  misused  as  more  material  symbols  are. 

Symbolism  tended  continually  to  become  more  complicated ;  and 
all  the  powers  of  Heaven  were  reproduced  on  earth,  until  a  web  of 
fiction  and  allegory  was  woven,  partly  by  art  and  partly  by  the  ig- 
norance of  error,  which  the  wit  of  man,  with  his  limited  means  of 
explanation,  will  never  unravel.  Even  the  Hebrew  Theism  be- 
came involved  in  symbolism  and  image- worship,  borrowed  prob- 
ably from  an  older  creed  and  remote  regions  of  Asia, — the  wor- 
ship of  the  Great  Semitic  Nature-God  AL  or  ELS  and  its  symboli- 
cal representations  of  JEHOVAH  Himself  were  not  even  confined 
to  poetical  or  illustrative  language.  The  priests  were  monothe- 
ists  :  the  people  idolaters. 

There  are  clangers  inseparable  from  symbolism,  which  afford  an 
impressive  lesson  in  regard  to  the  similar  risks  attendant  on  tin- 
use  of  language.  The  imagination,  called  in  to  assist  the  reason, 


64  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

usurps  its  place  or  leaves  its  ally  helplessly  entangled  in  its  web. 
Names  which  stand  for  things  are  confounded  with  them;  the 
means  are  mistaken  for  the  end ;  the  instrument  of  interpretation 
for  the  object;  and  thus  symbols  come  to  usurp  an  independent 
character  as  truths  and  persons.  Though  perhaps  a  necessary 
path,  they  were  a  dangerous  one  by  which  to  approach  the  Deity ; 
in  which  many,  says  PLUTARCH,  "mistaking  the  sign  for  the  thing 
signified,  fell  into  a  ridiculous  superstition ;  while  others,  in  avoid- 
ing one  extreme,  plunged  into  the  no  less  hideous  gulf  of  irreligion 
and  impiety." 

It  is  through  the  Mysteries,  CICERO  says,  that  we  have  learned 
the  first  principles  of  life;  wherefore  the  term  "initiation"  is  used 
with  good  reason ;  and  they  not  only  teach  us  to  live  more  happily 
and  agreeably,  but  they  soften  the  pains  of  death  by  the  hope  of  a 
better  life  hereafter. 

The  Mysteries  were  a  Sacred  Drama,  exhibiting  some  legend 
significant  of  nature's  changes,  of  the  visible  Universe  in  which  the 
Divinity  is  revealed,  and  whose  import  was  in  many  respects  as 
open  to  the  Pagan  as  to  the  Christian.  Nature  is  the  great  Teacher 
of  man ;  for  it  is  the  Revelation  of  God.  It  neither  dogmatizes  nor 
attempts  to  tyrannize  by  compelling  to  a  particular  creed  or  spec- 
ial interpretation.  It  presents  its  symbols  to  us,  and  adds  nothing 
by  way  of  explanation.  It  is  the  text  without  the  commentary ; 
and,  as  we  well  know,  it  is  chiefly  the  commentary  and  gloss  that 
lead  to  error  and  heresy  and  persecution.  The  earliest  instructors 
of  mankind  not  only  adopted  the  lessons  of  Nature,  but  as  far  as 
possible  adhered  to  her  method  of  imparting  them.  In  the  Myste- 
ries, beyond  the  current  traditions  or  sacred  and  enigmatic  recitals 
of  the  Temples,  few  explanations  were  given  to  the  spectators. 
who  were  left,  as  in  the  school  of  nature,  to  make  inferences  for 
themselves.  No  other  method  could  have  suited  every  degree  of 
cultivation  and  capacity.  To  employ  nature's  universal  symbolism 
instead  of  the  technicalities  of  language,  rewards  the  humblest  in- 
quirer, and  discloses  its  secrets  to  every  one  in  proportion  to  his 
preparatory  training  and  his  power  to  comprehend  them.  If  their 
philosophical  meaning  was  above  the  comprehension  of  some,  their 
moral  and  political  meanings  are  within  the  reach  of  all. 

These  mystic  shows  and  performances  were  not  the  reading  of 
a  lecture,  but  the  opening  of  a  problem.  Requiring  research,  they 
were  calculated  to  arouse  the  dormant  intellect.  They  implied  no 


THE  MASTER.  65 

hostility  to  Philosophy,  because  Philosophy  is  the  great  expounder 
of  symbolism ;  although  its  ancient  interpretations  were  often  ill- 
founded  and  incorrect.  The  alteration  from  symbol  to  dogma  is 
fatal  to  beauty  of  expression,  and  leads  to  intolerance  and  assured 
infallibility. 

****** 

If,  in  teaching  the  great  doctrine  of  the  divine  nature  of  the 
Soul,  and  in  striving  to  explain  its  longings  after  immortality,  and 
in  proving  its  superiority  over  the  souls  of  the  animals,  which  have 
no  aspirations  Heavenward,  the  ancients  struggled  in  vain  to 
express  the  nature  of  the  soul,  by  comparing  it  to  FIRE  and  LIGHT, 
it  will  be  well  for  us  to  consider  whether,  with  all  our  boasted 
knowledge,  we  have  any  better  or  clearer  idea  of  its  nature,  and 
whether  we  have  not  despairingly  taken  refuge  in  having  none  at 
all.  And  if  they  erred  as  to  its  original  place  of  abode,  and  under- 
stood literally  the  mode  and  path  of  its  descent,  these  were  but  the 
accessories  of  the  great  Truth,  and  probably,  to  the  Initiates,  mere 
allegories,  designed  to  make  the  idea  more  palpable  and  impressive 
to  the  mind. 

They  are  at  least  no  more  fit  to  be  smiled  at  by  the  self-conceit 
of  a  vain  ignorance,  the  wealth  of  whose  knowledge  consists  solely 
in  words,  than  the  bosom  of  Abraham,  as  a  home  for  the  spirits  of 
the  just  dead ;  the  gulf  of  actual  fire,  for  the  eternal  torture  of 
spirits;  and  the  City  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  with  its  walls  of 
jasper  and  its  edifices  of  pure  gold  like  clear  glass,  its  foundations 
of  precious  stones,  and  its  gates  each  of  a  single  pearl.  "I  knew 
a  man,"  says  PAUL,  "caught  up  to  the  third  Heaven;.  .  .  .that  he 
was  caught  up  into  Paradise,  and  heard  ineffable  words,  which  it 
is  not  possible  for  a  man  to  utter."  And  nowhere  is  the  antagon- 
ism and  conflict  between  the  spirit  and  body  more  frequently  and 
forcibly  insisted  on  than  in  the  writings  of  this  apostle,  nowhere 
the  Divine  nature  of  the  soul  more  strongly  asserted.  ''With  the 
mind,"  he  says,  "I  serve  the  law  of  God ;  but  with  the  flesh  the 
law  of  sin.  . .  .As  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  are  the 
sons  of  God.  .  .  .  The  earnest  expectation  of  the  created  waits 
for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God.  .  .  .  The  created  shall 
be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption,  of  the  flesh  liable  to 

decay,  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God." 
****** 

Two  forms  of  government  are  favorable  to  the  prevalence  of 


66  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

falsehood  and  deceit.  Under  a  Despotism,  men  are  false,  treacher- 
ous, and  deceitful  through  fear,  like  slaves  dreading  the  lash. 
Under  a  Democracy  they  are  so  as  a  means  of  attaining  popularity 
and  office,  and  because  of  the  greed  for  wealth.  Experience  will 
probably  prove  that  these  odious  and  detestable  vices  will  grow 
most  rankly  and  spread  most  rapidly  in  a  Republic.  When  office 
and  wealth  become  the  gods  of  a  people,  and  the  most  unworthy 
and  unfit  most  aspire  to  the  former,  and  fraud  becomes  the  high- 
way to  the  latter,  the  land  will  reek  with  falsehood  and  sweat  lies 
and  chicane.  When  the  offices  are  open  to  all,  merit  and  stern  in- 
tegrity and  the  dignity  of  unsullied  honor  will  attain  them  only 
rarely  and  by  accident.  To  be  able  to  serve  the  country  well,  will 
cease  to  be  a  reason  why  the  great  and  wise  and  learned  should  be 
selected  to  render  service.  Other  qualifications,  less  honorable, 
will  be  more  available.  To  adapt  one's  opinions  to  the  popular 
humor ;  to  defend,  apologize  for,  and  justify  the  popular  follies ;  to 
advocate  the  expedient  and  the  plausible ;  to  caress,  cajole,  and  flat- 
ter the  elector ;  to  beg  like  a  spaniel  for  his  vote,  even  if  he  be  a 
negro  three  removes  from  barbarism ;  to  profess  friendship  for  a 
competitor  and  stab  him  by  innuendo ;  to  set  on  foot  that  which  at 
third  hand  shall  become  a  lie,  being  cousin-german  to  it  when  ut- 
tered, and  yet  capable  of  being  explained  away, — who  is  there  that 
has  not  seen  these  low  arts  and  base  appliances  put  into  practice, 
and  becoming  general,  until  success  cannot  be  surely  had  by  any 
more  honorable  means  ? — the  result  being  a  State  ruled  and  ruined 
by  ignorant  and  shallow  mediocrity,  pert  self-conceit,  the  green- 
ness of  unripe  intellect,  vain  of  a  school-boy's  smattering  of  know- 
ledge. 

The  faithless  and  the  false  in  public  and  in  political  life,  will  be 
faithless  and  false  in  private.  The  jockey  in  politics,  like  the 
jockey  on  the  race-course,  is  rotten  from  skin  to  core.  Every- 
where he  will  see  first  to  his  own  interests,  and  whoso  leans  on  him 
will  be  pierced  with  a  broken  reed.  His  ambition  is  ignoble,  like 
himself;  and  therefore  he  will  seek  to  attain  office  by  ignoble 
means,  as  he  will  seek  to  attain  any  other  coveted  object,— land, 
money,  or  reputation. 

At  length,  office  and  honor  are  divorced.  The  place  that  the 
small  and  shallow,  the  knave  or  the  trickster,  is  deemed  competent 
and  fit  to  fill,  ceases  to  be  worthy  the  ambition  of  the  great  and 
capable ;  or  if  not,  these  shrink  from  a  contest,  the  weapons  to  be 
used  wherein  are  unfit  for  a  gentleman  to  handle.  Then  the  habits 


THE  MASTER.  67 

of  unprincipled  advocates  in  law  courts  are  naturalized  in  Senates, 
and  pettifoggers  wrangle  there,  when  the  fate  of  the  nation  and 
the  lives  of  millions  are  at  stake.  States  are  even  begotten  by  vil- 
lain v  and  brought  forth  by  fraud,  and  rascalities  are  justified  by 
legislators  claiming  to  be  honorable.  Then  contested  elections  are 
decided  by  perjured  votes  or  party  considerations ;  and  all  the 
practices  of  the  worst  times  of  corruption  are  revived  and  exag- 
gerated in  Republics. 

It  is  strange  that  reverence  for  truth,  that  manliness  and  gen- 
uine loyalty,  and  scorn  of  littleness  and  unfair  advantage,  and 
genuine  faith  and  godliness  and  large-heartedness  should  diminish, 
among  statesmen  and  people,  as  civilization  advances,  and  freedom 
becomes  more  general,  and  universal  suffrage  implies  universal 
worth  and  fitness !  In  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  without  universal 
suffrage,  or  Societies  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge,  or  pop- 
ular lecturers,  or  Lycsea,  the  statesman,  the  merchant,  the  burgher, 
the  sailor,  were  all  alike  heroic,  fearing  God  only,  and  man  not 
at  all.  Let  but  a  hundred  or  two  years  elapse,  and  in  a  Monarchy 
or  Republic  of  the  same  race,  nothing  is  less  heroic  than  the  mer- 
chant, the  shrewd  speculator,  the  office-seeker,  fearing  man  only, 
and  God  not  at  all.  Reverence  for  greatness  dies  out,  and  is  suc- 
ceeded by  base  envy  of  greatness.  Every  man  is  in  the  way  of 
many,  either  in  the  path  to  popularity  or  wealth.  There  is  a  gen- 
eral feeling  of  satisfaction  when  a  great  statesman  is  displaced,  or 
a  general,  who  has  been  for  his  brief  hour  the  popular  idol,  is  un- 
fortunate and  sinks  from  his  high  estate.  It  becomes  a  misfor- 
tune, if  not  a  crime,  to  be  above  the  popular  level. 

We  should  naturally  suppose  that  a  nation  in  distress  would  take 
counsel  with  the  wisest  of  its  sons.  But,  on  the  contrary,  great 
men  seem  never  so  scarce  as  when  they  are  most  needed,  and  small 
men  never  so  bold  to  insist  on  infesting  place,  as  when  mediocrity 
and  incapable  pretence  and  sophomoric  greenness,  and  showy  and 
sprightly  incompetency  are  most  dangerous.  When  France  was 
in  the  extremity  of  revolutionary  agony,  she  was  governed  by  an 
assembly  of  provincial  pettifoggers,  and  Robespierre,  Marat,  and 
Couthon  ruled  in  the  place  of  Mirabeau,  Yergniaud,  and  Carnot. 
England  was  governed  by  the  Rump  Parliament,  after  she  had  be- 
headed her  king.  Cromwell  extinguished  one  body,  and  Xapoleon 
the  other. 

Fraud,  falsehood,  trickery,  and  deceit  in  national  affairs,  are  the 


68  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

signs  of  decadence  in  States  and  precede  convulsions  or  paralysis. 
To  bully  the  weak  and  crouch  to  the  strong,  is  the  policy  of  na- 
tions governed  by  small  mediocrity.  The  tricks  of  the  canvass  for 
office  are  re-enacted  in  Senates.  The  Executive  becomes  the  dis- 
penser of  patronage,  chiefly  to  the  most  unworthy ;  and  men  are 
bribed  with  offices  instead  of  money,  to  the  greater  ruin  of  the 
Commonwealth.  The  Divine  in  human  nature  disappears,  and  in- 
terest, greed,  and  selfishness  take  its  place.  That  is  a  sad  and  true 
allegory  which  represents  the  companions  of  Ulysses  changed  by 

the  enchantments  of  Circe  into  swine. 

****** 

"Ye  cannot,"  said  the  Great  Teacher,  "serve  God  and  Mam- 
mon." When  the  thirst  for  wealth  becomes  general,  it  will  be 
sought  for  as  well  dishonestly  as  honestly ;  by  frauds  and  over- 
reachings,  by  the  knaveries  of  trade,  the  heartlessness  of  greedy 
speculation,  by  gambling  in  stocks  and  commodities  that  soon  de- 
moralizes a  whole  community.  Men  will  speculate  upon  the  needs 
of  their  neighbors  and  the  distresses  of  their  country.  Bubbles 
that,  bursting,  impoverish  multitudes,  will  be  blown  up  by  cun- 
ning knavery,  with  stupid  credulity  as  its  assistant  and  instru- 
ment. Huge  bankruptcies,  that  startle  a  country  like  the  earth- 
quakes, and  are  more  fatal,  fraudulent  assignments,  engulfment  of 
the  savings  of  the  poor,  expansions  and  collapses  of  the  currency, 
the  crash  of  banks,  the  depreciation  of  Government  securities, 
prey  on  the  savings  of  self-denial,  and  trouble  with  their  depreda- 
tions the  first  nourishment  of  infancy  and  the  last  sands  of  life, 
and  fill  with  inmates  the  churchyards  and  lunatic  asylums.  But 
the  sharper  and  speculator  thrives  and  fattens.  If  his  country  is 
fighting  by  a  levy  en  masse  for  her  very  existence,  he  aids  her  by 
depreciating  her  paper,  so  that  he  may  accumulate  fabulous 
amounts  with  little  outlay.  If  his  neighbor  is  distressed,  he  buys 
his  property  for  a  song.  If  he  administers  upon  an  estate,  it  turns 
out  insolvent,  and  the  orphans  are  paupers.  If  his  bank  explodes, 
he  is  found  to  have  taken  care  of  himself  in  time.  Society  wor- 
ships its  paper-and-credit  kings,  as  the  old  Hindus  and  Egyptians 
worshipped  their  worthless  idols,  and  often  the  most  obsequiously 
when  in  actual  solid  wealth  they  are  the  veriest  paupers.  No 
wonder  men  think  there  ought  to  be  another  world,  in  which  the 
injustices  of  this  may  be  atoned  for,  when  they  see  the  friends  of 
ruined  families  begging  the  wealthy  sharpers  to  give  alms  to  pre- 


THE   MASTER.  69 

vent  the  orphaned  victims  from  starving,  until  they  may  find 

ways  of  supporting  themselves. 

****** 

States  are  chiefly  avaricious  of  commerce  and  of  territory.  The 
latter  leads  to  the  violation  of  treaties,  encroachments  upon  feeble 
neighbors,  and  rapacity  toward  their  wards  whose  lands  are  cov- 
eted. Republics  are,  in  this,  as  rapacious  and  unprincipled  as 
Despots,  never  learning  from  history  that  inordinate  expansion  by 
rapine  and  fraud  has  its  inevitable  consequences  in  dismember- 
ment or  subjugation.  When  a  Republic  begins  to  plunder  its 
neighbors,  the  words  of  doom  are  already  written  on  its  walls. 
There  is  a  judgment  already  pronounced  of  God,  upon  whatever  is 
unrighteous  in  the  conduct  of  national  affairs.  When  civil  war 
tears  the  vitals  of  a  Republic,  let  it  look  back  and  see  if  it  has  not 
been  guilty  of  injustices ;  and  if  it  has,  let  it  humble  itself  in  the 
dust ! 

When  a  nation  becomes  possessed  with  a  spirit  of  commercial 
greed,  beyond  those  just  and  fair  limits  set  by  a  due  regard  to  a 
moderate  and  reasonable  degree  of  general  and  individual  prosper- 
ity, it  is  a  nation  possessed  by  the  devil  of  commercial  avarice,  a 
passion  as  ignoble  and  demoralizing  as  avarice  in  the  individual ; 
and  as  this  sordid  passion  is  baser  and  more  unscrupulous  than 
ambition,  so  it  is  more  hateful,  and  at  last  makes  the  infected  na- 
tion to  be  regarded  as  the  enemy  of  the  human  race.  To  grasp  at 
the  lion's  share  of  commerce,  has  always  at  last  proven  the  ruin  of 
States,  because  it  invariably  leads  to  injustices  that  make  a  State 
detestable ;  to  a  selfishness  and  crooked  policy  that  forbid  other 
nations  to  be  the  friends  of  a  State  that  cares  only  for  itself. 

Commercial  avarice  in  India  was  the  parent  of  more  atrocities 
and  greater  rapacity,  and  cost  more  human  lives,  than  the  nobler 
ambition  for  extended  empire  of  Consular  Rome.  The  nation 
that  grasps  at  the  commerce  of  the  world  cannot  but  become 
selfish,  calculating,  dead  to  the  noblest  impulses  and  sympathies 
which  ought  to  actuate  States.  It  will  submit  to  insults  that 

o 

wound  its  honor,  rather  than  endanger  its  commercial  interests  by 
war;  while,  to  subserve  those  interests,  it  will  wage  unjust  war, 
on  false  or  frivolous  pretexts,  its  free  people  cheerfully  allying 
themselves  with  despots  to  crush  a  commercial  rival  that  has 


?o  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

commercially  avaricious,  always  at  last  displace  the  sentiments  and 
lofty  impulses  of  Honor  and  Generosity  by  which  they  rose  to 
greatness;  which  made  Elizabeth  and  Cromwell  alike  the  pro- 
tectors of  Protestants  beyond  the  four  seas  of  England,  against 
crowned  Tyranny  and  mitred  Persecution ;  and,  if  they  had 
lasted,  would  have  forbidden  alliances  with  Czars  and  Autocrats 
and  Bourbons  to  re-enthrone  the  Tyrannies  of  Incapacity,  and 
arm  the  Inquisition  anew  with  its  instruments  of  torture.  The 
soul  of  the  avaricious  nation  petrifies,  like  the  soul  of  the  individ- 
ual who  makes  gold  his  god.  The  Despot  will  occasionally  act 
upon  noble  and  generous  impulses,  and  help  the  weak  against  the 
strong,  the  right  against  the  wrong.  But  commercial  avarice  is 
essentially  egotistic,  grasping,  faithless,  overreaching,  crafty,  cold, 
ungenerous,  selfish,  and  calculating,  controlled  by  considerations 
of  self-interest  alone.  Heartless  and  merciless,  it  has  no  senti- 
ments of  pity,  sympathy,  or  honor,  to  make  it  pause  in  its  remorse- 
less career;  and  it  crushes  down  all  that  is  of  impediment  in  its 
way,  as  its  keels  of  commerce  crush  under  them  the  murmuring 
and  unheeded  waves. 

A  war  for  a  great  principle  ennobles  a  nation.  A  war  for  com- 
mercial supremacy,  upon  some  shallow  pretext,  is  despicable,  and 
more  than  aught  else  demonstrates  to  what  immeasurable  depths 
of  baseness  men  and  nations  can  descend.  Commercial  greed  val- 
ues the  lives  of  men  no  more  than  it  values  the  lives  of  ants.  The 
slave-trade  is  as  acceptable  to  a  people  enthralled  by  that  greed,  as 
the  trade  in  ivory  or  spices,  if  the  profits  are  as  large.  It  will  by- 
and-by  endeavor  to  compound  with  God  and  quiet  its  own  con- 
science, by  compelling  those  to  whom  it  sold  the  slaves  it  bought 
or  stole,  to  set  them  free,  and  slaughtering  them  by  hecatombs  if 
they  refuse  to  obey  the  edicts  of  its  philanthropy. 

Justice  in  no  wise  consists  in  meting  out  to  another  that  exact 
measure  of  reward  or  punishment  which  we  think  and  decree  his 
merit,  or  what  we  call  his  crime,  which  is  more  often  merely  his 
error,  deserves.  The  justice  of  the  father  is  not  incompatible 
with  forgiveness  by  him  of  the  errors  and  offences  of  his  child. 
The  Infinite  Justice  of  God  does  not  consist  in  meting  out  exact 
measures  of  punishment  for  human  frailties  and  sins.  \Yc  are  too 
apt  to  erect  our  own  little  and  narrow  notions  of  what  is  ricrht  and 
just,  into  the  law  of  justice,  and  to  insist  that  God  shall  adopt 
that  as  His  law ;  to  measure  off  something  with  our  own  little 


THE  MASTER.  71 

tape-line,  and  call  it  God's  law  of  justice.  Continually  we  seek  to 
ennoble  our  own  ignoble  love  of  revenge  and  retaliation,  by  mis- 
naming it  justice. 

Nor  does  justice  consist  in  strictly  governing  our  conduct  to- 
ward other  men  by  the  rigid  rules  of  legal  right.  If  there  were  a 
community  anywhere,  in  which  all  stood  upon  the  strictness  of  this 
rule,  there  should  be  written  over  its  gates,  as  a  warning  to  the 
unfortunates  desiring  admission  to  that  inhospitable  realm,  the 
words  which  DANTE  says  are  written  over  the  great  gate  of  Hell : 
"LET  THOSE  wiio  ENTER  HERE  LEAVE  HOPE  BEHIND!"  It  is  not 
just  to  pay  the  laborer  in  field  or  factory  or  workshop  his  current 
wages  and  no  more,  the  lowest  market-value  of  his  labor,  for  so 
long  only  as  we  need  that  labor  and  he  is  able  to  work ;  for  when 
sickness  or  old  age  overtakes  him,  that  is  to  leave  him  and  his 
family  to  starve ;  and  God  will  curse  with  calamity  the  people  in 
which  the  children  of  the  laborer  out  of  work  eat  the  boiled  grass 
of  the  field,  and  mothers  strangle  their  children,  that  they  may  buy 
food  for  themselves  with  the  charitable  pittance  given  for  burial 
expenses.  The  rules  of  what  is  ordinarily  termed  "Justice,"  may 
be  punctiliously  observed  among  the  fallen  spirits  that  are  the 

aristocracy  of  Hell. 

****** 

Justice,  divorced  from  sympathy,  is  selfish  indifference,  not  in 
the  least  more  laudable  than  misanthropic  isolation.  There  is 
sympathy  even  among  the  hair-like  oscillatorias,  a  tribe  of  simple 
plants,  armies  of  which  may  be  discovered,  with  the  aid  of  the 
microscope,  in  the  tiniest  bit  of  scum  from  a  stagnant  pool.  For 
these  will  place  themselves,  as  if  it  were  by  agreement,  in  separate 
companies,  on  the  side  of  a  vessel  containing  them,  and  seem 
marching  upward  in  rows ;  and  when  a  swarm  grows  weary  of  its 
situation,  and  has  a  mind  to  change  its  quarters,  each  army  holds 
on  its  way  without  confusion  or  intermixture,  proceeding  with 
great  regularity  and  order,  as  if  under  the  directions  of  wise  lead- 
ers. The  ants  and  bees  give  each  other  mutual  assistance,  beyond 
what  is  required  by  that  which  human  creatures  are  apt  to  regard 
as  the  strict  law  of  justice. 

Surely  we  need  but  reflect  a  little,  to  be  convinced  that  the  indi- 
vidual man  is  but  a  fraction  of  the  unit  of  society,  and  that  he  is. 
indissolubly  connected  with  the  rest  of  his  race.  Not  only  the 
actions,  but  the  will  and  thoughts  of  other  men  make  or  mar  his 


72  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

fortunes,  control  his  destinies,  are  unto  him  life  or  death,  dishonor 
or  honor.  The  epidemics,  physical  and  moral,  contagious  and  infec- 
tious, public  opinion,  popular  delusions,  enthusiasms,  and  the  other 
great  electric  phenomena  and  currents,  moral  and  intellectual, 
prove  the  universal  sympathy.  The  vote  of  a  single  and  obscure 
man,  the  utterance  of  self-will,  ignorance,  conceit,  or  spite,  decid- 
ing an  election  and  placing  Folly  or  Incapacity  or  Baseness  in  a 
Senate,  involves  the  country  in  war,  sweeps  away  our  fortunes, 
slaughters  our  sons,  renders  the  labors  of  a  life  unavailing,  and 
pushes  us,  helpless,  with  all  our  intellect  to  resist,  into  the  grave. 

These  considerations  ought  to  teach  us  that  justice  to  others 
and  to  ourselves  is  the  same ;  that  we  cannot  define  our  duties  by 
mathematical  lines  ruled  by  the  square,  but  must  fill  with  them 
the  great  circle  traced  by  the  compasses;  that  the  circle  of  hu- 
manity is  the  limit,  and  we  are  but  the  point  in  its  centre,  the 
drops  in  the  great  Atlantic,  the  atom  or  particle,  bound  by  a  mys- 
terious law  of  attraction  which  we  term  sympathy  to  every  other 
atom  in  the  mass;  that  the  physical  and  moral  welfare  of  others 
cannot  be  indifferent  to  us ;  that  we  have  a  direct  and  immediate 
interest  in  the  public  morality  and  popular  intelligence,  in  the 
well-being  and  physical  comfort  of  the  people  at  large.  The  igno- 
rance of  the  people,  their  pauperism  and  destitution,  and  conse- 
quent degradation,  their  brutalization  and  demoralization,  are  all 
diseases ;  and  we  cannot  rise  high  enough  above  the  people,  nor 
shut  ourselves  up  from  them  enough,  to  escape  the  miasmatic  con- 
tagion and  the  great  magnetic  currents. 

Justice  is  peculiarly  indispensable  to  nations.  The  unjust  State 
is  doomed  of  God  to  calamity  and  ruin.  This  is  the  teaching  of 
the  Eternal  Wisdom  and  of  history.  "  Righteousness  exalteth  a 
nation ;  but  wrong  is  a  reproach  to  nations."  "  The  Throne  is 
established  by  Righteousness.  Let  the  lips  of  the  Ruler  pronounce 
the  sentence  that  is  Divine ;  and  his  mouth  do  no  wrong  in  judg- 
ment!" The  nation  that  adds  province  to  province  by  fraud  and 
violence,  that  encroaches  on  the  weak  and  plunders  its  wards,  and 
violates  its  treaties  and  the  obligation  of  its  contracts,  and  for  the 
law  of  honor  and  fair-dealing  substitutes  the  exigencies  of  greed 
and  the  base  precepts  of  policy  and  craft  and  the  ignoble  tenets  of 
expediency,  is  predestined  to  destruction  ;  for  here,  as  with  the  in- 
dividual, the  consequences  of  wrong  are  inevitable  and  eternal. 

A  sentence  is  written  against  all  that  is  unjust,  written  by  God 


THE    MASTER.  73 

in  the  nature  of  man  and  in  the  nature  of  the  Universe,  because  it 
is  in  the  nature  of  the  Infinite  God.  No  wrong  is  really  successful. 
The  gain  of  injustice  is  a  loss;  its  pleasure,  suffering.  Iniquity 
often  seems  to  prosper,  but  its  success  is  its  defeat  and  shame.  If 
its  consequences  pass  by  the  doer,  they  fall  upon  and  crush  his 
children.  It  is  a  philosophical,  physical,  and  moral  truth,  in  the 
form  of  a  threat,  that  God  visits  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon 
the  children,  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of  those  who  vio- 
late His  laws.  After  a  long  while,  the  day  of  reckoning  always 
comes,  to  nation  as  to  individual ;  and  always  the  knave  deceives 
himself,  and  proves  a  failure. 

Hypocrisy  is  the  homage  that  vice  and  wrong  pay  to  virtue  and 
justice.  It  is  Satan  attempting  to  clothe  himself  in  the  angelic 
vesture  of  light.  It  is  equally  detestable  in  morals,  politics,  and 
religion ;  in  the  man  and  in  the  nation.  To  do  injustice  under  the 
pretence  of  equity  and  fairness  ;  to  reprove  vice  in  public  and  com- 
mit it  in  private ;  to  pretend  to  charitable  opinion  and  censoriously 
condemn ;  to  profess  the  principles  of  Masonic  beneficence,  and 
close  the  ear  to  the  wail  of  distress  and  the  cry  of  suffering;  to 
eulogize  the  intelligence  of  the  people,  and  plot  to  deceive  and  be- 
tray them  by  means  of  their  ignorance  and  simplicity ;  to  prate  of 
purity,  and  peculate ;  of  honor,  and  basely  abandon  a  sinking 
cause ;  of  disinterestedness,  and  sell  one's  vote  for  place  and  pow- 
er, are  hypocrisies  as  common  as  they  are  infamous  and  disgrace- 
ful. To  steal  the  livery  of  the  Court  of  God  to  serve  the  Devil  with- 
al ;  to  pretend  to  believe  in  a  God  of  mercy  and  a  Redeemer  of  love, 
and  persecute  those  of  a  different  faith ;  to  devour  widows'  houses, 
and  for  a  pretence  make  long  prayers ;  to  preach  continence,  and 
wallow  in  lust ;  to  inculcate  humility,  and  in  pride  surpass  Lucifer  : 
to  pay  tithe,  and  omit  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  judgment, 
mercy,  and  faith  ;  to  strain  at  a  gnat,  and  swallow  a  camel ;  to  make 
clean  the  outside  of  the  cup  and  platter,  keeping  them  full  within 
of  extortion  and  excess ;  to  appear  outwardly  righteous  unto  men, 
but  within  be  full  of  hypocrisy  and  iniquity,  is  indeed  to  be  like 
unto  whited  sepulchres,  which  appear  beautiful  outward,  but  are 
within  full  of  bones  of  the  dead  and  of  all  uncleanness. 

The  Republic  cloaks  its  ambition  with  the  pretence  of  a  desire 
and  duty  to  "extend  the  area  of  freedom,"  and  claims  it  as  its 
"manifest  destiny"  to  annex  other  Republics  or  the  States  or 
Provinces  of  others  to  itself,  by  open  violence,  or  under  obsolete, 

6 


74  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

empty,  and  fraudulent  titles.  The  Empire  founded  by  a  successful 
soldier,  claims  its  ancient  or  natural  boundaries,  and  makes  neces- 
sity and  its  safety  the  'plea  for  open  robbery.  The  great  Merchant 
Nation,  gaining  foothold  in  the  Orient,  finds  a  continual  necessity 
for  extending  its  dominion  by  arms,  and  subjugates  India.  The 
great  Royalties  and  Despotisms,  without  a  plea,  partition  among 
themselves  a  Kingdom,  dismember  Poland,  and  prepare  to  wrangle 
over  the  dominions  of  the  Crescent.  Te  maintain  the  balance  of 
power  is  a  plea  for  the  obliteration  of  States.  Carthage,  Genoa, 
and  Venice,  commercial  Cities  only,  must  acquire  territory  by  force 
or  fraud,  and  become  States.  Alexander  marches  to  the  Indus ; 
Tamerlane  seeks  universal  empire;  the  Saracens  conquer  Spain 
and  threaten  Vienna. 

The  thirst  for  power  is  never  satisfied.  It  is  insatiable.  Neither 
men  nor  nations  ever  have  power  enough.  When  Rome  was  the 
mistress  of  the  world,  the  Emperors  caused  themselves  to  be  wor- 
shipped as  gods.  The  Church  of  Rome  claimed  despotism  over 
the  soul,  and  over  the  whole  life  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  It 
gave  and  sold  absolutions  for  past  and  future  sins.  It  claimed  to 
be  infallible  in  matters  of  faith.  It  decimated  Europe  to  purge  it 
of  heretics.  It  decimated  America  to  convert  the  Mexicans  and 
Peruvians.  It  gave  and  took  away  thrones;  and  by  excommuni- 
cation and  interdict  closed  the  gates  of  Paradise  against  Nations. 
Spain,  haughty  with  its  dominion  over  the  Indies,  endeavored  to 
crush  out  Protestantism  in  the  Netherlands,  while  Philip  the 
Second  married  the  Queen  of  England,  and  the  pair  sought  to  win 
that  kingdom  back  to  its  allegiance  to  the  Papal  throne.  After- 
ward Spain  attempted  to  conquer  it  with  her  "invincible"  Ar- 
mada. Napoleon  set  his  relatives  and  captains  on  thrones,  and 
parcelled  among  them  half  of  Europe.  The  Czar  rules  over  an 
empire  more  gigantic  than  Rome.  The  history  of  all  is  or  will  be 
the  same, — acquisition,  dismemberment,  ruin.  There  is  a  judg- 
ment of  God  against  all  that  is  unjust. 

To  seek  to  subjugate  the  will  of  others  and  take  the  soul  cap- 
tive, because  it  is  the  exercise  of  the  highest  power,  seems  to  be  the 
highest  object  of  human  ambition.  It  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  pros- 
elyting and  propagandism,  from  that  of  Mesmer  to  that  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  and  the  French  Republic.  That  was  the  aposto- 
late  alike  of  Joshua  and  of  Mahomet.  Masonry  alone  preaches 
Toleration,  the  right  of  man  to  abide  by  his  own  faith,  tne  right 


THE  MASTER.  75 

of  all  States  to  govern  themselves.  It  rebukes  alike  the  monarch 
who  seeks  to  extend  his  dominions  by  conquest,  the  Church 
that  claims  the  right  to  repress  heresy  by  fire  and  steel,  and  the  con- 
federation of  States  that  insist  on  maintaining  a  union  by  force 
and  restoring  brotherhood  by  slaughter  and  subjugation. 

It  is  natural,  when  we  are  wronged,  to  desire  revenge ;  and  to 
persuade  ourselves  that  we  desire  it  less  for  our  own  satisfaction 
than  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  the  wrong,  to  which  the  doer  would 
be  encouraged  by  immunity  coupled  with  the  profit  of  the  wrong. 
To  submit  to  be  cheated  is  to  encourage  the  cheater  to  continue ; 
and  we  are  quite  apt  to  regard  ourselves  as  God's  chosen  instru- 
ments to  inflict  His  vengeance,  and  for  Him  and  in  His  stead  to 
discourage  wrong  by  making  it  fruitless  and  its  punishment  sure. 
Revenge  has  been  said  to  be  "a  kind  of  wild  justice ;"  but  it  is 
always  taken  in  anger,  and  therefore  is  unworthy  of  a  great  soul, 
which  ought  not  to  suffer  its  equanimity  to  be  disturbed  by  ingrat- 
itude or  villainy.  The  injuries  done  us  by  the  base  are  as  much 
unworthy  of  our  angry  notice  as  those  done  us  by  the  insects  and 
the  beasts ;  and  when  we  crush  the  adder,  or  slay  the  wolf  or 
hyena,  we  should  do  it  without  being  moved  to  anger,  and  with  no 
more  feeling  of  revenge  than  we  haVe  in  rooting  up  a  noxious  weed. 

And  if  it  be  not  in  human  nature  not  to  take  revenge  by  way  of 
punishment,  let  the  Mason  truly  consider  that  in  doing  so  he  is 
God's  agent,  and  so  let  his  revenge  be  measured  by  justice  and 
tempered  by  mercy.  The  law  of  God  is,  that  the  consequences  of 
wrong  and  cruelty  and  crime  shall  be  their  punishment ;  and  the 
injured  and  the  wronged  and  the  indignant  are  as  much  His  instru- 
ments to  enforce  that  law,  as  the  diseases  and  public  detestation, 
and  the  verdict  of  history  and  the  execration  of  posterity  are.  No 
one  will  say  that  the  Inquisitor  who  has  racked  and  burned  the 
innocent;  the  Spaniard  who  hewed  Indian  infants,  living,  into 
pieces  with  his  sword,  and  fed  the  mangled  limbs  to  his  blood- 
hounds ;  the  military  tyrant  who  has  shot  men  without  trial,  the 
knave  who  has  robbed  or  betrayed  his  State,  the  fraudulent  banker 
or  bankrupt  who  has  beggared  orphans,  the  public  officer  who  has 
violated  his  oath,  the  judge  who  has  sold  injustice,  the  legislator 
who  has  enabled  Incapacity  to  work  the  ruin  of  the  State,  ought 
not  to  be  punished.  Let  them  be  so ;  and  let  the  injured  or  the 
sympathizing  be  the  instruments  of  God's  just  vengeance ;  but 
always  out  of  a  higher  feeling  than  mere  personal  revenge. 


7&  MORALS  AMD  DOGMA. 

Remember  that  every  moral  characteristic  of  man  finds  its  pro- 
totype among  creatures  of  lower  intelligence ;  that  the  cruel  foul- 
ness of  the  hyena,  the  savage  rapacity  of  the  wolf,  the  merciless 
rage  of  the  tiger,  the  crafty  treachery  of  the  panther,  are  found 
among  mankind,  and  ought  to  excite  no  other  emotion,  when 
found  in  the  man,  than  when  found  in  the  beast.  Why  should  the 
true  man  be  angry  with  the  geese  that  hiss,  the  peacocks  that 
strut,  the  asses  that  bray,  and  the  apes  that  imitate  and  chatter, 
although  they  wear  the  human  form?  Always,  also,  it  remains 
true,  that  it  is  more  noble  to  forgive  than  to  take  revenge ;  and 
that,  in  general,  we  ought  too  much  to  despise  those  who  wrong 
us,  to  feel  the  emotion  of  anger,  or  to  desire  revenge. 

At  the  sphere  of  the  Sun,  you  are  in  the  region  of  LIGHT.  *  * 
*  *  The  Hebrew  word  for  gold,  ZAHAB,  also  means  Light,  of 
which  the  Sun  is  to  the  Earth  the  great  source.  So,  in  the  great 
Oriental  allegory  of  the  Hebrews,  the  River  PISON  compasses  the 
land  of  Gold  or  Light;  and  the  River  GIHON  the  land  of  Ethiopia 
or  Darkness. 

What  light  is,  we  no  more  know  than  the  ancients  did.  Accord- 
ing to  the  modern  hypothesis,  it  is  not  composed  of  luminous 
particles  shot  out  from  the  sun  with  immense  velocity ;  but  that 
body  only  impresses,  on  the  ether  which  fills  all  space,  a  powerful 
vibratory  movement  that  extends,  in  the  form  of  luminous  waves, 
beyond  the  most  distant  planets,  supplying  them  with  light  and 
heat.  To  the  ancients,  it  was  an  outflowing  from  the  Deity.  To 
us,  as  to  them,  it  is  the  apt  symbol  of  truth  and  knowledge.  To  us, 
also,  the  upward  journey  of  the  soul  through  the  Spheres  is  symbol- 
ical ;  but  we  are  as  little  informed  as  they  whence  the  soul  comes, 
where  it  has  its  origin,  and  whither  it  goes  after  death.  They  en- 
deavored to  have  some  belief  and  faith,  some  creed,  upon  those 
points.  At  the  present  day,  men  are  satisfied  to  think  nothing  in 
regard  to  all  that,  and  only  to  believe  that  the  soul  is  a  something 
separ  ~ite  from  the  body  and  out-living  it,  but  whether  existing  be- 
fore it,  neither  to  inquire  nor  care.  No  one  asks  whether  it  ema- 
nates from  the  Deity,  or  is  created  out  of  nothing,  or  is  generated 
like  the  body,  and  the  issue  of  the  souls  of  the  father  and  the 
mother.  Let  us  not  smile,  therefore,  at  the  ideas  of  the  ancients, 
until  we  have  a  better  belief ;  but  accept  their  symbols  as  meaning 
that  the  soul  is  of  a  Divine  nature,  originating  in  a  sphere  nearer 
the  Deity,  and  returning  to  that  when  freed  from  the  enthrallment 


THE   MASTER.  77 

of  the  body ;  and  that  it  can  only  return  there  when  purified  of 
all  the  sordidness  and  sin  which  have,  as  it  were,  become  part  of 
its  substance,  by  its  connection  with  the  body. 

It  is  not  strange  that,  thousands  of  years  ago,  men  worshipped 
the  Sun,  and  that  to-day  that  worship  continues  among  the  Par- 
sees.  Originally  they  looked  beyond  the  orb  to  the  invisible  God, 
cf  whom  the  Sun's  light,  seemingly  identical  with  generation  and 
life,  was  the  manifestation  and  outflowing.  Long  before  the 
Chaldaean  shepherds  watched  it  on  their  plains,  it  came  up  regu- 
larly, as  it  now  does,  in  the  morning,  like  a  god,  and  again  sank, 
like  a  king  retiring,  in  the  west,  to  return  again  in  due  time  in  the 
same  array  of  majesty.  We  worship  Immutability.  It  was  that 
steadfast,  immutable  character  of  the  Sun  that  the  men  of  Baalbec 
worshipped.  His  light-giving  and  life-giving  powers  were  second- 
ary attributes.  The  one  grand  idea  that  compelled  worship  was 
the  characteristic  of  God  which  they  saw  reflected  in  his  light, 
and  fancied  they  saw  in  its  originality  the  changelessness  of  Deity. 
He  had  seen  thrones  crumble,  earthquakes  shake  the  world  and 
hurl  down  mountains.  Beyond  Olympus,  beyond  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules,  he  had  gone  daily  to  his  abode,  and  had  come  daily  again 
in  the  morning  to  behold  the  temples  they  built  to  his  worship. 
They  personified  him  as  BRAHMA,  AMUN,  OSIRIS,  BEL,  ADONIS, 
MALKARTH,  MITHRAS,  and  APOLLO;  and  the  nations  that  did  so 
grew  old  and  died.  Moss  grew  on  the  capitals  of  the  great  col- 
umns of  his  temples,  and  he  shone  on  the  moss.  Grain  by  grain 
the  dust  of  his  temples  crumbled  and  fell,  and  was  borne  off  on 
the  wind,  and  still  he  shone  on  crumbling  column  and  architrave. 
The  roof  fell  crashing  on  the  pavement,  and  he  shone  in  on  the 
Holy  of  Holies  with  unchanging  rays.  It  was  not  strange  that 
men  worshipped  the  Sun. 

There  is  a  water-plant,  on  whose  broad  leaves  the  drops  of  water 
roll  about  without  uniting,  like  drops  of  mercury.  So  arguments 
on  points  of  faith,  in  politics  or  religion,  roll  over  the  surface  of 
the  mind.  An  argument  that  convinces  one  mind  has  no  effect  on 
another.  Few  intellects,  or  souls  that  are  the  negations  of  intel- 
lect, have  any  logical  power  or  capacity.  There  is  a  singular  obli- 
quity in  the  human  mind  that  makes  the  false  logic  more  effective 
than  the  true  with  nine-tenths  of  those  who  are  regarded  as  men 
of  intellect.  Even  among  the  judges,  not  one  in  ten  can  argue 
logically.  Each  mind  sees  the  truth,  distorted  through  its  own 


78  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

medium.  Truth,  to  most  men,  is  like  matter  in  the  spheroidal 
state.  Like  a  drop  of  cold  water  on  the  surface  of  a  red-hot  metal 
plate,  it  dances,  trembles,  and  spins,  and  never  comes  into  contact 
with  it ;  and  the,  mind  may  be  plunged  into  truth,  as  the  hand 
moistened  with  sulphurous  acid  may  into  melted  metal,  and  be  not 

even  warmed  by  the  immersion. 

****** 

The  word  Khairum  or  Khurum  is  a  compound  one.  Gesenius 
renders  Khurum  by  the  word  noble  or  free-born:  Khur  meaning 
white,  noble.  It  also  means  the  opening  of  a  window,  the  socket 
of  the  eye.  Khri  also  means  white,  or  an  opening:  and  Khris,  the 
orb  of  the  Sun,  in  Job,  viii.  13,  and  x.  7.  Krishna  is  the  Hindu 
Sun-God.  Khur,  the  Parsi  word,  is  the  literal  name  of  the  Sun. 

From  Kur  or  Khur,  the  Sun,  comes  Khora,  a  name  of  Lower 
Egypt.  The  Sun,  Bryant  says  in  his  Mythology,  was  called  Kur; 
and  Plutarch  says  that  the  Persian?  called  the  Sun  Kuros.  Kurios, 
Lord,  in  Greek,  like  Adona'i,  Lord,  in  Phoenician  and  Hebrew, 
was  applied  to  the  Sun.  Many  places  were  sacred  to  the  Sun,  and 
called  Kura,  Kuria,  Kuropolis,  Kurene,  Kureschata,  Kuresta,  and 
Corusia  in  Scythia. 

The  Egyptian  Deity  called  by  the  Greeks  "Horns,"  was  Her-Ra, 
or  Har-oeris,  Hor  or  Har,  the  Sun.  Hari  is  a  Hindu  name  of  the 
Sun.  Ari-al,  Ar-es,  Ar,  Aryaman,  Areimonios,  the  AR  meaning 
Fire  or  Flame,  are  of  the  same  kindred.  Hermes  or  Har-mes, 
[Aram,  Remus,  Haram,  Harameias),  was  Kadmos,  the  Divine 
Light  or  Wisdom.  Mar-kuri,  says  Movers,  is  Mar,  the  Sun. 

In  the  Hebrew,  AOOR,  TN,  is  Light,  Fire,  or  the  Sun. 
Cyrus,  said  Ctesias,  was  so  named  from  Kuros,  the  Sun.  Kuris, 
Hesychius  says,  was  Adonis.  Apollo,  the  Sun-god,  was  called 
Kurraios,  from  Kurra,  a  city  in  Phocis.  The  people  of  Kurene, 
originally  Ethiopians  or  Cuthites,  worshipped  the  Sun  under  the 
title  of  Achoor  and  Achor. 

We  know,  through  a  precise  testimony  in  the  ancient  annals  of 
Tsur,  that  the  principal  festivity  of  Mal-karth,  the  incarnation  of 
the  Sun  at  the  Winter  Solstice, held  at  Tsur,  was  called  his  re-birth 
or  his  awakening,  and  that  it  was  celebrated  by  means  of  a  pyre, 
on  which  the  god  was  supposed  to  regain,  through  the  aid  of  fire, 
a  new  life.  This  festival  was  celebrated  in  the  month  Peritius 
(Barith],  the  second  day  of  which  corresponded  to  the  25th  of 
December.  KHUR-UM,  King  of  Tyre,  Movers  says,  first  performed 


THE  MASTER.  79 

this  ceremony.  These  facts  we  learn  from  Josephus,  Servius  on 
the  JEneid,  and  the  Dionysiacs  of  Nonnus;  and  through  a  coinci- 
dence that  cannot  be  fortuitous,  the  same  day  was  at  Rome- the 
Dies  Natalis  Solis  Invicti,  the  festal  day  of  the  invincible  Sun. 
Under  this  title,  HERCULES,  HAR-acles,  was  worshipped  at  Tsur. 
Thus,  while  the  temple  was  being  erected,  the  death  and  resurrec- 
tion of  a  Sun-God  was  annually  represented  at  Tsur,  by  Solomon's 
ally,  at  the  winter  solstice,  by  the  pyre  of  MAL-KARTH,  the  Tsurian 
Haracles. 

AROERIS  or  HAR-oeris,  the  elder  HORUS,  is  from  the  same  old 
root  that  in  the  Hebrew  has  the  form  Aiir,  or,  with  the  definite 
article  prefixed,  Hanr,  Light,  or  the  Light,  splendor,  flame,  the  Sun 
and  his  rays.  The  hieroglyphic  of  the  younger  HORUS  was  the 
point  in  a  circle ;  of  the  Elder,  a  pair  of  eyes ;  and  the  festival  of 
the  thirtieth  day  of  the  month  Epiphi,  when  the  sun  and  moon 
were  supposed  to  be  in  the  same  right  line  with  the  earth,  was 
called  "The  birth-day  of  the  eyes  of  Horus." 

In  a  papyrus  published  by  Champollion,  this  god  is  styled  "Har- 
oeri,  Lord  of  the  Solar  Spirits,  the  beneficent  eye  'of  the  Sun." 
Plutarch  calls  him  "Har-pocrates;"  but  there  is  no  trace  of  the 
latter  part  of  the  name  in  the  hieroglyphic  legends.  He  is  the  son 
of  OSIRIS  and  Isis ;  and  is  represented  sitting  on  a  throne  sup- 
ported by  lions;  the  same  word,  in  Egyptian,  meaning  Lion  and 
Sun.  So  Solomon  made  a  great  throne  of  ivory,  plated  with  gold, 
with  six  steps,  at  each  arm  of  which  was  a  lion,  and  one  on  each 
side  to  each  step,  making  seven  on  each  side. 

Again,  the  Hebrew  word  Tl,  Khi,  means -"living;"  and  CK"1 
ram,  "was,  or  shall  be,  raised  or  lifted  up."  The  latter  is  the  same 
as  DTI,  DTlS,  Din,  room,  ardom,  harum,  whence  Aram,  for  Syria, 
or  Aramcca,  High-land.  Khairum,  therefore,  would  mean  "was 
raised  up  to  life,  or  living." 

So,  in  Arabic,  hrm,  an  unused  root,  meant,  "was  high,"  "made 
great,"  "exalted;"  and  Hirm  means  an  ox,  the  symbol  of  the  Sun 
in  Taurus,  at  the  Vernal  Equinox. 

KHURUM,  therefore,  improperly  called  Hiram,  is  KHUR-OM,  the 
same  as  Her-ra,  Hcr-mes,  and  Her-acles,  the  "Heracles  Tyriits 
Impetus,"  the  personification  of  Light  and  the  Son,  the  Mediator, 
Redeemer,  and  Saviour.  From  the  Egyptian  word  Ra  came  the 
Coptic  Oiiro,  and  the  Hebrew  Aiir,  Light.  Har-ocri,  is  PI  or  or 
Har,  the  chief  or  master.  Hor  is  also  heat ;  and  hora,  season  or 


3C  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

hour ;  and  hence,  in  several  African  dialects,  as  names  of  the  Sun, 
Airo,  Ayero,  eer,  uiro,  ghurrah,  and  the  like.  The  royal  name 
rendered  Pharaoh,  was  PHRA,  that  is,  Pai-ra,  the  Sun. 

The  legend  of  the  contest  between  Hor-ra  and  Set,  or  Set-nu-bi, 
the  same  as  Bar  or  Bal,  is  older  than  that  of  the  strife  between 
Osiris  and  Typhon;  as  old,  at  least,  as  the  nineteenth  dynasty.  It 
is  called  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  "The  day  of  the  battle  between 
Horus  and  Set."  The  later  myth  connects  itself  with  Phoenicia 
and  Syria.  The  body  of  OSIRIS  went  ashore  at  Gebal  or  Byblos, 
sixty  miles  above  Tsur.  You  will  not  fail  to  notice  that  in  the 
name  of  each  murderer  of  Khurum,  that  of  the  Evil  God  Bal  is 

found. 

****** 

Har-oeri  was  the  god  of  TIME,  as  well  as  of  Life.  The  Egyptian 
legend  was  that  the  King  of  Byblos  cut  down  the  tamarisk-tree 
containing  the  body  of  OSIRIS,  and  made  of  it  a  column  for  his 
palace.  Isis,  employed  in  the  palace,  obtained  possession  qf  the 
column,  took  the  body  out  of  it,  and  carried  it  away.  Apuleius 
describes  her  as  "a  beautiful  female,  over  whose  divine  neck  her 
long  thick  hair  hung  in  graceful  ringlets ;"  and  in  the  procession 
female  attendants,  with  ivory  combs,  seemed  to  dress  and  ornament 
the  royal  hair  of  the  goddess.  The  palm-tree,  and  the  lamp  in  the 
shape  of  a  boat,  appeared  in  the  procession.  If  the  symbol  we  are 
speaking  of  is  not  a  mere  modern  invention,  it  is  to  these  things  it 
alludes. 


The  identity  of  the  legends  is  also  confirmed  by  this  hieroglyphic 
picture,  copied  from  an  ancient  Egyptian  monument,  which  may 
also  enlighten  you  as  to  the  Lion's  grip  and  the  Master's  gavel. 


THE   MASTER.  8 1 

3K,  in  the  ancient  Phoenician  character,  4  ^.  and  in  the  Sama- 
ritan,1} /$•,  A  B,  (the  two  letters  representing  the  numbers  I,  2, 
or  Unity  and  Duality,  means  Father,  and  is  a  primitive  noun,  com- 
mon to  all  the  Semitic  languages. 

It  also  means  an  Ancestor,  Originator,  Inventor,  Head,  Chief  or 
Ruler,  Manager,  Overseer,  Master,  Priest,  Prophet. 

•QK  is  simply  Father,  when  it  is  in  construction,  that  is,  when 
it  precedes  another  word,  and  in  English  the  preposition  "of"  is 
interposed,  as  ^-"OX,  Abi-Al,  the  Father  of  Al. 

Also,  the  final  Yod  means  "my";  so  that  ''iX  by  itself  means 
"My  father."  vjtf  TV7,  David  my  father,  2  Chron.  ii.  3. 

1,  (Vav)  final  is  the  possessive  pronoun  "his" ;  and  V2X,  Abiu 
(which  we  read  "Abif")  means  "of  my  father's."  Its  full  mean- 
ing, as  connected  with  the  name  of  Khurum,  no  doubt  is,  "for- 
merly one  of  my  father's  servants,"  or  "slaves." 

The  name  of  the  Phoenician  artificer  is,  in  Samuel  and  Kings, 
GIT!  and  CnTl— [2  Sam.  v.  n  ;  i  Kings,  v.  15;  I  Kings,  vii.  40]. 
In  Chronicles  it  is  Dlttl,  with  the  addition  of  "»2K.  [2  Chron.  ii.  12]  ; 
and  of  V2K.  [2  Chron.  iv.  16]. 

It  is  merely  absurd  to  add  the  word  "Abif"  or  "Abiff,"  as  part 
of  the  name  of  the  artificer.  And  it  is  almost  as  absurd  to  add 
the  word  "Abi,"  which  was  a  title  and  not  part  of  the  name.  Jo- 
seph says  [Gen.  xlv.  8],  "God  has  constituted  me  'Ab  I'Paraah, 
as  Father  to  Paraah,  i.  e.,  Vizier  or  Prime  Minister."  So  Haman 
was  called  the  Second  Father  of  Artaxerxes ;  and  when  King  Khu- 
rum used  the  phrase  "Khurum  Abi,"  he  meant  that  the  artificer 
he  sent  Schlomoh  was  the  principal  or  chief  workman  in  his  line 
at  Tsur. 

A  medal  copied  by  Montfaucon  exhibits  a  female  nursing  a  child, 
with  ears  of  wheat  in  her  hand,  and  the  legend  was  (lao.)  She  is 
seated  on  clouds,  a  star  at  her  head,  and  three  ears  of  wheat  rising 
from  an  altar  before  her. 

HORUS  was  the  mediator,  who  was  buried  three  days,  was  regen- 
erated, and  triumphed  over  the  evil  principle. 

The  word  HERI,  in  Sanscrit,  means  Shepherd,  as  well  as  Saviour. 
CRISIINA  is  called  Hcri,  as  JESUS  called  Himself  the  Good  Shep- 
herd. 

Tin,  Khur,  means  an  aperture  of  a  window,  a  cave,  or  the  eye. 
Also  it  means  white.  In  Syriac,  f  j  g^j. 

*ifl  also  means  an  opening,  and  noble,  free-born,  high-born. 


82  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

D"II"I,   KHURM  means  consecrated,  devoted;  in  ^Ethiopic  ,f\  A  °  | 
It  is  the  name  of  a  city,  [Josh.  xix.  38]  ;  and  of  a  man,  [Ezr.  ii.  32, 
x.  31 ;  Neli.  iii.  n]. 

nrpn,  Khirah,  means  nobility,  a  noble  race. 

Buddha  is  declared  to  comprehend  in  his  own  person  the 
essence  of  the  Hindu  Trimurti ;  and  hence  the  tri-literal  mono- 
syllable Om  or  Aum  is  applied  to  him  as  being  essentially  the 
same  as  Brahma-Vishnu-Siva.  He  is  the  same  as  Hermes,  Thoth, 
Taut,  and  Teutates.  One  of  his  names  is  Heri-maya  or  Her- 
maya,  which  are  evidently  the  same  name  as  Hermes  and  Khirm 
or  Khurm.  Heri,  in  Sanscrit,  means  Lord. 

A  learned  Brother  places  over  the  two  symbolic  pillars,  from 
right  to  left,  the  two  words  £*^  (ft* and  2j.\7Q,  W*  and  f?j?2,lHU 
and  BAL  :  followed  by  the  hieroglyphic  equivalent,  Vy^.  of  the 
Sun-God,  Amun-ra.  Is  it  an  accidental  coincidence,  c±  that  in 
the  name  of  each  murderer  are  the  two  names  of  the  Good  and  Evil 
Deities  of  the  Hebrews;  for  Yu-bel  is  but  Yehu-Bal  orYeho-Balf 
and  that  the  three  final  syllables  of  the  names,  a,  o,  urn,  make 
A.'.U.'.M.'.  the  sacred  word  of  the  Hindoos,  meaning  the  Triune- 
God,  Life-giving,  Life-preserving,  Life-destroying :  represented  by 
the  mystic  character  Y"  ? 

The  genuine  Acacia,  also,  is  the  thorny  tamarisk,  the  same  tree 
which  grew  up  around  the  body  of  Osiris.  It  was  a  sacred  tree 
among  the  Arabs,  who  made  of  it  the  idol  Al-Uzza,  which  Mo- 
hammed destroyed.  It  is  abundant  as  a  bush  in  the  Desert  of 
Thur :  and  of  it  the  "crown  of  thorns"  was  composed,  which  was 
set  on  the  forehead  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  It  is  a  fit  type  of  im- 
mortality on  account  of  its  tenacity  of  life ;  for  it  has  been  known, 
when  planted  as  a  door-post,  to  take  root  again  and  shoot  out 

budding  boughs  above  the  threshold. 

****** 

Every  commonwealth  must  have  its  periods  of  trial  and  transi- 
tion, especially  if  it  engages  in  war.  It  is  certain  at  some  time  to 
be  wholly  governed  by  agitators  appealing  to  all  the  baser  ele- 
ments of  the  popular  nature ;  by  moneyed  corporations ;  by  those 
enriched  by  the  depreciation  of  government  securities  or  paper ;  by 
small  attorneys,  schemers,  money-jobbers,  speculators  and  adven- 
turers— an  ignoble  oligarchy,  enriched  by  the  distresses  of  the  State, 
and  fattened  on  the  miseries  of  the  people.  Then  all  the  deceitful 
visions  of  equality  and  the  rights  of  man  end ;  and  the  wronged 


THE   MASTER.  83 

and  plundered  State  can  regain  a  real  liberty  only  by  passing 
through  "great  varieties  of  untried  being,"  purified  in  its  trans- 
migration by  fire  and  blood. 

In  a  Republic,  it  soon  comes  to  pass  that  parties  gather  round 
the  negative  and  positive  poles  of  some  opinion  or  notion,  and 
that  the  intolerant  spirit  of  a  triumphant  majority  will  allow  no 
deviation  from  the  standard  of  orthodoxy  which  it  has  set  up  for 
itself.  Freedom  of  opinion  will  be  professed  and  pretended  to, 
but  every  one  will  exercise  it  at  the  peril  of  being  banished  from 
political  communion  with  those  who  hold  the  reins  and  prescribe 
the  policy  to  be  pursued.  Slavishness  to  party  and  obsequiousness 
to  the  popular  whims  go  hand  in  hand.  Political  independence 
only  occurs  in  a  fossil  state ;  and  men's  opinions  grow  out  of  the 
acts  they  have  been  constrained  to  do  or  sanction.  Flattery, 
either  of  individual  or  people,  corrupts  both  the  receiver  and  the 
giver ;  and  adulation  is  not  of  more  service  to  the  people  than  to 
kings.  A  Csesar,  securely  seated  in  power,  cares  less  for  it  than  a 
free  democracy;  nor  will  his  appetite  for  it  grow  to  exorbitance, 
as  that  of  a  people  will,  until  it  becomes  insatiate.  The  effect 
of  liberty  to  individuals  is,  that  they  may  do  what  they  please ; 
to  a  people,  it  is  to  a  great  extent  the  same.  If  accessible  to  flat- 
tery, as  this  is  always  interested,  and  resorted  to  on  low  and  base 
motives,  and  for  evil  purposes,  either  individual  or  people  is  sure, 
in  doing  what  it  pleases,  to  do  what  in  honor  and  conscience 
should  have  been  left  undone.  One  ought  not  even  to  risk  con- 
gratulations, which  may  soon  be  turned  into  complaints ;  and  as 
both  individuals  and  peoples  are  prone  to  make  a  bad  use  of  power, 
to  flatter  them,  which  is  a  sure  way  to  mislead  them,  well  deserves 
to  be  called  a  crime. 

The  first  principle  in  a  Republic  ought  to  be,  "that  no  man  or 
set  of  men  is  entitled  to  exclusive  or  separate  emoluments  or  pri- 
vileges from  the  community,  but  in  consideration  of  public  ser- 
vices ;  which  not  being  descendible,  neither  ought  the  offices  of 
magistrate,  legislature,  <nor  judge,  to  be  hereditary."  It  is  a  volume 
of  Truth  and  Wisdom,  a  lesson  for  the  study  of  nations,  em- 
bodied in  a  single  sentence,  and  expressed  in  language  which 
every  man  can  understand.  If  a  deluge  of  despotism  were 
to  overthrow  the  world,  and  destroy  all  institutions  under 
which  freedom  is  protected,  so  that  they  should  no  longer  be  re- 
membered among  men,  this  sentence,  preserved,  would  be  suffi- 


84  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

cient  to  rekindle  the  fires  of  liberty  and  revive  the  race  of  free 
men. 

But,  to  preserve  liberty,  another  must  be  added:  "that  a  free 
State  does  not  confer  office  as  a  reward,  especially  for  questionable 
services,  unless  she  seeks  her  own  ruin ;  but  all  officers  are  em- 
ployed by  her,  in  consideration  solely  of  their  will  and  ability  to 
render  service  in  the  future ;  and  therefore  that  the  best  and  most 
competent  are  always  to  be  preferred." 

For,  if  there  is  to  be  any  other  rule,  that  of  hereditary  succession 
is  perhaps  as  good  as  any.  By  no  other  rule  is  it  possible  to  pre- 
serve the  liberties  of  the  State.  By  no  other  to  intrust  the  power  of 
making  the  laws  to  those  only  who  have  that  keen  instinctive  sense 
of  injustice  and  wrong  which  enables  them  to  detect  baseness  and 
corruption  in  their  most  secret  hiding-places,  and  that  moral 
courage  and  generous  manliness  and  gallant  independence  that 
make  them  fearless  in  dragging  out  the  perpetrators  to  the  light 
of  day,  and  calling  down  upon  them  the  scorn  and  indignation  of 
the  world.  The  flatterers  of  the  people  are  never  such  men.  On 
the  contrary,  a  time  always  comes  to  a  Republic,  when  it  is  not 
content,  like  Tiberius,  with  a  single  Sejanus,  but  must  have  a 
host;  and  when  those  most  prominent  in  the  lead  of  affairs  are 
men  without  reputation,  statesmanship,  ability,  or  information, 
the  mere  hacks  of  party,  owing  their  places  to  trickery  and  want 
of  qualification,  with  none  of  the  qualities  of  head  or  heart  that 
make  great  and  wise  men,  and,  at  the  same  time,  filled  with  all 
the  narrow  conceptions  and  bitter  intolerance  of  political  bigotry. 
These  die ;  and  the  world  is  none  the  wiser  for  what  they  have 
said  and  done.  Their  names  sink  in  the  bottomless  pit  of  obliv- 
ion ;  but  their  acts  of  folly  or  knavery  curse  the  body  politic  and 
at  last  prove  its  ruin. 

Politicians,  in  a  free  State,  are  generally  hollow,  heartless,  and 
selfish.  Their  own  aggrandisement  is  the  end  of  their  patriotism ; 
and  they  always  look  with  secret  satisfaction  on  the  disappoint- 
ment or  fall  of  one  whose  loftier  genius  and  superior  talents  over- 
shadow their  own  self-importance,  or  whose  integrity  and  incor- 
ruptible honor  are  in  the  way  of  their  selfish  ends.  The  influence 
of  the  small  aspirants  is  always  against  the  great  man.  His 
accession  to  power  may  be  almost  for  a  lifetime.  One  of  them- 
selves will  be  more  easily  displaced,  and  each  hopes  to  succeed 
him  ;  and  so  it  at  length  comes  to  pass  that  men  impudently 


THE   MASTER.  85 

aspire  to  and  actually  win  the  highest  stations,  who  are  unfit  for 
the  lowest  clerkships ;  and  incapacity  and  mediocrity  become  the 
surest  passports  to  office. 

The  consequence  is,  that  those  who  feel  themselves  competent 
and  qualified  to  serve  the  people,  refuse  with  disgust  to  enter  into 
the  struggle  for  office,  where  the  wicked  and  Jesuitical  doctrine 
that  all  is  fair  in  politics  is  an  excuse  for  every  species  of  low 
villainy ;  and  those  who  seek  even  the  highest  places  of  the  State 
do  not  rely  upon  the  power  of  a  magnanimous  spirit,  on  the  sym- 
pathizing impulses  of  a  great  soul,  to  stir  and  move  the  people  to 
generous,  noble,  and  heroic  resolves,  and  to  wise  and  manly  action  ; 
but,  like  spaniels  erect  on  their  hind  legs,  with  fore-paws  obsequi- 
ously suppliant,  fawn,  flatter,  and  actually  beg  for  votes.  Rather 
than  descend  to  this,  they  stand  contemptuously  aloof,  disdain- 
fully refusing  to  court  the  people,  and  acting  on  the  maxim,  that 
"mankind  has  no  title  to  demand  that  we  shall  serve  them  in 

spite  of  themselves." 

****** 

It  is  lamentable  to  see  a  country  split  into  factions,  each  fol- 
lowing this  or  that  great  or  brazen-fronted  leader  with  a  blind, 
unreasoning,  unquestioning  hero-worship ;  it  is  contemptible  to 
see  it  divided  into  parties,  whose  sole  end  is  the  spoils  of  victory, 
and  their  chiefs  the  low,  the  base,  the  venal  and  the  small.  Such 
a  country  is  in  the  last  stages  of  decay,  and  near  its  end,  no  matter 
how  prosperous  it  may  seem  to  be.  It  wrangles  over  the  volcano 
and  the  earthquake.  But  it  is  certain  that  no  government  can  be 
conducted  by  the  men  of  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  without  a 
rigid  adherence  to  those  principles  which  our  reason  commends 
as  fixed  and  sound.  These  must  be  the  tests  of  parties,  men,  and 
measures.  Once  determined,  they  must  be  inexorable  in  their 
application,  and  all  must  either  come  up  to  the  standard  or  de- 
clare against  it.  Men  may  betray :  principles  never  can.  Oppres- 
sion is  one  invariable  consequence  of  misplaced  confidence  in 
treacherous  man  :  it  is  never  the  result  of  the  working  or  applica- 
tion of  a  sound,  just,  well-tried  principle.  Compromises  which 
bring  fundamental  principles  into  doubt,  in  order  to  unite  in  one 
party  men  of  antagonistic  creeds,  are  frauds,  and  end  in  ruin,  the 
just  and  natural  consequence  of  fraud.  Whenever  you  have  set- 
tled upon  your  theory  and  creed,  sanction  no  departure  from  it  in 
practice,  on  any  ground  of  expediency.  It  is  the  Master's  v.ord. 


36 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


Yield  it  up  neither  to  flattery  nor  force !  Let  no  defeat  or  perse- 
cution rob  you  of  it!  Believe  that  he  who  once  blundered  in 
statesmanship  will  blunder  again ;  that  such  blunders  are  as  fatal 
as  crimes;  and  that  political  near-sightedness  does  not  improve 
by  age.  There  are  always  more  impostors  than  seers  among  public 
men,  more  false  prophets  than  true  ones,  more  prophets  of  Baal 
than  of  Jehovah ;  and  Jerusalem  is  always  in  danger  from  the 
Assyrians. 

Sallust  said  that  after  a  State  has  been  corrupted  by  luxury  and 
idleness,  it  may  by  its  mere  greatness  bear  up  under  the  burden  of 
its  vices.  But  even  while  he  wrote,  Rome,  of  which  he  spoke,  had 
played  out  her  masquerade  of  freedom.  Other  causes  than  luxury 
and  sloth  destroy  Republics.  If  small,  their  larger  neighbors  ex- 
tinguish them  by  absorption.  If  of  great  extent,  the  cohesive 
force  is  too  feeble  to  hold  them  together,  and  they  fall  to  pieces  by 
their  own  weight.  The  paltry  ambition  of  small  men  disintegrates 
them.  The  want  of  wisdom  in  their  councils  creates  exasperating 
issues.  Usurpation  of  power  plays  its  part,  incapacity  seconds 
corruption,  the  storm  rises,  and  the  fragments  of  the  incoherent 
raft  strew  the  sandy  shores,  reading  to  mankind  another  lesson  for 
it  to  disregard. 


The  Forty-Seventh  Proposition  is  older  than- Pythagoras.  It  is 
this :  "In  every  right-angled  triangle,  the  sum  of  the  squares  of  the 
base  and  perpendicular  is  equal  to  the  square  of  the  hypothenuse." 


THE  MASTER.  87 

The  square  of  a  number  is  the  product  of  that  number,  multi- 
plied by  itself.  Thus,  4  is  the  square  of  2,  and  9  of  3. 

The  first  ten  numbers  are :  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  10; 

their  squares  are  i,  4,  9,16,25,36,49,64,81,100; 

and  3,  5,  7,  9,  1 1,  13,  15,  17,  19 

are  the  differences  between  each  square  and  that  which  precedes 
it;  giving  us  the  sacred  numbers,  3,  5,  7,  and  9. 

Of  these  numbers,  the  square  of  3  and  4,  added  together,  gives 
the  square  of  5 ;  and  those  of  6  and  8,  the  square  of  10 ;  and  if  a 
right-angled  triangle  be  formed,  the  base  measuring  3  or  6  parts, 
and  the  perpendicular  4  or  8  parts,  the  hypothenuse  will  be  5  or  10 
parts ;  and  if  a  square  is  erected  on  each  side,  these  squares  being 
subdivided  into  squares  each  side  of  which  is  one  part  in  length, 
there  will  be  as  many  of  these  in  the  square  erected  on  the  hy- 
pothenuse as  in  the  other  two  squares  together. 

Now  the  Egyptians  arranged  their  deities  in  Triads  —  the 
FATHER  or  the  Spirit  or  Active  Principle  or  Generative  Power ; 
the  MOTHER,  or  Matter,  or  the  Passive  Principle,  or  the  Concep- 
tive  Power ;  and  the  SON,  Issue  or  Product,  the  Universe,  proceed- 
ing from  the  two  principles.  These  were  OSIRIS,  Isis,  and  HORUS. 
In  the  same  way,  PLATO  gives  us  Thought  the  Father;  Primitive 
Matter  the  Mother;  and  Kosmos  the  World,  the  Son,  the  Universe 
animated  by  a  soul.  Triads  of  the  same  kind  are  found  in  the 
Kabalah. 

PLUTARCH  says,  in  his  book  De  Iside  et  Osiride,  "But  the 
better  and  diviner  nature  consists  of  three, — that  which  exists 
within  the  Intellect  only,  and  Matter,  and  that  which  proceeds 
from  these,  which  the  Greeks  call  Kosmos;  of  which  three,  Plato 
is  wont  to  call  the  Intelligible,  the  'Idea,  Exemplar,  and  Father'  ; 
Matter,  'the  Mother,  the  Nurse,  and  the  place  and  receptacle  of 
generation' ;  and  the  issue  of  these  two,  'the  Offspring  and  Gen- 
esis,' "  the  KOSMOS,  "a  word  signifying  equally  Beauty  and  Order, 
or  the  Universe  itself."  You  will  not  fail  to  notice  that  Beauty  is 
symbolized  by  the  Junior  Warden  in  the  South.  Plutarch  con- 
tinues to  say  that  the  Egyptians  compared  the  universal  nature  to 
what  they  called  the  most  beautiful  and  perfect  triangle,  as  Plato 
does,  in  that  nuptial  diagram,  as  it  is  termed,  which  he  has  intro- 
duced into  his  Commonwealth.  Then  he  adds  that  this  triangle 
is  right-angled,  and  its  sides  respectively  as  3,  4,  and  5  ;  and  he 
says,  "We  must  suppose  that  the  perpendicular  is  designed  by  them 


88 


MORALS   AND    DOGMA. 


to  represent  the  masculine  nature,  the  base  the  feminine,  and  that 
the  hypothenuse  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  offspring  of  both ; 
and  accordingly  the  first  of  them  will  aptly  enough  represent 
OSIRIS,  or  the  prime  cause ;  the  second,  Isis,  or  the  receptive  ca- 
pacity ;  the  last,  HORUS,  or  the  common  effect  of  the  other  two. 
For  3  is  the  first  number  which  is  composed  of  even  and  odd ;  and 
4  is  a  square  whose  side  is  equal  to  the  even  number  2 ;  but  5, 
being  generated,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  preceding  numbers,  2  and 
3,  may  be  said  to  have  an  equal  relation  to  both  of  them,  as  to  its 
common  parents." 

*  *  :!--  -\:  #  * 

The  clasped  hands  is  another  symbol  which  was  used  by  PYTHAG- 
ORAS. It  represented  the  number  10,  the  sacred  number  in  which 
all  the  preceding  numbers  were  contained ;  the  number  expressed 
by  the  mysterious  TETRACTYS,  a  figure  borrowed  by  him  and  the 
Hebrew  priests  alike  from  .the  Egyptian  sacred  science,  and  which 
ought  to  be  replaced  among  the  symbols  of  the  Master's  Degree, 
where  it  of  right  belongs.  The  Hebrews  formed  it  thus,  with  the 
letters  ot  the  Divine  name : 


The  Tetractys  thus  leads  you.  not  only  to  the  study  of  the 
Pythagorean  philosophy  as  to  numbers,  but  also  to  the  Kabalah, 
and  will  aid  you  in  discovering  the  True  Word,  and  understanding 
what  was  meant  by  "The  Music  of  the  Spheres.''  Modern  science 
strikingly  confirms  the  id(,as  of  Pythagoias  in  regard  to  the  prop- 
erties of  numbers,  and  that  they  govern  in  the  Universe.  Long 
before  Ms  time,  nature  had  extracted  her  cube-roots  and  her 
squares. 

****** 

All  the  FORCES  at  man's  disposal  or  under  man's  control,  or 
subject  to  man's  influence,  are  his  working  tools.  The  friendship 
and  sympathy  that  knit  heart  to  heart  are  a  force  like  the  attrac- 


THE   MASTER.  89 

tion  of  cohesion,  by  which  the  sandy  particles  became  the  solid 
rock.  If  this  law  of  attraction  or  cohesion  were  taken  away,  the 
material  worlds  and  suns  would  dissolve  in  an  instant  into  thin 
invisible  vapor.  If  the  ties  of  friendship,  affection,  and  love  were 
annulled,  mankind  would  become  a  raging  multitude  of  wild  and 
savage  beasts  of  prey.  The  sand  hardens  into  rock  under  the  im- 
mense superincumbent  pressure  of  the  ocean,  aided  sometimes  by 
the  irresistible  energy  of  fire ;  and  when  the  pressure  of  calamity 
and  danger  is  upon  an  order  or  a  country,  the  members  or  the 
citizens  ought  to  be  the  more  closely  united  by  the  cohesion  of 
sympathy  and  inter-dependence. 

Morality  is  a  force.  It  is  the  magnetic  attraction  of  the  heart 
toward  Truth  and  Virtue.  The  needle,  imbued  with  this  mystic 
property,  and  pointing  unerringly  to  the  north,  carries  the  mari- 
ner safely  over  the  trackless  ocean,  through  storm  and  darkness, 
until  his  glad  eyes  behold  the  beneficent  beacons  that  welcome  hin; 
to  safe  and  hospitable  harbor.  Then  the  hearts  of  those  who  love 
him  are  gladdened,  and  his  home  made  happy ;  and  this  gladness 
and  happiness  are  due  to  the  silent,  unostentatious,  unerring  mon- 
itor that  was  the  sailor's  guide  over  the  weltering  waters.  But  if 
drifted  too  far  northward,  he  finds  the  needle  no  longer  true,  but 
pointing  elsewhere  than  to  the  north,  what  a  feeling  of  helpless- 
ness falls  upon  the  dismayed  mariner,  what  utter  loss  of  energy 
and  courage !  It  is  as  if  the  great  axioms  of  morality  were  to  fail 
and  be  no  longer  true,  leaving  the  human  soul  to  drift  helplessly, 
eyeless  like  Prometheus,  at  the  mercy  of  the  uncertain,  faithless 
currents  of  the  deep. 

Honor  and  Duty  are  the  pole-stars  of  a  Mason,  the  Dioscuri,  by 
never  losing  sight  of  which  he  may  avoid  disastrous  shipwreck. 
These  Palinurus  watched,  until,  overcome  by  sleep,  and  the  ves- 
sel no  longer  guided  truly,  he  fell  into  and  was  swallowed  up  by 
the  insatiable  sea.  So  the  Mason  who  loses  sight  of  these,  and  is 
no  longer  governed  by  their  beneficent  and  potential  force,  is 
lost,  and  sinking  out  of  sight,  will  disappear  unhonored  and 
unwept. 

The  force  of  electricity,  analogous  to  that  of  sympathy,  and  by 
means  of  which  great  thoughts  or  base  suggestions,  the  utterances 
of  noble  or  ignoble  natures,  flash  instantaneously  over  the  nerves 
of  nations;  the  force  of  growth,  fit  type  of  immortality,  lying 
dormant  three  thousand  years  in  the  wheat-grains  buried  with 
7 


gO  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

their  mummies  by  the  old  Egyptians ;  the  forces  of  expansion  and 
contraction,  developed  in  the  earthquake  and  the  tornado,  and 
giving  birth  to  the  wonderful  achievements  of  steam,  have  their 
parallelisms  in  the  moral  world,  in  individuals,  and  nations. 
Growth  is  a  necessity  for  nations  as  for  men.  Its  cessation  is  the 
beginning  of  decay.  In  the  nation  as  well  as  the  plant  it  is  mys- 
terious, and  it  is  irresistible.  The  earthquakes  that  rend  nations 
asunder,  overturn  thrones,  and  engulf  monarchies  and  republics, 
have  been  long  prepared  for,  like  the  volcanic  eruption.  Revolu- 
tions have  long  roots  in  the  past.  The  force  exerted  is  in  direct 
proportion  to  the  previous  restraint  and  compression.  The  true 
statesman  ought  to  see  in  progress  the  Causes  that  are  in  due  time 
to  produce  them ;  and  he  who  does  not  is  but  a  blind  leader  of  the 
blind. 

The  great  changes  in  nations,  like  the  geological  changes  of  the 
earth,  are  slowly  and  continuously  wrought.  The  waters,  falling 
from  Heaven  as  rain  and  dews,  slowly  disintegrate  the  granite 
mountains ;  abrade  the  plains,  leaving  hills  and  ridges  of  denuda- 
tion as  their  monuments ;  scoop  out  the  valleys,  fill  up  the  seas, 
narrow  the  rivers,  and  after  the  lapse  of  thousands  on  thousands 
of  silent  centuries,  prepare  the  great  alluvia  for  the  growth  of  that 
plant,  the  snowy  envelope  of  whose  seeds  is  to  employ  the  looms 
of  the  world,  and  the  abundance  or  penury  of  whose  crops  shall 
determine  whether  the  weavers  and  spinners  of  other  realms  shall 
have  work  to  do  or  starve. 

So  Public  Opinion  is  an  immense  force ;  and  its  currents  are  as 
inconstant  and  incomprehensible  as  those  of  the  atmosphere. 
Nevertheless,  in  free  governments,  it  is  omnipotent ;  and  the  busi- 
ness of  the  statesman  is  to  find  the  means  to  shape,  control,  and 
direct  it.  According  as  that  is  done,  it  is  beneficial  and  conserva- 
tive, or  destructive  and  ruinous.  The  Public  Opinion  of  the  civil- 
ized world  is  International  Law ;  and  it  is  so  great  a  force,  though 
with  no  certain  and  fixed  boundaries,  that  it  can  even  constrain 
the  victorious  despot  to  be  generous,  and  aid  an  oppressed  people 
in  its  struggle  for  independence. 

Habit  is  a  great  force ;  it  is  second  nature,  even  in  trees.  It  is 
'<s  strong  in  nations  as  in  men.  So  also  are  Prejudices,  which  are 
given  to  men  and  nations  as  the  passions  are, — as  forces,  valuable, 
if  properly  and  skillfully  availed  of;  destructive,  if  unskillfully 
handled. 


THE  MASTER.  QI 

Above  all,  the  Love  of  Country,  State  Pride,  the  Love  of  Home, 
are  forces  of  immense  power.  Encourage  them  all.  Insist  upon  them 
in  your  public  men.  Permanency  of  home  is  necessary  to  patriot- 
ism. A  migratory  race  will  have  little  love  of  country.  State 
pride  is  a  mere  theory  and  chimera,  where  men  remove  from  State 
to  State  with  indifference,  like  the  Arabs,  who  camp  here  to-day 
and  there  to-morrow. 

If  you  have  Eloquence,  it  is  a  mighty  force.  See  that  you  use 
it  for  good  purposes — to  teach,  exhort,  ennoble  the  people,  and  not 
to  mislead  and  corrupt  them.  Corrupt  and  venal  orators  are  the 
assassins  of  the  public  liberties  and  of  public  morals. 

The  Will  is  a  force;  its  limits  as  yet  unknown.  It  is  in  the 
power  of  the  will  that  we  chiefly  see  the  spiritual  and  divine  in 
man.  There  is  a  seeming  identity  between  his  will  that  moves 
other  men,  and  the  Creative  Will  whose  action  seems  so  incompre- 
hensible. It  is  the  men  of  will  and  action,  not  the  men  of  pure 
intellect,  that  govern  the  world. 

Finally,  the  three  greatest  moral  forces  are  FAITH,  which  is  the 
only  true  WISDOM,  and  the  very  foundation  of  all  government; 
HOPE,  which  is  STRENGTH,  and  insures  success ;  and  CHARITY, 
which  is  BEAUTY,  and  alone  makes  animated,  united  effort  possi- 
ble. These  forces  are  within  the  reach  of  all  men ;  and  an  associa- 
tion of  men,  actuated  by  them,  ought  to  exercise  an  immense 
power  in  the  world.  If  Masonry  does  not,  it  is  because  she  has. 
ceased  to  possess  them. 

Wisdom  in  the  man  or  statesman,  in  king  or  priest,  largely 
consists  in  the  due  appreciation  of  these  forces ;  and  upon  the 
general  w07t-appreciation  of  some  of  them  the  fate  of  nations  often 
depends.  What  hecatombs  of  lives  often  hang  upon  the  not 
weighing  or  not  sufficiently  weighing  the  force  of  an  idea,  such  as, 
for  example,  the  reverence  for  a  flag,  or  the  blind  attachment  to  a 
form  or  constitution  of  government ! 

What  errors  in  political  economy  and  statesmanship  are  com- 
mitted in  consequence  of  the  over-estimation  or  under-estimation 
of  particular  values,  or  the  non-estimation  of  some  among  them ! 
Everything,  it  is  asserted,  is  the  product  of  human  labor ;  but  the 
gold  or  the  diamond  which  one  accidentally  finds  without  labor 
is  not  so.  What  is  the  value  of  the  labor  bestowed  by  the  husband- 
man upon  his  crops,  compared  with  the  value  of  the  sunshine 
and  rain,  without  which  his  labor  avails  nothing?  Commerce 


92  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

carried  on  by  the  labor  of  man,  adds  to  the  value  of  the  products 
of  the  field,  the  mine,  or  the  workshop,  by  their  transportation  to 
different  markets ;  but  how  much  of  this  increase  is  due  to  the 
rivers  down  which  these  products  float,  to  the  winds  that  urge  the 
keels  of  commerce  over  the  ocean ! 

Who  can  estimate  the  value  of  morality  and  manliness  in  a 
State,  of  moral  worth  and  intellectual  knowledge?  These  are  the 
sunshine  and  rain  of  the  State.  The  winds,  with  their  changeable, 
fickle,  fluctuating  currents,  are  apt  emblems  of  the  fickle  humors 
of  the  populace,  its  passions,  its  heroic  impulses,  its  enthusiasms. 
\Yoe  to  the  statesman  who  does  not  estimate  these  as  values ! 

Even  music  and  song  are  sometimes  found  to  have  an  incalcula- 
ble value.  Every  nation  has  some  song  of  a  proven  value,  more 
easily  counted  in  lives  than  dollars.  The  Marseillaise  was  worth  to 
revolutionary  France,  who  shall  say  how  many  thousand  men? 

Peace  also  is  a  great  element  of  prosperity  and  wealth ;  a  value 
not  to  be  calculated.  Social  intercourse  and  association  of  men  in 
beneficent  Orders  have  a  value  not  to  be  estimated  in  coin.  The 
illustrious  examples  of  the  Past  of  a  nation,  the  memories  and  im- 
mortal thoughts  of  her  great  and  wise  thinkers,  statesmen,  and 
heroes,  are  the  invaluable  legacy  of  that  Past  to  the  Present  and 
future.  And  all  these  have  not  only  the  values  of  the  loftier  and 
more  excellent  and  priceless  kind,  but  also  an  actual  money-value, 
since  it  is  only  when  co-operating  with  or  aided  or  enabled  by 
these,  that  human  labor  creates  wealth.  They  are  of  the  chief 
elements  of  material  wealth,  as  they  are  of  national  manliness, 

heroism,  glory,  prosperity,  and  immortal  renown. 

****** 

Providence  has  appointed  the  three  great  disciplines  of  War,  the 
Monarchy  and  the  Priesthood,  all  that  the  CAMP,  the  PALACE,  and 
the  TEMPLE  may  symbolize,  to  train  the  multitudes  forward  to  in- 
telligent and  premeditated  combinations  for  all  the  great  purposes 
of  society.  The  result  will  at  length  be  free  governments  among 
men,  when  virtue  and  intelligence  become  qualities  of  the  multi- 
tudes ;  but  for  ignorance  such  governments  are  impossible,  Man 
advances  only  by  degrees.  The  removal  of  one  pressing  calamity 
gives  eourr.ge  to  attempt  the  removal  of  the  remaining  evils,  rend- 
ering men  more  sensitive  to  them,  or  perhaps  sensitive  for  the  first 
time.  Serfs  that  writhe  under  the  whip  are  not  disquieted  about 
their  political  rights ;  manumitted  from  personal  slavery,  they  be- 


THE  MASTER.  93 

come  sensitive  to  political  oppression.  Liberated  from  arbitrary 
power,  and  governed  by  the  law  alone,  they  begin  to  scrutinize  the 
law  itself,  and  desire  to  be  governed,  not  only  by  law,  but  by  what 
'!iey  deem  the  best  law.  And  when  the  civil  or  temporal  despot- 
ism has  been  set  aside,  and  the  municipal  law  4ias  been  moulded 
on  the  principles  of  an  enlightened  jurisprudence,  they  may  wake 
to  the  discovery  that  they  are  living  under  some  priestly  or  ecclesi- 
astical despotism,  and  become  desirous  of  working  a  reformation 
there  also. 

It  is  quite  true  that  the  advance  of  humanity  is  slow,  and  that 
it  often  pauses  and  retrogrades.  In  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  we 
do  not  see  despotisms  retiring  and  yielding  the  ground  to  self-gov- 
erning communities.  We  do  not  see  the  churches  and  priesthoods 
of  Christendom  relinquishing  their  old  task  of  governing  men  by 
imaginary  terrors.  Nowhere  do  we  see  a  populace  that  could  be 
safely  manumitted  from  such  a  government.  We  do  not  see  the 
great  religious  teachers  aiming  to  discover  truth  for  themselves 
and  for  others ;  but  still  ruling  the  world,  and  contented  and  com- 
pelled to  rule  the  world,  by  whatever  dogma  is  already  accredited ; 
themselves  as  much  bound  down  by  this  necessity  to  govern,  as 
the  populace  by  their  need  of  government.  Poverty  in  all  its 
most  hideous  forms  still  exists  in  the  great  cities ;  and  the  cancer 
of  pauperism  has  its  roots  in  the  hearts  of  kingdoms.  Men  there 
take  no  measure  of  their  wants  and  their  own  power  to  supply 
them,  but  live  and  multiply  like  the  beasts  of  the  field, — Providence 
having  apparently  ceased  to  care  for  them.  Intelligence  never 
visits  these,  or  it  makes  its  appearance  as  some  new  development 
of  villainy.  War  has  not  ceased ;  still  there  are  battles  and 
sieges.  Homes  are  still  unhappy,  and  tears  and  anger  and  spite 
make  hells  where  there  should  be  heavens.  So  much  the  more 
necessity  for  Masonry  !  So  much  wider  the  field  of  its  labors !  So 
much  the  more  need  for  it  to  begin  to  be  true  to  itself,  to  revive 
from  its  asphyxia,  to  repent  of  its  apostacy  to  its  true  creed  ! 

Undoubtedly,  labor  and  death  and  the  sexual  passion  are  essen- 
tial and  permanent  conditions  of  human  existence,  and  render 
perfection  and  a  millenium  on  e?.rth  impossible.  Always, — it  is  the 
decree  of  Fate ! — the  vast  majority  of  men  must  toil  to  live,  and 
cannot  find  time  to  cultivate  the  intelligence.  Man,  knowing  he 
is  to  die,  will  not  sacrifice  the  present  enjoyment  for  a  greater  one 
in  the  future.  The  love  of  woman  cannot  die  out;  and  it  has  a 


94  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

terrible  and  uncontrollable  fate,  increased  by  the  refinements  of 
civilization.  Woman  is  the  veritable  syren  or  goddess  of  the 
young.  But  society  can  be  improved ;  and  free  government  is 
possible  for  States ;  and  freedom  of  thought  and  conscience  is  no 
longer  wholly  Utopian.  Already  we  see  that  Emperors  prefer  to  be 
elected  by  universal  suffrage  ;  that  States  are  conveyed  to  Empires 
by  vote;  and  that  Empires  are  administered  with  something  of  the 
spirit  of  a  Republic,  being  little  else  than  democracies  with  a  single 
head,  ruling  through  one  man,  one  representative,  instead  of  an 
assembly  of  representatives.  And  if  Priesthoods  still  govern,  they 
now  come  before  the  laity  to  prove, by  stress  of  argument, that  they 
ought  to  govern.  They  are  obliged  to  evoke  the  very  reason  which 
they  are  bent  on  supplanting. 

Accordingly,  men  become  daily  more  free,  because  the  freedom 
of  the  man  lies  in  his  reason.  He  can  reflect  upon  his  own  future 
conduct,  and  summon  up  its  consequences ;  he  can  take  wide  views 
of  human  life,  and  lay  down  rules  for  constant  guidance.  Thus 
he  is  relieved  of  the  tyranny  of  sense  and  passion,  and  enabled  at 
any  time  to  live  according  to  the  whole  light  of  the  knowledge 
that  is  within  him,  instead  of  being  driven,  like  a  dry  leaf  on  the 
wings  of  the  wind,  by  every  present  impulse.  Herein  lies  the  free- 
dom of  the  man  as  regarded  in  connection  with  the  necessity  im- 
posed by  the  omnipotence  and  fore-knowledge  of  God.  So  much 
light,  so  much  liberty.  When  emperor  and  church  appeal  to  rea- 
son there  is  naturally  universal  suffrage. 

Therefore  no  one  need  lose  courage,  nor  believe  that  labor  in  the 
cause  of  Progress  will  be  labor  wasted.  There  is  no  waste  in  na- 
ture, either  of  Matter,  Force,  Act,  or  Thought.  A  Thought  is  as 
much  the  end  of  life  as  an  Action  ;  and  a  single  Thought  sometimes 
works  greater  results  than  a  Revolution,  even  Revolutions  them- 
selves. Still  there  should  not  be  divorce  between  Thought  and 
Action.  The  true  Thought  is  that  in  which  life  culminates.  But 
all  wise  and  true  Thought  produces  Action.  It  is  generative,  like 
the  light ;  and  light  and  the  deep  shadow  of  the  passing  cloud  are 
the  gifts  of  the  prophets  of  the  race.  Knowledge,  laboriously 
acquired,  and  inducing  habits  of  sound  Thought, — the  reflective 
character, — must  necessarily  be  rare.  The  multitude  of  laborers 
cannot  acquire  it.  Most  men  attain  to  a  very  low  standard  of  it. 
It  is  incompatible  with  the  ordinary  and  indispensable  avocations 
of  life.  A  whole  world  of  error  as  well  as  of  labor,  go  to  make 


THE    MASTER.  95 

one  reflective  man.  In  the  most  advanced  nation  of  Europe  there 
are  more  ignorant  than  wise,  more  poor  than  rich,  more  automatic 
laborers,  the  mere  creatures  of  habit,  than  reasoning  and  reflective 
men.  The  proportion  is  at  least  a  thousand  to  one.  Unanimity 
of  opinion  is  so  obtained.  It  only  exists  among  the  multitude 
who  do  not  think,  and  the  political  or  spiritual  priesthood  who 
think  for  that  multitude,  who  think  how  to  guide  and  govern 
them.  When  men  begin  to  reflect,  they  begin  to  differ.  The 
great  problem  is  to  find  guides  who  will  not  seek  to  be  tyrants. 
This  is  needed  even  more  in  respect  to  the  heart  than  the  head. 
Now,  every  man  earns  his  special  share  of  the  produce  of  human 
labor,  by  an  incessant  scramble,  by  trickery  and  deceit.  Useful 
knowledge,  honorably  acquired,  is  too  often  used  after  a  fashion 
not  honest  or  reasonable,  so  that  the  studies  of  youth  are  far  more 
noble  than  the  practices  of  manhood.  The  labor  of  the  farmer  in 
his  fields,  the  generous  returns  of  the  earth,  the  benignant  and 
favoring  skies,  tend  to  make  him  earnest,  provident,  and  grateful ; 
the  education  of  the  market-place  makes  him  querulous,  crafty, 
envious,  and  an  intolerable  niggard. 

Masonry  seeks  to  be  this  beneficent,  unambitious,  disinterested 
guide ;  and  it  is  the  very  condition  of  all  great  structures  that  the 
sound  of  the  hammer  and  the  clink  of  the  trowel  should  be  always 
heard  in  some  part  of  the  building.  With  faith  in  man,  hope  for 
the  future  of  humanity,  loving-kindness  for  our  fellows,  Masonry 
and  the  Mason  must  always  work  and  teach.  Let  each  do  that  for 
which  he  is  best  fitted.  The  teacher  also  is  a  workman.  Praise- 
worthy as  the  active  navigator  is,  who  comes  and  goes  and  makes 
one  clime  partake  of  the  treasures  of  the  other,  and  one  to  share 
the  treasures  of  all,  he  who  keeps  the  beacon-light  upon  the  hill  is 
also  at  his  post. 

Masonry  has  already  helped  cast  down  some  idols  from  their 
pedestals,  and  grind  to  impalpable  dust  some  of  the  links  of  the 
chains  that  held  men's  souls  in  bondage.  That  there  has  been 
progress  needs  no  other  demonstration  than  that  you  may  now 
reason  with  men,  and  urge  upon  them,  without  danger  of  the 
rack  or  stake,  that  no  doctrines  can  be  apprehended  as  truths 
if  they  contradict  each  other,  or  contradict  other  truths  given  us 
by  God.  Long  before  the  Reformation,  a  monk,  who  had  found 
his  way  to  heresy  without  the  help  of  Martin  Luther,  not  ventur- 
ing to  breathe  aloud  into  any  living  ear  his  anti-papal  and  trea- 


96  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

sonable  doctrines,  wrote  them  on  parchment,  and  sealing  up  the 
perilous  record,  hid  it  in  the  massive  walls  of  his  monastery. 
There  was  no  friend  or  brother  to  whom  he  could  intrust  his 
secret  or  pour  forth  his  soul.  It  was  some  consolation  to  imagine 
that  in  a  future  age  some  one  might  find  the  parchment,  and  the 
seed  be  found  not  to  have  been  sown  in  vain.  What  if  the  truth 
should  have  to  lie  dormant  as  long  before  germinating  as  the  wheat 
in  the  Egyptian  mummy  ?  Speak  it,  nevertheless,  again  and  again, 
and  let  it  take  its  chance ! 

The  rose  of  Jericho  grows  in  the  sandy  deserts  of  Arabia  and 
on  the  Syrian  housetops.  Scarcely  six  inches  high,  it  loses  its 
leaves  after  the  flowering  season,  and  dries  up  into  the  form  of  a 
ball.  Then  it  is  uprooted  by  the  winds,  and  carried,  blown,  or 
tossed  across  the  desert,  into  the  sera.  There,  feeling  the  contact 
of  the  water,  it  unfolds  itself,  expands  its  branches,  and  expels  its 
seeds  from  their  seed-vessels.  These,  when  saturated  with  water, 
are  carried  by  the  tide  and  laid  on  the  sea-shore.  Many  are  lost, 
as  many  individual  lives  of  men  are  useless.  But  many  are  thrown 
back  again  from  the  sea-shore  into  the  desert,  where,  by  the 
virtue  of  the  sea-water  that  they  have  imbibed,  the  roots  and 
leaves  sprout  and  they  grow  into  fruitful  plants,  which  will,  in 
their  turns,  like  their  ancestors,  be  whirled  into  the  sea.  God  will 
not  be  less  careful  to  provide  for  the  germination  of  the  truths 
you  may  boldly  utter  forth.  "Cast,"  He  has  said,  "thy  bread  upon 
the  waters,  and  after  many  days  it  shall  return  to  thee  again." 

Initiation  does  not  change :  we  find  it  again  and  again,  and 
always  the  same,  through  all  the  ages.  The  last  disciples  of  Pas- 
calis  Martinez  are  still  the  children  of  Orpheus ;  but  they  adore 
the  realizer  of  the  antique  philosophy,  the  Incarnate  Word  of  the 
Christians. 

Pythagoras,  the  great  divulger  of  the  philosophy  of  numbers, 
visited  all  the  sanctuaries  of  the  world.  He  went  into  Judaea, 
where  he  procured  himself  to  be  circumcised,  that  he  might  be 
admitted  to  the  secrets  of  the  Kabalah,  which  the  prophets  Ezekiel 
and  Daniel,  not  without  some  reservations,  communicated  to  him. 
Thf1  ;,  not  without  some  difficulty,  he  succeeded  in  being  admitted 
to  the  Egyptian  initiation,  upon  the  recommendation  of  King 
Amasis.  The  power  of  his  genius  supplied  the  deficiencies  of  the 
imperfect  communications  of  the  Hierophants.  and  he  himself 
became  a  Master  and  a  Revealer. 


THE  MASTER.  97 

Pythagoras  defined  God :  a  Living  and  Absolute  Verity  clothed 
with  Light. 

He  said  that  the  Word  was  Number  manifested  by  Form. 

He  made  all  descend  from  the  Tetractys,  that  is  to  say,  from  the 
Quaternary. 

God,  he  said  again,  is  the  Supreme  Music,  the  nature  of  which 
is  Harmony. 

Pythagoras  gave  the  magistrates  of  Crotona  this  great  religious, 
political,  and  social  precept : 

"There  is  no  evil  that  is  not  preferable  to  Anarchy." 

Pythagoras  said,  "Even  as  there  are  three  divine  notions  and 
three  intelligible  regions,  so  there  is  a  triple  word,  for  the  Hierar- 
chical Order  always  manifests  itself  by  threes.  There  are  the 
word  simple,  the  word  hieroglyphical,  and  the  word  symbolic:  in 
other  terms,  there  are  the  word  that  expresses,  the  word  that  con- 
ceals, and  the  word  that  signifies;  the  whole  hieratic  intelligence 
is  in  the  perfect  knowledge  of  these  three  degrees." 

Pythagoras  enveloped  doctrine  with  symbols,  but  carefully 
eschewed  personifications  and  images,  which,  he  thought,  sooner 
or  later  produced  idolatry. 

The  Holy  Kabalah,  or  tradition  of  the  children  of  Seth,  was  car- 
ried from  Chaldsea  by  Abraham,  taught  to  the  Egyptian  priesthood 
by  Joseph,  recovered  and  purified  by  Moses,  concealed  under  sym- 
bols in  the  Bible,  revealed  by  the  Saviour  to  Saint  John,  and  con- 
tained, entire,  under  hieratic  figures  analogous  to  those  of  all 
antiquity,  in  the  Apocalypse  of  that  Apostle. 

The  Kabalists  consider  God  as  the  Intelligent,  Animating,  Living 
Infinite.  He  is  not,  for  them,  either  the  aggregate  of  existences, 
or  existence  in  the  abstract,  or  a  being  philosophically  definable. 
He  is  in  all,  distinct  from  all,  and  greater  than  all.  His  name 
even  is  ineffable ;  and  yet  this  name  only  expresses  the  human 
ideal  of  His  divinity.  What  God  is  in  Himself,  it  is  not  given  to 
man  to  comprehend. 

God  is  the  absolute  of  Faith ;  but  the  absolute  of  Reason  is 
BEING,  m!"P.  "/  am  that  I  am"  is  a  wretched  translation. 

Being,  Existence,  is  by  itself,  and  because  it  Is.  The  reason 
of  Being,  is  Being  itself.  We  may  inquire.  "Why  does  some- 
thing exist?"  that  is,  "Why  does  such  or  such  a  thing  exist?" 
But  we  cannot,  without  being  absurd,  ask.  "Why  Is  Being?" 
That  would  be  to  suppose  Being  before  Being.  If  Being  had  a 


98  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

cause,  that  cause  would  necessarily  Be;  that  is,  the  cause  and 
effect  would  be  identical. 

Reason  and  science  demonstrate  to  us  that  the  modes  of  Exist- 
ence and  Being  balance  each  other  in  equilibrium  according  to 
harmonious  and  hierarchic  laws.  But  a  hierarchy  is  synthetized, 
in  ascending,  and  becomes  ever  more  and  more  monarchical.  Yet 
the  reason  cannot  pause  at  a  single  chief,  without  being  alarmed 
at  the  abysses  which  it  seems  to  leave  above  this  Supreme  Mon- 
arch. Therefore  it  is  silent,  and  gives  place  to  the  Faith  it  adores. 

What  is  certain,  even  for  science  and  the  reason,  is,  that  the 
idea  of  God  is  the  grandest,  the  most  holy,  and  the  most  useful  of 
all  the  aspirations  of  man ;  that  upon  this  belief  morality  reposes, 
with  its  eternal  sanction.  This  belief,  then,  is  in  humanity,  the 
most  real  of  the  phenomena  of  being ;  and  if  it  were  false,  nature 
would  affirm  the  absurd ;  nothingness  would  give  form  to  life,  and 
God  would  at  the  same  time  be  and  not  be. 

It  is  to  this  philosophic  and  incontestable  reality,  which  is 
termed  The  Idea  of  God,  that  the  Kabalists  give  a  name.  In 
this  name  all  others  are  contained.  Its  cyphers  contain  all  the 
numbers ;  and  the  hieroglyphics  of  its  letters  express  all  the  laws 
and  all  the  things  of  nature. 

BEING  is  BEING:  the  reason  of  Being  is  in  Being:  in  the  Be- 
ginning is  the  Word,  and  the  Word  in  logic  formulated  Speech, 
the  spoken  Reason  ;  theWord  is  in  God,  and  is  God  Himself,  mani- 
fested to  the  Intelligence.  Here  is  what  is  above  all  the  philoso- 
phies. This  we  must  believe,  under  the  penalty  of  never  truly 
knowing  anything,  and  relapsing  into  the  absurd  skepticism  of 
Pyrrho.  The  Priesthood,  custodian  of  Faith,  wholly  rests  upon 
this  basis  of  knowledge,  and  it  is  in  its  teachings  we  must  recog- 
nize the  Divine  Principle  of  the  Eternal  Word. 

Light  is  not  Spirit,  as  the  Indian  Hierophants  believed  it  to  be ; 
but  only  the  instrument  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  not  the  body  of  the 
Protoplastes,  as  the  Theurgists  of  the  school  of  Alexandria  taught, 
but  the  first  physical  manifestation  of  the  Divine  afflatus.  God 
eternally  creates  it,  and  man,  in  the  image  of  God,  modifies  and 
seems  to  multiply  it. 

The  high  magic  is  styled  "The  Sacerdotal  Art,"  and  "The 
Royal  Art."  In  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome,  it  could  not  but  share 
the  greatnesses  and  decadences  of  the  Priesthood  and  of  Royalty. 
Every  philosophy  hostile  to  the  national  worship  and  to  its  myste- 


THE    MASTER.  99 

ries,  was  of  necessity  hostile  to  the  great  political  powers,  which 
lose  their  grandeur,  if  they  cease,  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitudes,  to 
be  the  images  of  the  Divine  Power.  Every  Crown  is  shattered, 
when  it  clashes  against  the  Tiara. 

Plato,  writing  to  Dionysius  the  Younger,  in  regard  to  the  nature 
of  the  First  Principle,  says :  "I  must  write  to  you  in  enigmas,  so 
that  if  my  letter  be  intercepted  by  land  or  sea,  he  who  shall  read 
it  may  in  no  degree  comprehend  it."  And  then  he  says,  "All 
things  surround  their  King;  they  are,  on  account  of  Him,  and  He 
alone  is  the  cause  of  good  things,  Second  for  the  Seconds  and 
Third  for  the  Thirds." 

There  is  in  these  few  words  a  complete  summary  of  the  The- 
ology of  the  Sephiroth.  "The  King"  is  AINSOPH,  Being  Supreme 
and  Absolute.  From  this  centre,  which  is  everywhere,  all  things 
ray  forth ;  but  we  especially  conceive  of  it  in  three  manners  and 
in  three  different  spheres.  In  the  Divine  world  (AZILUTH), which 
is  that  of  the  First  Cause,  and  wherein  the  whole  Eternity  of 
Things  in  the  beginning  existed  as  Unity,  to  be  afterward,  during 
Eternity  uttered  forth,  clothed  with  form,  and  the  attributes  that 
constitute  them  matter,  the  First  Principle  is  Single  and  First, 
and  yet  not  the  VERY  Illimitable'Deity,  incomprehensible,  undefin- 
able  ;  but  Himself  in  so  far  as  manifested  by  the  Creative  Thought. 
To  compare  littleness  with  infinity, — Arkwright,  as  inventor  of  the 
spinning-jenny,  and  not  the  man  Arkwright  otherwise  and  beyond 
that.  All  we  can  know  of  the  Very  God  is,  compared  to  His 
Wholeness,  only  as  an  infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  unit,  compared 
with  an  infinity  of  Units. 

In  the  World  of  Creation,  which  is  that  of  Second  Causes  [the 
Kabalistic  World  BRiAH],the  Autocracy  of  the  First  Principle  is 
complete,  but  we  conceive  of  it  only  as  the  Cause  of  the  Second 
Causes.  Here  it  is  manifested  by  the  Binary,  and  is  the  Creative 
Principle  passive.  Finally:  in  the  third  world,  YEZIRAH,  or  of 
Formation,  it  is  revealed  in  the  perfect  Form,  the  Form  of  Forms, 
the  World,  the  Supreme  Beauty  and  Excellence,  the  Created  Per- 
fection. Thus  the  Principle  is  at  once  the  First,  the  Second,  and 
the  Third,  since  it  is  All  in  All,  the  Centre  and  Cause  of  all.  It 
is  not  the  genius  of  Plato  that  we  here  admire.  We  recognize  only 
the  exact  knowledge  of  the  Initiate. 

The  great  Apostle  Saint  John  did  not  borrow  from  the  philoso- 
phy of  Plato  the  opening  of  his  Gospel.  Plato,  on  the  contrary, 


tO6  MOfeALS    AND   DOGMA. 

drank  at  the  same  springs  with  Saint  John  and  Philo;  and  John 
in  the  opening  verses  of  his  paraphrase,  states  the  first  principles 
of  a  dogma  common  to  many  schools,  but  in  language  especially 
belonging  to  Philo,  whom  it  is  evident  he  had  read.  The  philoso- 
phy of  Plato,  the  greatest  of  human  Revealers,  could  yearn  toivard 
the  Word  made  man ;  the  Gospel  alone  could  give  him  to  the  world. 

Doubt,  in  presence  of  Being  and  its  harmonies ;  skepticism,  in 
the  face  of  the  eternal  mathematics  and  the  immutable  laws  of 
Life  which  make  the  Divinity  present  and  visible  everywhere,  as 
the  Human  is  known  and  visible  by  its  utterances  of  word  and 
act, — is  this  not  the  most  foolish  of  superstitions,  and  the  most 
inexcusable  as  well  as  the  most  dangerous  of  all  credulities? 
Thought,  we  know,  is  not  a  result  or  consequence  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  matter,  of  the  chemical  or  other  action  or  reaction  of  its 
particles,  like  effervescence  and  gaseous  explosions.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  fact  that  Thought  is  manifested  and  realized  in  act 
human  or  act  divine,  proves  the  existence  of  an  Entity,  or  Unity, 
that  thinks.  And  the  Universe  is  the  Infinite  Utterance  of  one  of 
an  infinite  number  of  Infinite  Thoughts,  which  cannot  but  ema- 
nate from  an  Infinite  and  Thinking  Source.  The  cause  is  always 
equal,  at  least,  to  the  effect ;  and  matter  cannot  think,  nor  could  it 
cause  itself,  or  exist  without  cause,  nor  could  nothing  produce 
either  forces  or  things ;  for  in  void  nothingness  no  Forces  can 
inhere.  Admit  a  self-existent  Force,  and  its  Intelligence,  or  an 
Intelligent  cause  of  it  is  admitted,  and  at  once  GOD  Is. 

The  Hebrew  allegory  of  the  Fall  of  Man,  which  is  but  a  special 
variation  of  a  universal  legend,  symbolizes  one  of  the  grandest 
and  most  universal  allegories  of  science. 

Moral  Evil  is  Falsehood  in  actions ;  as  Falsehood  is  Crime  in 
words. 

Injustice  is  the  essence  of  Falsehood;  and  every  false  word  is 
an  injustice. 

Injustice  is  the  death  of  the  Moral  Being,  as  Falsehood  is  the 
poison  of  the  Intelligence. 

The  perception  of  the  Light  is  the  dawn  of  the  Eternal  Life,  in 
Being.  The  Word  of  God,  which  creates  the  Light,  seems  to  be 
uttered  by  every  Intelligence  that  can  take  cognizance  of  Forms 
and  will  look.  "Let  the  Light  BE!  The  Light,  in  fact,  exists,  in 
its  condition  of  splendor,  for  those  eyes  alone  that  gaze  at  it ;  and 
the  Soul,  amorous  of  the  spectacle  of  the  beauties  of  the  L~niverse, 


THE   MASTER.  IQt 

and  applying  its  attention  to  that  luminous  writing  of  the  Infinite 
Book,  which  is  called  "The  Visible,"  seems  to  utter,  as  God  did  on 
the  dawn  of  the  first  day,  that  sublime  and  creative  word,  "Bel 
LIGHT!" 

It  is  not  beyond  the  tomb,  but  in  life  itself,  that  we  are  to  seek 
for  the  mysteries  of  death.  Salvation  or  reprobation  begins  here 
below,  and  the  terrestrial  world  too  has  its  Heaven  and  its  Hell. 
Always,  even  here  below,  virtue  is  rewarded ;  always,  even  here  be- 
low, vice  is  punished ;  and  that  which  makes  us  sometimes  believe 
in  the  impunity  of  evil-doers  is  that  riches,  those  instruments  of 
good  and  of  evil,  seem  sometimes  to  be  given  them  at  hazard.  But 
woe  to  unjust  men,  when  they  possess  the  key  of  gold !  It  opens, 
for  them,  only  the  gate  of  the  tomb  and  of  Hell. 

All  the  true  Initiates  have  recognized  the  usefulness  of  toil  and 
sorrow.  "Sorrow,"  says  a  German  poet,  "is  the  dog  of  that  un- 
known shepherd  who  guides  the  flock  of  men."  To  learn  to  suffer, 
to  learn  to  die,  is  the  discipline  of  Eternity,  the  immortal  Novi- 
tiate. 

The  allegorical  picture  of  Cebes,  in  which  the  Divine  Comedy 
of  Dante  was  sketched  in  Plato's  time,  the  description  whereof  has 
been  preserved  for  us,  and  which  many  painters  of  the  middle  age 
have  reproduced  by  this  description,  is  a  monument  at  once  philo- 
sophical and  magical.  It  is  a  most  complete  moral  synthesis,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  most  audacious  demonstration  ever  given  of 
the  Grand  Arcanum,  of  that  secret  whose  revelation  would  overturn 
Earth  and  Heaven.  Let  no  one  expect  us  to  give  them  its  expla- 
nation !  He  who  passes  behind  the  veil  that  hides  this  mystery, 
understands  that  it  is  in  its  very  nature  inexplicable,  and  that  it 
is  death  to  those  who  win  it  by  surprise,  as  well  as  to  him  who 
reveals  it. 

This  secret  is  the  Royalty  of  the  Sages,  the  Crown  of  the  Initi- 
ate whom  we  see  redescend  victorious  from  the  summit  of  Trials, 
in  the  fine  allegory  of  Cebes.  The  Grand  Arcanum  makes  him 
master  of  gold  and  the  light,  which  are  at  bottom  the  same  thing, 
he  has  solved  the  problem  of  the  quadrature  of  the  circle,  he  di- 
rects the  perpetual  movement,  and  he  possesses  the  philosophical 
stone.  Here  the  Adepts  will  understand  us.  There  is  neither  in- 
terruption in  the  toil  of  nature,  nor  gap  in  her  work.  The  Har- 
monies of  Heaven  correspond  to  those  of  Earth,  and  the  Eternal 
Life  accomplishes  its  evolutions  in  accordance  with  the  same  laws 


IO2  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

as  the  life  of  a  dog.  "God  has  arranged  all  things  by  weight,  num- 
ber, and  measure,"  says  the  Bible  ;  and  tb:s  luminous  doctrine  was 
also  that  of  Plato. 

Humanity  has  never  really  had  but  one  religion  and  one  wor- 
ship. This  universal  light  has  had  its  uncertain  mirages,  its  de- 
ceitful reflections,  and  its  shadows ;  but  always,  after  the  nights  of 
Error,  we  see  it  reappear,  one  and  pure  like  the  Sun. 

The  magnificences  of  worship  are  the  life  of  religion,  and  if 
Christ  wishes  poor  ministers,  His  Sovereign  Divinity  does  not  wish 
paltry  altars.  Some  Protestants  have  not  comprehended  that  wor- 
ship is  a  teaching,  and  that  we  must  not  create  in  the  imagination 
of  the  multitude  a  mean  or  miserable  God.  Those  oratories  that 
resemble  poorly-furnished  offices  or  inns,  and  those  worthy  minis- 
ters clad  like  notaries  or  lawyer's  clerks,  do  they  not  necessarily 
cause  religion  to  be  regarded  as  a  mere  puritanic  formality,  and 
God  as  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  ? 

We  scoff  at  the  Augurs.  It  is  so  easy  to  scoff,  and  so  difficult 
well  to  comprehend.  Did  the  Deity  leave  the  whole  world  with- 
out Light  for  two  score  centuries,  to  illuminate  only  a  little  corner 
of  Palestine  and  a  brutal,  ignorant,  and  ungrateful  people?  Why 
always  calumniate  God  and  the  Sanctuary?  Were  there  never  any 
others  than  rogues  among  the  priests?  Could  no  honest  and  sin- 
cere men  be  found  among  the  Hierophants  of  Ceres  or  Diana,  of 
Dionusos  or  Apollo,  of  Hermes  or  Mithras  ?  Were  these,  then,  all 
deceived,  like  the  rest?  Who,  then,  constantly  deceived  them, 
without  betraying  themselves,  during  a  series  of  centuries? — for 
the  cheats  are  not  immortal !  Arago  said,  that  outside  of  the  pure 
mathematics,  he  who  utters  the  word  "impossible,"  is  wanting  in 
prudence  and  good  sense. 

The  true  name  of  Satan,  the  Kabalists  say,  is  that  of  Yahveh 
reversed ;  for  Satan  is  not  a  black  god,  but  the  negation  of  God. 
The  Devil  is  the  personification  of  Atheism  or  Idolatry. 

For  the  Initiates,  this  is  not  a  Person,  but  a  Force,  created  for 
good,  but  which  may  serve  for  evil.  It  is  the  instrument  of  Liberty 
or  Free  Will.  They  represent  this  Force,  which  presides  over  the 
physical  generation,  under  the  mythologic  and  horned  form  of  the 
God  PAN  ;  thence  came  the  he-goat  of  the  Sabbat,  brother  of  the 
Ancient  Serpent,  and  the  Light-bearer  or  Phosphor,  of  which  the 
poets  have  made  the  false  Lucifer  of  the  legend. 

Gold,  to  the  eyes  of  the  Initiates,  is  Light  condensed.     They 


THE  MASTER.  1 03 

style  the  sacred  numbers  of  the  Kabalah  "golden  numbers,"  and 
the  moral  teachings  of  Pythagoras  his  "golden  verses."  For  the 
same  reason,  a  mysterious  book  of  Apuleius,in  which  an  ass  figures 
largely,  was  called  "The  Golden  Ass." 

The  Pagans  accused  the  Christians  of  worshipping  an  ass,  and 
they  did  not  invent  this  reproach,  but  it  came  from  the  Samaritan 
Jews,  who,  figuring  the  data  of  the  Kabalah  in  regard  to  the  Di- 
vinity by  Egyptian  symbols,  also  represented  the  Intelligence  by 
the  figure  of  the  Magical  Star  adored  under  the  name  of  Rem- 
phan,  Science  under  the  emblem  of  Anubis,  whose  name  they 
changed  to  Nibbas,  and  the  vulgar  faith  or  credulity  under  the 
figure  of  Thartac,  a  god  represented  with  a  book,  a  cloak,  and  the 
head  of  an  ass.  According  to  the  Samaritan  Doctors,  Christianity 
was  the  reign  of  Thartac,  blind  Faith  and  vulgar  credulity  erected 
into  a  universal  oracle,  and  preferred  to  Intelligence  and  Science. 

Synesius,  Bishop  of  Ptolemais,  a  great  Kabalist,  but  of  doubt- 
ful orthodoxy,  wrote : 

"The  people  will  always  mock  at  things  easy  to  be  understood ; 
it  must  needs  have  impostures." 

"A  Spirit,"  he  said,  "that  loves  wisdom  and  contemplates  the 
Truth  close  at  hand,  is  forced  to  disguise  it,  to  induce  the  multi- 
tudes to  accept  it Fictions  are  necessary  to  the  people,  and 

the  Truth  becomes  deadly  to  those  who  are  not  strong  enough  to 
contemplate  it  in  all  its  brilliance.  If  the  sacerdotal  laws  allowed 
the  reservation  of  judgments  and  the  allegory  of  words,  I  would 
accept  the  proposed  dignity  on  condition  that  I  might  be  a  philoso- 
pher at  home,  and  abroad  a  narrator  of  apologues  and  parables.  .  .  . 
In  fact,  what  can  there  be  in  common  between  the  vile  multitude 
and  sublime  wisdom  ?  The  truth  must  be  kept  secret,  and  the 
masses  need  a  teaching  proportioned  to  their  imperfect  reason." 

Moral  disorders  produce  physical  ugliness,  and  in  some  sort 
realize  those  frightful  faces  which  tradition  assigns  to  the  demon's. 

The  first  Druids  were  the  true  children  of  the  Magi,  and  their 
initiation  came  from  Egypt  and  Chaldaea,  that  is  to  say,  from  the 
pure  sources  of  the  primitive  Kabalah.  They  adored  the  Trinity 
under  the  names  of  Isis  or  Hesus,  the  Supreme  Harmony ;  of 
Belen  or  Bel,  which  in  Assyrian  means  Lord,  a  name  correspond- 
ing to  that  of  ADOXAI  ;  and  of  Catnul  or  Camacl,  a  name  that  in 
the  Kabalah  personifies  the  Divine  Justice.  Below  this  triangle  of 
Light  they  supposed  a  divine  reflection,  also  composed  of  three  per- 


IO4  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

sonified  rays :  first,  Teutates  or  Tenth,  the  same  as  the  Thnth  of 
the  Egyptians,  the  Word,  or  the  Intelligence  formulated;  then 
Force  and  Beauty,  whose  names  varied  like  their  emblems. 
Finally,  they  completed  the  sacred  Septenary  by  a  mysterious 
image  that  represented  the  progress  of  the  dogma  and  its  future 
realizations.  This  was  a  young  girl  veiled,  holding  a  child  in  her 
arms ;  and  they  dedicated  this  image  to  "The  Virgin  who  will 
become  a  mother ; — Virgini  paritura." 

Hertha  or  Wertha,  the  young  Isis  of  Gaul,  Queen  of  Heaven,  the 
Virgin  who  was  to  bear  a  child,  held  the  spindle  of  the  Fates,  filled 
with  wool  half  white  and  half  black;  because  she  presides  over 
all  forms  and  all  symbols,  and  weaves  the  garment  of  the  Ideas. 

One  of  the  most  mysterious  pantacles  of  the  Kabalah,  contained 
in  the  Enchiridion  of  Leo  III.,  represents  an  equilateral  triangle 
reversed,  inscribed  in  a  double  circle.  On  the  triangle  are  writ- 
ten, in  such  manner  as  to  form  the  prophetic  Tau,  the  two  Hebrew 
words  so  often  found  appended  to  the  Ineffable  Name,  en^K  and 
mfcOX,  ALOHAYIM,  or  the  Powers,  and  TSABAOTH,  or  the  Starry 
Armies  and  their  guiding  spirits ;  words  also  which  symbolize  the 
Equilibrium  of  the  Forces  of  Nature  and  the  Harmony  of  Num- 
bers. To  the  three  sides  of  the  triangle  belong  the  three  great 
Names  mrP,  TTK,  and  K^K,  IAHAVEIJ,  ADONAI,  and  AGLA, 
Above  the  first  is  written  in  Latin,  Formatio,  above  the  second 
Reformatio,  and  above  the  third,  Transformatio.  So  Creation  is 
ascribed  to  the  FATHER,  Redemption  or  Reformation  to  the  SON^ 
and  Sanctification  or  Transformation  to  the  HOLY  SPIRIT,  answer- 
ing unto  the  mathematical  laws  of  Action,  Reaction,  and  Equilib- 
rium. IAHAVEH  is  also,  in  effect,  the  Genesis  or  Formation  of 
dogma,  by  the  elementary  signification  of  the  four  letters  of  the 
Sacred  Tetragram  ;  ADONAI  is  the  realization  of  this  dogma  in  the 
Human  Form,  in  the  Visible  LORD,  who  is  the  Son  of  God  or  the 
perfect  Man;  and  AGLA  (formed  of  the  initials  of  the  four  words 
Ath  Gebur  Lauldim  Adonai}  expresses  the  synthesis  of  the  whole 
dogma  and  the  totality  of  the  Kabalistic  science,  clearly  indicat- 
ing by  the  hieroglyphics  of  which  this  admirable  name  is  formed 
the  Triple  Secret  of  the  Great  Work. 

Masonry,  like  all  the  Religions,  all  the  Mysteries,  Hermeticism 
and  Alchemy,  conceals  its  secrets  from  all  except  the  Adepts  and 
Sages,  or  the  Elect,  and  uses  false  explanation ;  and  misinterpreta- 
tions of  its  symbols  to  mislead  those  who  deserve  only  to  be  mis- 


THE    MASTER.  IO5 

led ;  it)  conceal  the  Truth,  which  it  calls  Light,  from  them,  and  to 
draw  them  away  from  it.  Truth  is  not  for  those  who  are  unworthy 
or  unable  to  receive  it,  or  would  pervert  it.  So  God  Himself  inca- 
pacitates many  men,  by  color-blindness,  to  distinguish  colors,  and 
leads  the  masses  away  from  the  highest  Truth,  giving  them  the 
power  to  attain  only  so  much  of  it  as  it  is  profitable  to  them  to 
know.  Every  age  has  had  a  religion  suited  to  its  capacity. 

The  Teachers,  even  of  Christianity,  are,  in  general,  the  most 
ignorant  of  the  true  meaning  of  that  which  they  teach.  There  is 
no  book  of  which  so  little  is  known  as  the  Bible.  To  most  who 
read  it,  it  is  as  incomprehensible  as  the  Sohar. 

So  Masonry  jealously  conceals  its  secrets,  and  intentionally  leads 
conceited  interpreters  astray.  There  is  no  sight  under  the  sun 
more  pitiful  and  ludicrous  at  once,  than  the  spectacle  of  the  Pres- 
tons  and  the  Webbs,  not  to  mention  the  later  incarnations  of  Dull- 
ness and  Commonplace,  undertaking  to  "explain"  the  old  symbols 
of  Masonry,  and  adding  to  and  "improving"  them,  or  inventing 
new  ones. 

To  the  Circle  inclosing  the  central  point,  and  itself  traced  be- 
tween two  parallel  lines,  a  figure  purely  Kabalistic,  these  persons 
have  added  the  superimposed  Bible,  and  even  reared  on  that  the 
ladder  with  three  or  nine  rounds,  and  then  given  a  vapid  inter- 
pretation of  the  whole,  so  profoundly  absurd  as  actually  to  excite 
admiration. 
8 


IV. 
SECRET    MASTER. 

MASONRY  is  a  succession  of  allegories,  the  mere  vehicles  of  great 
lessons  in  morality  and  philosophy.  You  will  more  fully  appreciate 
its  spirit,  its  object,  its  purposes,  as  you  advance  in  the  different 
Degrees,  which  you  will  find  to  constitute  a  great,  complete,  and 
harmonious  system. 

If  you  have  been  disappointed  in  the  first  three  Degrees,  as  you 
have  received  them,  and  if  it  has  seemed  to  you  that  the  performance 
has  not  come  up  to  the  promise,  that  the  lessons  of  morality  are 
not  new,  and  the  scientific  instruction  is  but  rudimentary,  and  the 
symbols  are  imperfectly  explained,  remember  that  the  ceremonies 
and  lessons  of  those  Degrees  have  been  for  ages  more  and  more 
accommodating  themselves,  by  curtailment  and  sinking  into  com- 
monplace, to  the  often  limited  memory  and  capacity  of  the  Master 
and  Instructor,  and  to  the  intellect  and  needs  of  the  Pupil  and 
Initiate ;  that  they  have  come  to  us  from  an  age  when  symbols 
were  used,  not  to  reveal  but  to  conceal;  when  the  commonest  learn- 
ing was  confined  to  a  select  fe\v,  and  the  simplest  principles  of 
morality  seemed  newly  discovered  truths;  and  that  these  antique 
and  simple  Degrees  now  stand  like  the  broken  columns  of  a  roof- 
less Druidic  temple,  in  their  rude  and  mutilated  greatness ;  in 
many  parts,  also,  corrupted  by  time,  and  disfigured  by  modern  ad- 
ditions and  absurd  interpretations.  They  are  but  the  entrance  to 
the  great  Masonic  Temple,  the  triple  columns  of  the  portico. 

You  have  taken  the  first  step  over  its  threshold,  the  first  step 
toward  the  inner  sanctuary  and  heart  of  the  temple.  You  are  in 
the  path  that  leads  up  the  slope  of  the  mountain  of  Truth ;  and 
106 


SECRET    MASTER.  IO7 

it  depends  upon  your  secrecy,  obedience,  and  fidelity,  whether  you 
will  advance  or  remain  stationary. 

Imagine  not  that  you  will  become  indeed  a  Mason  by  learning 
what  is  commonly  called  the  "work,"  or  even  by  becoming  familiar 
with  our  traditions.  Masonry  has  a  history,  a  literature,  a  philoso- 
phy. Its  allegories  and  traditions  will  teach  you  much ;  but  much 
is  to  be  sought  elsewhere.  The  streams  of  learning  that  now  flow 
full  and  broad  must  be  followed  to  their  heads  in  the  springs  that 
well  up  in  the  remote  past,  and  you  will  there  find  the  origin  and 
meaning  of  Masonry. 

A  few  rudimentary  lessons  in  architecture,  a  few  universally 
admitted  maxims  of  morality,  a  few  unimportant  traditions,  whose 
real  meaning  is  unknown  or  misunderstood,  will  no  longer  satisfy 
the  earnest  inquirer  after  Masonic  truth.  Let  whoso  is  content 
with  these,  seek  to  climb  no  higher.  He  who  desires  to  understand 
the  harmonious  and  beautiful  proportions  of  Freemasonry  must 
read,  study,  reflect,  digest,  and  discriminate.  The  true  Mason  is  an 
ardent  seeker  after  knowledge ;  and  he  knows  that  both  books  and 
the  antique  symbols  of  Masonry  are  vessels  which  come  down  to 
us  full-freighted  with  the  intellectual  riches  of  the  Past ;  and  that 
in  the  lading  of  these  argosies  is  much  that  sheds  light  on  the 
history  of  Masonry,  and  proves  its  claim  to  be  acknowledged  the 
benefactor  of  mankind,  born  in  the  very  cradle  of  the  race. 

Knowledge  is  the  most  genuine  and  real  of  human  treasures ; 
for  it  is  Light,  as  Ignorance  is  Darkness.  It  is  the  development  of 
the  human  soul,  and  its  acquisition  the  growth  of  the  soul,  which 
at  the  birth  of  man  knows  nothing,  and  therefore,  in  one  sense, 
may  be  said  to  be  nothing.  It  is  the  seed,  which  has  in  it  the 
pou'cr  to  grow,  to  acquire,  and  by  acquiring  to  be  developed,  as  the 
seed  is  developed  into  the  shoot,  the  plant,  the  tree.  "We  need  not 
pause  at  the  common  argument  that  by  learning  man  excelleth 
man,  in  that  wherein  man  excelleth  beasts ;  that  by  learning  man 
ascendeth  to  the  heavens  and  their  motions,  where  in  body  he  can- 
not come,  and  the  like.  Let  us  rather  regard  the  dignity  and 
excellency  of  knowledge  and  learning  in  that  whereunto  man's 
nature  doth  most  aspire,  which  is  immortality  or  continuance. 
For  to  this  tendeth  generation,  and  raising  of  Houses  and  Fami- 
lies ;  to  this  buildings,  foundations,  and  monuments ;  to  this  tend- 
eth the  desire  of  memory,  fame,  and  celebration,  and  in  effect  the 
strength  of  all  other  human  desires."  That  our  influences  shall 


IO8  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

survive  us,  and  be  living  forces  when  we  are  in  our  graves ;  and  not 
merely  that  our  names  shall  be  remembered;  but  rather  that  our 
works  shall  be  read,  our  acts  spoken  of,  our  names  recollected  and 
mentioned  when  we  are  dead,  as  evidences  that  those  influences  live 
and  rule,  sway  and  control  some  portion  of  mankind  and  of  the 
world, — this  is  the  aspiration  of  the  human  soul.  "We  see  then  how 
far  the  monuments  of  genius  and  learning  are  more  durable  than 
monuments  of  power  or  of  the  hands.  For  have  not  the  verses  of 
Homer  continued  twenty-five  hundred  years  or  more,  without  the 
loss  of  a  syllable  or  letter,  during  which  time  infinite  palaces,  tem- 
ples, castles,  cities,  have  decayed  and  been  demolished?  It  is  not 
possible  to  have  the  true  pictures  or  statues  of  Cyrus,  Alexander, 
Caesar,  no,  nor  of  the  Kings  or  great  personages  of  much  later 
years ;  for  the  originals  cannot  last,  and  the  copies  cannot  but  lose 
of  the  life  and  truth.  But  the  images  of  men's  genius  and  knowl- 
edge remain  in  books,  exempted  from  the  wrong  of  time,  and 
capable  of  perpetual  renovation.  Neither  are  they  fitly  to  be  called 
images,  because  they  generate  still,  and  cast  their  seeds  in  the 
minds  of  others,  provoking  and  causing  infinite  actions  and  opin- 
ions in  succeeding  ages ;  so  that  if  the  invention  of  the  ship  was 
thought  so  noble,  which  carrieth  riches  and  commodities  from  place 
to  place,  and  consociateth  the  most  remote  regions  in  participation 
of  their  fruits,  how  much  more  are  letters  to  be  magnified,  which, 
as  ships,  pass  through  the  vast  seas  of  time,  and  make  ages  so  dis- 
tant to  participate  of  the  wisdom,  illumination,  and  inventions, 
the  one  of  the  other." 

To  learn,  to  attain  knowledge,  to  be  wise,  is  a  necessity  for  every 
truly  noble  soul ;  to  teach,  to  communicate  that  knowledge,  to 
share  that  wisdom  with  others,  and  not  churlishly  to  lock  up  his 
exchequer,  and  place  a  sentinel  at  the  door  to  drive  away  the 
needy,  is  equally  an  impulse  of  a  noble  nature,  and  the  worthiest 
work  of  man. 

"There  was  a  little  city,"  says  the  Preacher,  the  son  of  David, 
"and  few  men  within  it ;  and  there  came  a  great  King  against  it 
and  besieged  it,  and  built  great  bulwarks  against  it.  Now  there 
was  found  in  it  a  poor  \vise  man,  and  he  by  his  wisdom  delivered 
the  city :  yet  no  man  remembered  that  same  poor  man.  Then, 
said  I,  wisdom  is  better  than  strength :  nevertheless,  the  poor  man's 
wisdom  is  despised,  and  his  words  are  not  heard."  If  it  should 
chance  to  you.  my  brother,  to  do  mankind  good  service,  and  be 


SECRET    MASTER.  IOLJ 

rewarded  with  indifference  and  forgetfulness  only,  still  be  not  dis- 
couraged, but  remember  the  further  advice  of  the  wise  King. 
"In  the  morning  sow  the  seed,  and  in  the  evening  withhold  not  thy 
hand ;  for  thou  knowest  not  which  shall  prosper,  this  or  that,  or 
whether  both  shall  be  alike  good."  Sow  you  the  seed,  whoever 
reaps.  Learn,  that  you  may  be  enabled  to  do  good ;  and  do  so  be- 
cause it  is  right,  finding  in  the  act  itself  ample  reward  and  recom- 
pense. 

To  attain  the  truth,  and  to  serve  our  fellows,  our  country,  and 
mankind — this  is  the  noblest  destiny  of  man.  Hereafter  and  all 
your  life  it  is  to  be  your  object.  If  you  desire  to  ascend  to  that 
destiny,  advance!  If  you  have  other  and  less  noble  objects,  and 
are  contented  with  a  lower  flight,  halt  here!  let  others  scale 
the  heights,  and  Masonry  fulfill  her  mission. 

If  you  will  advance,  gird  up  your  loins  for  the  struggle !  for  the 
way  is  long  and  toilsome.  Pleasure,  all  smiles,  will  beckon  you 
on  the  one  hand,  and  Indolence  will  invite  you  to  sleep  among  the 
flowers,  upon  the  other.  Prepare,  by  secrecy,  obedience,  and  fidelity, 
to  resist  the  allurements  of  both ! 

Secrecy  is  indispensable  in  a  Mason  of  whatever  Degree.  It  is 
the  first  and  almost  the  only  lesson  taught  to  the  Entered  Ap- 
prentice. The  obligations  which  we  have  each  assumed  toward 
every  Mason  that  lives,  requiring  of  us  the  performance  of  the 
most  serious  and  onerous  duties  toward  those  personally  unknown 
to  us  until  they  demand  our  aid, — duties  that  must  be  performed, 
even  at  the  risk  of  life,  or  our  solemn  oaths  be  broken  and  violated, 
and  we  be  branded  as  false  Masons  and  faithless  men,  teach  us 
how  profound  a  folly  it  would  be  to  betray  our  secrets  to  those 
who,  bound  to  us  by  no  tie  of  common  obligation,  might,  by  ob- 
taining them,  call  on  us  in  their  extremity,  when  the  urgency  of 
the  occasion  should  allow  us  no  time  for  inquiry,  and  the  peremp- 
tory mandate  of  our  obligation  compel  us  to  do  a  brother's  duty 
to  a  base  impostor. 

The  secrets  of  our  brother,  when  communicated  to  us,  must  be 
sacred,  if  they  be  such  as  the  law  of  our  country  warrants  us  to 
keep.  We  are  required  to  keep  none  other,  when  the  law  that  we 
are  called  on  to  obey  is  indeed  a  law,  by  having  emanated  from 
the  only  source  of  power,  the  People.  Edicts  which  emanate  from 
the  mere  arbitrary  will  of  a  despotic  power,  contrary  to  the  law  of 
God  or  the  Great  Law  of  Nature,  destructive  of  the  inherent  rights 


110  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  man,  violative  of  the  right  of  free  thought,  free  speech,  free 
conscience,  it  is  lawful  to  rebel  against  and  strive  to  abrogate. 

For  obedience  to  the  Law  does  not  mean  submission  to  tyranny ; 
nor  that,  by  a  profligate  sacrifice  of  every  noble  feeling,  we  should 
offer  to  despotism  the  homage  of  adulation.  As  every  new  victim 
falls,  we  may  lift  our  voice  in  still  louder  flattery.  We  may  fall  at 
the  proud  feet,  we  may  beg,  as  a  boon,  the  honor  of  kissing  that 
bloody  hand  which  has  been  lifted  against  the  helpless.  We  may 
do  more :  we  may  bring  the  altar  and  the  sacrifice,  and  implore 
the  God  not  to  ascend  too  soon  to  Heaven.  This  we  may  do,  for 
this  we  have  the  sad  remembrance  that  beings  of  a  human  form 
and  soul  have  done.  But  this  is  all  we  can  do.  We  can  constrain 
our  tongues  to  be  false,  our  features  to  bend  themselves  to  the 
semblance  of  that  passionate  adoration  which  we  wish  to  express, 
our  knees  to  fall  prostrate ;  but  our  heart  we  cannot  constrain. 
There  virtue  must  still  have  a  voice  which  is  not  to  be  drowned 
by  hymns  and  acclamations ;  there  the  crimes  which  we  laud  as 
virtues,  are  crimes  still,  and  he  whom  we  have  made  a  God  is  the 
most  contemptible  of  mankind ;  if,  indeed,  we  do  not  feel,  per- 
haps, that  we  are  ourselves  still  more  contemptible. 

But  that  law  which  is  the  fair  expression  of  the  will  and  judg- 
ment of  the  people,  is  the  enactment  of  the  whole  and  of  every 
individual.  Consistent  with  the  law  of  God  and  the  great  law  of 
nature,  consistent  with  pure  and  abstract  right  as  tempered  by 
necessity  and  the  general  interest,  as  contra-distinguished  from 
the  private  interest  of  individuals,  it  is  obligatory  upon  all,  because 
it  is  the  work  of  all,  the  will  of  all,  the  solemn  judgment  of  all, 
from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 

In  this  Degree,  my  brother,  you  are  especially  to  learn  the  duty 
of  obedience  to  that  law.  There  is  one  true  and  original  law, 
conformable  to  reason  and  to  nature,  diffused  over  all,  invariable, 
eternal,  which  calls  to  the  fulfillment  of  duty,  and  to  abstinence 
from  injustice,  and  calls  with  that  irresistible  voice  which  is  felt 
in  all  its  authority  wherever  it  is  heard.  This  law  cannot  be 
abrogated  or  diminished,  or  its  sanctions  affected,  by  any  law  of 
man.  A  whole  senate,  a  whole  people,  cannot  dispense  from  its 
paramount  obligation.  It  requires  no  commentator  to  render  it 
distinctly  intelligible :  nor  is  it  one  thing  at  Rome,  another  at 
Athens,  one  thing  now,  and  another  in  the  ages  to  come;  but  in 
all  times  and  in  all  nations,  it  is,  and  has  been,  and  will  be,  one 


SECRKT    MASTER.  Ill 

and  everlasting; — one  as  that  God,  its  great  Author  and  Promul- 
gator,  who  is  the  Common  Sovereign  of  all  mankind,  is  Himself 
One.  No  man  can  disobey  it  without  flying,  as  it  were,  from  his 
own  bosom,  and  repudiating  his  nature ;  and  in  this  very  act  he 
will  inflict  on  himself  the  severest  of  retributions,  even  though  he- 
escape  what  is  regarded  as  punishment. 

It  is  our  duty  to  obey  the  laws  of  our  country,  and  to  be  careful 
that  prejudice  or  passion,  fancy  or  affection,  error  and  illusion,  be 
not  mistaken  for  conscience.  Nothing  is  more  usual  than  to  pre- 
tend conscience  in  all  the  actions  of  man  which  are  public  and 
cannot  be  concealed.  The  disobedient  refuse  to  submit  to  the 
laws,  and  they  also  in  many  cases  pretend  conscience ;  and  so  dis- 
obedience and  rebellion  become  conscience,  in  which  there  is 
neither  knowledge  nor  revelation,  nor  truth  nor  charity,  nor 
reason  nor  religion.  Conscience  is  tied  to  laws.  Right  or  sure 
conscience  is  right  reason  reduced  to  practice,  and  conducting 
moral  actions,  while  perverse  conscience  is  seated  in  the  fancy  or 
affections — a  heap  of  irregular  principles  and  irregular  defects — 
and  is  the  same  in  conscience  as  deformity  is  in  the  body,  or 
peevishness  in  the  affections.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  conscience 
be  taught  by  nature  ;  but  it  must  be  taught  by  God,  conducted 
by  reason,  made  operative  by  discourse,  assisted  by  choice,  in- 
structed by  laws  and  sober  principles ;  and  then  it  is  right,  and  it 
may  be  sure.  All  the  general  measures  of  justice,  are  the  laws  of 
God,  and  therefore  they  constitute  the  general  rules  of  government 
for  the  conscience  ;  but  necessity  also  hath  a  large  voice  in  the 
arrangement  of  human  affairs,  and  the  disposal  of  human  rela- 
tions, and  the  dispositions  of  human  laws ;  and  these  general 
measures,  like  a  great  river  into  little  streams,  are  deduced  into 
little  rivulets  and  particularities,  by  the  laws  and  customs,  by  the 
sentences  and  agreements  of  men,  and  by  the  absolute  despotism 
of  necessity,  that  will  not  allow  perfect  and  abstract  justice  and 
equity  to  be  the  sole  rule  of  civil  government  in  an  imperfect 
world  ;  and  that  must  needs  be  law  which  is  for  the  greatest  good 
of  the  greatest  number. 

When  thou  vowest  a  vow  unto  God,  .defer  not  to  pay  it.  It  is 
better  thou  shouldest  not  vow  than  thou  shouldest  vow  and 
not  pay.  P>e  not  rash  with  thy  mouth,  and  let  not  thine  heart  be 
hasty  to  utter  anything  before  God  :  for  God  is  in  Heaven,  and 
thou  art  upon  earth  :  therefore  let  thy  words  be  few.  Weigh  well 


112  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

what  it  is  you  promise ;  but  once  the  promise  and  pledge  are  given 
remember  that  he  who  is  false  to  his  obligation  will  be  false  to  his 
family,  his  friend,  his  country,  and  his  God. 

Fides  servanda  est:  Faith  plighted  is  ever  to  be  kept,  was  a 
maxim  and  an  axiom  even  among  pagans.  The  virtuous  Roman 
said,  either  let  not  that  which  seems  expedient  be  base,  or  if  it  be 
base,  let  it  not  seem  expedient.  What  is  there  which  that  so-called 
expediency  can  bring,  so  valuable  as  that  which  it  takes  away,  if 
it  deprives  you  of  the  name  of  a  good  man  and  robs  you  of  your  in- 
tegrity and  honor?  In  all  ages,  he  who  violates  his  plighted  word 
has  been  held  unspeakably  base.  The  word  of  a  Mason,  like  the 
word  of  a  knight  in  the  times  of  chivalry,  once  given  must  be  sa- 
cred ;  and  the  judgment  of  his  brothers,  upon  him  who  violates  his 
pledge,  should  be  stern  as  the  judgments  of  the  Roman  Censors 
against  him  who  violated  his  oath.  Good  faith  is  revered  among 
Masons  as  it  was  among  the  Romans,  who  placed  its  statue  in  the 
capitol,  next  to  that  of  Jupiter  Maximus  Optimus ;  and  we,  like 
them,  hold  that  calamity  should  always  be  chosen  rather  than  base- 
ness ;  and  with  the  knights  of  old,  that  one  should  always  die 
rather  than  be  dishonored. 

Be  faithful,  therefore,  to  the  promises  you  make,  to  the  pledges 
you  give,  and  to  the  vows  that  you  assume,  since  to  break  either 
is  base  and- dishonorable. 

Be  faithful  to  your  family,  and  perform  all  the  duties  of  a  good 
father,  a  good  son,  a  good  husband,  and  a  good  brother. 

Be  faithful  to  your  friends ;  for  true  friendship  is  of  a  nature 
not  only  to  survive  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  life,  but  to  con- 
tinue through  an  endless  duration ;  not  only  to  stand  t»he  shock  of 
conflicting  opinions,  and  the  roar  of  a  revolution  that  shakes  the 
world,  but  to  last  when  the  heavens  are  no  more,  and  to  spring 
fresh  from  the  ruins  of  the  universe. 

Be  faithful  to  your  country,  and  prefer  iis  dignity  and  honor 
to  any  degree  of  popularity  and  honor  for  yourself ;  consulting  its 
interest  rather  than  your  own,  and  rather  than  the  pleasure  and 
gratification  of  the  people,  which  are  often  at  variance  with  their 
welfare. 

Be  faithful  to  Masonry,  which  is  to  be  faithful  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  mankind.  Labor,  by  precept  and  example,  to  elevate  the 
standard  of  Masonic  character,  to  enlarge  its  sphere  of  influence, 
to  popularize  it?  teachings,  and  to  nake  all  men  know  it  for  the 


SECRET    MASTER.  HJ 

Great  Apostle  of  Peace,  Harmony,  and  Good-will  on  earth  among 
men ;  of  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity. 

Masonry  is  useful  to  all  men :  to  the  learned,  because  it  affords 
them  the  opportunity  of  exercising  their  talents  upon  subjects  em- 
inently worthy  of  their  attention ;  to  the  illiterate,  because  it  offers 
them  important  instruction;  to  the  young,  because  it  presents 
them  with  salutary  precepts  and  good  examples,  and  accustoms 
them  to  reflect  on  the  proper  mode  of  living;  to  the  man  of  the 
world,  whom  it  furnishes  with  noble  and  useful  recreation ;  to  the 
traveller,  whom  it  enables  to  find  friends  and  brothers  in  countries 
where  else  he  would  be  isolated  and  solitary ;  to  the  worthy  man 
in  misfortune,  to  whom  it  gives  assistance ;  to  the  afflicted,  on 
whom  it  lavishes  consolation ;  to  the  charitable  man,  whom  it  en- 
ables to  do  more  good,  by  uniting  with  those  who  are  charitable 
like  himself ;  and  to  all  who  have  souls  capable  of  appreciating  its 
importance,  and  of  enjoying  the  charms  of  a  friendship  founded 
on  the  same  principles  of  religion,  morality,  and  philanthropy. 

A  Freemason,  therefore,  should  be  a  man  of  honor  and  of  con- 
science, preferring  his  duty  to  everything  beside,  even  to  his  life ; 
independent  in  his  opinions,  and  of  good  morals ;  submissive  to 
the  laws,  devoted  to  humanity,  to  his  country,  to  his  family ;  kind 
and  indulgent  to  his  brethren,  friend  of  all  virtuous  men,  and 
ready  to  assist  his  fellows  by  all  means  in  his  power. 

Thus  will  you  be  faithful  to  yourself,  to  your  fellows,  and  to 
God,  and  thus  will  you  do  honor  to  the  name  and  rank  of  SECRET 
MASTER;  which,  like  other  Masonic  honors,  degrades  if  it  is  not 
deserved. 


V. 
PERFECT    MASTER. 

THE  Master  Khurum  was  an  industrious  and  an  honest  man. 
What  he  was  employed  to  do  he  did  diligently,  and  he  did  it  well 
and  faithfully.  He  received  no  wa^ges  that  u'cre  not  his  due.  In- 
dustry and  honesty  are  the  virtues  peculiarly  inculcated  in  this 
Degree.  They  are  common  and  homely  virtues ;  but  not  for  that 
beneath  our  notice.  As  the  bees  do  not  love  or  respect  the  drones, 
so  Masonry  neither  loves  nor  respects  the  idle  and  those  who  live 
by  their  wits ;  and  least  of  all  those  parasitic  acari  that  live  upon 
themselves.  For  those  who  are  indolent  are  likely  to  become  dis- 
sipated and  vicious  ;  and  perfect  honesty,  which  ought  to  be  the 
common  qualification  of  all,  is  more  rare  than  diamonds. .  To  do 
earnestly  and  steadily,  and  to  do  faithfully  and  honestly  that  which 
we  have  to  do — perhaps  this  wants  but  little,  when  looked  at  from 
every  point  of  view,  of  including  the  whole  body  of  the  moral 
law  ;  and  even  in  their  commonest  and  homeliest  application,  these 
virtues  belong  to  the  character  of  a  Perfect  Master. 

Idleness  is  the  burial  of  a  living  man.  For  an  idle  person  is  so 
useless  to  any  purposes  of  God  and  man,  that  he  is  like  one  who 
is  dead,  unconcerned  in  the  changes  and  necessities  of  the  world  ; 
and  he  only  lives  to  spend  his  time,  and  eat  the  fruits  of  the  earth. 
Like  a  vermin  or  a  wolf,  when  his  time  comes,  he  dies  and  per- 
ishes, and  in  the  mean  time  is  nought.  He  neither  ploughs  nor 
carries  burdens :  all  that  he  does  is  either  unprofitable  or  mis- 
chievous. 

It  is  a  vast  work  that  any  man  may  do,  if  he  never  be  idle :  and 
it  is  a  huge  way  that  a  man  may  go  in  virtue,  if  he  never  go  out 
of  his  way  by  a  vicious  habit  or  a  great  crime :  and  he  who  per- 
114 


PERFECT    MASTER.  115 

petually  reads  good  books,  if  his  parts  be  answerable,  will  have  a 
huge  stock  of  knowledge. 

St.  Ambrose,  and  from  his  example,  St.  Augustine,  divided  every 
day  into  these  tcrtias  of  employment:  eight  hours  they  spent  in 
the  necessities  of  nature  and  recreation  :  eight  hours  in  charity, 
in  doing  assistance  to  others,  dispatching  their  business,  reconcil- 
ing their  enmities,  reproving  their  vices,  correcting  their  errors, 
instructing  their  ignorance,  and  in  transacting  the  affairs  of  their 
dioceses ;  and  the  other  eight  hours  they  spent  in  study  and 
prayer. 

We  think,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  that  life  is  much  too  long  for 
that  which  we  have  to  learn  and  do ;  and  that  there  is  an  almost 
fabulous  distance  between  our  age  and  that  of  our  grandfather. 
But  when,  at  the  age  of  sixty,  if  we  are  fortunate  enough  to  reach 
it,  or  unfortunate  enough,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  according  as  we 
have  profitably  invested  or  wasted  our  time,  we  halt,  and  look  back 
along  the  way  we  have  come,  and  cast  up  and  endeavor  to  balance 
our  accounts  with  time  and  opportunity,  we  find  that  we  have 
made  life  much  too  short,  and  thrown  away  a  huge  portion  of  our 
time.  Then  we,  in  our  mind,  deduct  from  the  sum  total  of  our 
years  the  hours  that  we  have  needlessly  passed  in  sleep ;  the  work- 
ing-hours each  day,  during  which  the  surface  of  the  mind's  slug- 
gish pool  has  not  been  stirred  or  ruffled  by  a  single  thought ;  the 
days  that  we  have  gladly  got  rid  of,  to  attain  some  real  or  fancied 
object  that  lay  beyond,  in  the  way  between  us  and  which  stood 
irksomely  the  intervening  days ;  the  hours  worse  than  wasted  in 
follies  and  dissipation,  or  misspent  in  useless  and  unprofitable 
studies  ;  and  we  acknowledge,  with  a  sigh,  that  we  could  have 
learned  and  done,  in  half  a  score  of  years  well  spent,  more  than 
we  hare  done  in  all  our  forty  years  of  manhood. 

To  learn  and  to  do! — this  is  the  soul's  work  here  below.  The 
soul  grows  as  truly  as  an  oak  grows.  As  the  tree  takes  the  carbon 
of  the  air,  the  dew,  the  rain,  and  the  light,  and  the  food  that  the 
earth  supplies  to  its  roots,  and  by  its  mysterious  chemistry  trans- 
mutes them  into  sap  and  fibre,  into  wood  and  leaf,  and  flower  and 
fruit,  and  color  and  perfume,  so  the  soul  imbibes  knowledge,  and 
by  a  divine  alchemy  changes  what  it  learns  into  its  own  substance, 
and  grows  from  within  outwardly  with  an  inherent  force  and 
power  like  those  that  lie  hidden  in  the  grain  of  wheat. 

The  soul  hath  its  senses,  like  the  body,  that  may  be  cultivated, 


Il6  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

enlarged,  refined,  as  itself  grows  in  stature  and  proportion;  and 
he  who  cannot  appreciate  a  fine  painting  or  statue,  a  noble  poem, 
a  sweet  harmony,  a  heroic  thought,  or  a  disinterested  action,  or  to 
whom  the  wisdom  of  philosophy  is  but  foolishness  and  babble,  and 
the  loftiest  truths  of  less  importance  than  the  price  of  stocks  or 
cotton,  or  the  elevation  of  baseness  to  office,  merely  lives  on  the 
level  of  commonplace,  and  fitly  prides  himself  upon  that  inferiority 
of  the  soul's  senses,  which  is  the  inferiority  and  imperfect  develop- 
ment of  the  soul  itself. 

To  sleep  little,  and  to  study  much;  to  say  little,  and  to  hear 
and  think  much ;  to  learn,  that  we  may  be  able  to  do,  and  then  to 
do,  earnestly  and  vigorously,  whatever  may  be  required  of  us  by 
duty,  and  by  the  good  of  our  fellows,  our  country,  and  mankind, — 
these  are  the  duties  of  every  Mason  who  desires  to  imitate  the 
Master  Khurum. 

The  duty  of  a  Mason  as  an  honest  man  is  plain  and  easy.  It 
requires  of  us  honesty  in  contracts,  sincerity  in  affirming,  sim- 
plicity in  bargaining,  and  faithfulness  in  performing.  Lie  not  at 
all,  neither  in  a  little  thing  nor  in  a  great,  neither  in  the  substance 
nor  in  the  circumstance,  neither  in  word  nor  deed :  that  is,  pre- 
tend not  what  is  false ;  cover  not  what  is  true ;  and  let  the  measure 
of  your  affirmation  or  denial  be  the  understanding  of  your  con- 
tractor ;  for  he  who  deceives  the  buyer  or  the  seller  by  speaking 
what  is  true,  in  a  sense  not  intended  or  understood  by  the  other, 
is  a  liar  and  a  thief.  A  Perfect  Master  must  avoid  that  which 
deceives,  equally  with  that  which  is  false. 

Let  your  prices  be  according  to  that  measure  of  good  and  evil 
which  is  established  in  the  fame  and  common  accounts  of  the 
wisest  and  most  merciful  men,  skilled  in  that  manufacture  or 

% 

commodity  ;  and  the  gain  such,  which,  without  scandal,  is  allowed 
to  persons  in  all  the  same  circumstances. 

In  intercourse  with  others,  do  not  do  all  which  thou  mayest 
lawfully  do ;  but  keep  something  within  thy  power ;  and,  because 
there  is  a  latitude  of  gain  in  buying  and  selling,  take  not  thou  the 
utmost  penny  that  is  lawful,  or  which  thou  thinkest  so ;  for 
although  it  be  lawful,  yet  it  is  not  safe ;  and  he  who  gains  all  that 
he  can  gain  lawfully,  this  year,  will  possibly  be  tempted,  next 
year,  to  gain  something  unlawfully. 

Let  no  man,  for  bis  own  poverty,  become  more  oppressing  and 
cruel  in  his  bargain ;  but  quietly,  modestly,  diligently,  and  patiently 


PERFECT  MASTER.  117 

recommend  his  estate  to  God,  and  follow  its  interest,  and  leave  the 
success  to  Him. 

Detain  not  the  wages  of  the  hireling ;  for  every  degree  of  deten- 
tion of  it  beyond  the  time,  is  injustice  and  uncharitableness,  and 
grinds  his  face  till  tears  and  blood  come  out ;  but  pay  him  exactly 
according  to  covenant,  or  according  to  his  needs. 

Religiously  keep  all  promises  and  covenants,  though  made  to 
your  disadvantage,  though  afterward  you  perceive  you  might  have 
done  better ;  and  let  not  any  precedent  act  of  yours  be  altered  by 
any  after-accident.  Let  nothing  make  you  break  your  promise, 
unless  it  be  unlawful  or  impossible ;  that  is,  either  out  of  your 
nature  or  out  of  your  civil  power,  yourself  being  under  the  power 
of  another ;  or  that  it  be  intolerably  inconvenient  to  yourself,  and 
of  no  advantage  to  another ;  or  that  you  have  leave  expressed  or 
reasonably  presumed. 

Let  no  man  take  wages  or  fees  for  a  work  that  he  cannot  do, 
or  cannot  with  probability  undertake ;  or  in  some  sense  profitably, 
and  with  ease,  or  with  advantage  manage.  Let  no  man  appropriate 
to  his  own  use,  what  God,  by  a  special  mercy,  or  the  Republic, 
hath  made  common ;  for  that  is  against  both  Justice  and  Charity. 

That  any  man  should  be  the  worse  for  us,  and  for  our  direct 
act,  and  by  our  intention,  is  against  the  rule  of  equity,  of  justice, 
and  of  charity.  We  then  do  not  that  to  others,  which  we  would 
have  done  to  ourselves ;  for  we  grow  richer  upon  the  ruins  of  their 
fortune. 

It  is  not  honest  to  receive  anything  from  another  without  re- 
turning him  an  equivalent  therefor.  The  gamester  who  wins  the 
money  of  another  is  dishonest.  There  should  be  no  such  thing  as 
bets  and  gaming  among  Masons :  for  no  honest  man  should  desire 
that  for  nothing  which  belongs  to  another.  The  merchant  who 
sells  an  inferior  article  for  a  sound  price,  the  speculator  who 
makes  the  distresses  and  needs  of  others  fill  his  exchequer  are 
neither  fair  nor  honest,  but  base,  ignoble,  unfit  for  immortality. 

It  should  be  the  earnest  desire  of  every  Perfect  Master  so  to  live 
and  deal  and  act,  that  when  it  comes  to  him  to  die,  he  may  be 
able  to  say,  and  his  conscience  to  adjudge,  that  no  man  on  earth 
is  poorer,  because  he  is  richer ;  that  what  he  hath  he  has  honestly 
earned,  and  no  man  can  go  before  God,  and  claim  that  by  the 
rules  of  equity  administered  in  His  great  chancery,  this  house  in 
which  we  die,  this  land  we  devise  to  our  heirs,  this  money  that 


Il8  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

enriches  those  who  survive  to  bear  our  name,  is  his  and  not  ours, 
and  we  in  that  forum  are  only  his  trustee.  For  it  is  most  certain 
that  God  is  just,  and  will  sternly  enforce  every  such  trust ;  and 
that  to  all  whom  we  despoil,  to  all  whom  we  defraud,  to  all  from 
whom  we  take  or  win  anything  whatever,  without  fair  considera- 
tion and  equivalent,  He  will  decree  a  full  and  adequate  compensa- 
tion. 

Be  careful,  then,  that  thou  receive  no  wages,  here  or  elsewhere, 
that  are  not  thy  due !  For  if  thou  dost,  thou  wrongest  some  one, 
by  taking  that  which  in  God's  chancery  belongs  to  him ;  and 
whether  that  which  thou  takest  thus  be  wealth,  or  rank,  or 
influence,  or  reputation  or  affection,  thou  wilt  surely  be  held  to 
make  full  satisfaction. 


VI. 
INTIMATE    SECRETARY. 

[Confidential  Secretary.] 

You  are  especially  taught  in  this  Degree  to  be  zealous  and  faith- 
ful ;  to  be  disinterested  and  benevolent ;  and  to  act  the  peace- 
maker, in  case  of  dissensions,  disputes,  and  quarrels  among  the 
brethren. 

Duty  is  the  moral  magnetism  which  controls  and  guides  the 
true  Mason's  course  over  the  tumultuous  seas  of  life.  Whether  the 
stars  of  honor,  reputation,  and  reward  do  or  do  not  shine,  in  the 
light  of  day  or  in  the  darkness  of  the  night  of  trouble  and  adver- 
sity, in  calm  or  storm,  that  unerring  magnet  still  shows  him  the 
true  course  to  steer,  and  indicates  with  certainty  where-away  lies 
the  port  which  not  to  reach  involves  shipwreck  and  dishonor.  He 
follows  its  silent  bidding,  as  the  mariner,  when  land  is  for  many 
days  not  in  sight,  and  the  ocean  without  path  or  landmark  spreads 
out  all  around  him,  follows  the  bidding  of  the  needle,  never 
doubting  that  it  points  truly  to  the  north.  To  perform  that 
duty,  whether  the  performance  be  rewarded  or  unrewarded,  is  his 
sole  care.  And  it  doth  not  matter,  though  of  this  performance 
there  may  be  no  witnesses,  and  though  what  he  does  will  be  for- 
ever unknown  to  all  mankind. 

A  little  consideration  will  teach  us  that  Fame  has  other  limits 
than  mountains  and  oceans ;  and  that  he  who  places  happiness  in 
the  frequent  repetition  of  his  name,  may  spend  his  life  in  propa- 
gating it,  without  any  danger  of  weeping  for  new  worlds,  or  neces- 
sity of  passing  the  Atlantic  sea. 

If,  therefore,  he  who  imagines  the  world  to  be  filled  with  his  ac- 

119 


I2O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

tions  and  praises,  shall  subduct  from  the  number  of  his  encomiast 
all  those  who  are  placed  below  the  flight  of  fame,  and  who  hear  in 
the  valley  of  life  no  voice  but  that  of  necessity;  all  those  who  im- 
agine themselves  too  important  to  regard  him,  and  consider  the 
mention  of  his  name  as  a  usurpation  of  their  time ;  all  who  are  too 
much  or  too  little  pleased  with  themselves  to  attend  to  anything 
external ;  all  who  are  attracted  by  pleasure,  or  chained  down  by 
pain  to  unvaried  ideas;  all  who  are  withheld  from  attending  his 
triumph  by  different  pursuits ;  and  all  who  slumber  in  universal 
negligence;  he  will  find  his  renown  straitened  by  nearer  bounds 
than  the  rocks  of  Caucasus ;  and  perceive  that  no  man  can  be  ven- 
erable or  formidable,  but  to  a  small  part  of  his  fellow-creatures. 
And  .therefore,  that  we  may  not  languish  in  our  endeavors  after 
excellence,  it  is  necessary  that,  as  Africanus  counsels  his  decend- 
ants,  we  raise  our  eyes  to  higher  prospects,  and  contemplate  our 
future  and  eternal  state,  without  giving  up  our  hearts  to  the  praise 
of  crowds,  or  fixing  our  hopes  on  such  rewards  as  human  power 
can  bestow. 

We  are  not  born  for  ourselves  alone  ;  and  our  country  claims  her 
share,  and  our  friends  their  share  of  us.  As  all  that  the  earth  pro- 
duces is  created  for  the  use  of  man,  so  men  are  created  for  the 
sake  of  men,  that  they  may  mutually  do  good  to  one  another.  In 
this  we  ought  to  take  nature  for  our  guide,  and  throw  into  the  pub- 
lic stock  the  offices  of  general  utility,  by  a  reciprocation  of  duties ; 
sometimes  by  receiving,  sometimes  by  giving,  and  sometimes  to 
cement  human  society  by  arts,  by  industry,  and  by  our  resources. 

Suffer  others  to  be  praised  in  thy  presence,  and  entertain  their 
good  and  glory  with  delight;  but  at  no  hand  disparage  them,  or 
lessen  the  report,  or  make  an  objection ;  and  think  not  the  ad- 
vancement of  thy  brother  is  a  lessening  of  thy  worth.  Upbraid 
no  man's  weakness  to  him  to  discomfit  him,  neither  report  it  to 
disparage  him,  neither  delight  to  remember  it  to  lessen  him,  or  to 
set  thyself  above  him  ;  nor  ever  praise  thyself  or  dispraise  any  man 
else,  unless  some  sufficient  worthy  end  do  hallow  it. 

Remember  that  we  usually  disparage  others  upon  slight  grounds 
and  little  instances ;  and  if  a  man  be  highly  commended,  we  think 
him  sufficiently  lessened,  if  we  can  but  charge  one  sin  of  folly  or 
inferiority  in  his  account.  We  should  either  be  more  severe  to  our- 
se-lves,  or  less  so  to  others,  and  consider  that  whatsoever  good  any 
one  can  think  or  say  of  us,  we  can  tell  him  of  many  unworthy  and 


INTIMATE   SECRETARY.  121 

foolish  and  perhaps  worse  actions  of  ours,  any  one  ol  which,  done 
by  another,  would  be  enough,  with  us,  to  destroy  his  reputa- 
tion. 

If  we  think  the  people  wise  and  sagacious,  and  just  and  appre- 
ciative, when  they  praise  and  make  idols  of  ns,  let  us  not  call 
them  unlearned  and  ignorant,  and  ill  and  stupid  judges,  when 
our  neighbor  is  cried  up  by  public  fame  and  popular  noises. 

Every  man  hath  in  his  own  life  sins  enough,  in  his  own  mind 
trouble  enough,  in  his  own  fortunes  evil  enough,  and  in  perform- 
ance of  his  offices  failings  more  than  enough,  to  entertain  his 
own  inquiry ;  so  that  curiosity  after  the  affairs  of  others  cannot  be 
without  envy  and  an  ill  mind.  The  generous  man  will  be  solicit- 
ous and  inquisitive  into  the  beauty  and  order  of  a  well-governed 
family,  and  after  the  virtues  of  an  excellent  person ;  but  anything 
for  which  men  keep  locks  and  bars,  or  that  blushes  to  see  the  light, 
or  that  is  either  shameful  in  manner  or  private  in  nature,  this 
thing  will  not  be  his  care  and  business. 

It  should  be  objection  sufficient  to  exclude  any  man  from  the 
society  of  Masons,  that  he  is  not  disinterested  and  generous,  both 
in  his  acts,  and  in  his  opinions  of  men,  and  his  constructions  of 
their  conduct.  He  who  is  selfish  and  grasping,  or  censorious 
and  ungenerous,  will  not  long  remain  within  the  strict  limits 
of  honesty  and  truth,  but  will  shortly  commit  injustice.  He  who 
loves  himself  too  much  must  needs  love  others  too  little ;  and  he 
who  habitually  gives  harsh  judgment  will  not  long  delay  to  give 
unjust  judgment. 

The  generous  man  is  not  careful  to  return  no  more  than  he  re- 
ceives ;  but  prefers  that  the  balances  upon  the  ledgers  of  benefits 
shall  be  in  his  favor.  He  who  hath  received  pay  in  full  for  all 
the  benefits  and  favors  that  he  has  conferred,  is  like  a  spendthrift 
who  has  consumed  his  whole  estate,  and  laments  over  an  empty 
exchequer.  He  who  requites  my  favors  with  ingratitude  adds 
to,  instead  of  diminishing,  my  wealth ;  and  he  who  cannot  return 
a  favor  is  equally  poor,  whether  his  inability  arises  from  poverty 
of  spirit,  sordidness  of  soul,  or  pecuniary  indigence. 

If  he  is  wealthy  who  hath  large  sums  invested,  and  the  mass  of 
whose  fortune  consists  in  obligations  that  bind  other  men  to  pay 
him  money,  he  is  still  more  so  to  whom  many  owe  large  returns  of 
kindnesses  and  favors.  Beyond  a  moderate  sum  each  year,  the 
wealthy  man  merely  invests  his  means :  and  that  which  he  never 
9 


\22  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

uses  is  still  like  favors  unreturned  and  kindnesses  unreciprocated, 
an  actual  and  real  portion  of  his  fortune. 

Generosity  and  a  liberal  spirit  make  men  to  be  humane  and  ge- 
nial, open-hearted,  frank,  and  sincere,  earnest  to  do  good,  easy  and 
contented,  and  well-wishers  of  mankind.  They  protect  the  feeble 
against  the  strong,  and  the  defenceless  against  rapacity  and  craft. 
They  succor  and  comfort  the  poor,  and  are  the  guardians,  under 
God,  of  his  innocent  and  helpless  wards.  They  value  friends  more 
than  riches  or  fame,  and  gratitude  more  than  money  or  power. 
They  are  noble  by  God's  patent,  and  their  escutcheons  and  quar- 
terings  are  to  be  found  in  heaven's  great  book  of  heraldry.  Nor  can 
any  man  any  more  be  a  Mason  than  he  can  be  a  gentleman,  unless 
he  is  generous,  liberal,  and  disinterested.  To  be  liberal,  but  only 
of  that  which  is  our  own ;  to  be  generous,  but  only  when  we  have 
first  been  just;  to  give,  when  to  give  deprives  us  of  a  luxury  or  a 
comfort,  this  is  Masonry  indeed. 

He  who  is  worldly,  covetous,  or  sensual  must  change  before  he 
can  be  a  good  Mason.  If  we  are  governed  by  inclination  and  not 
by  duty;  if  we  are  unkind,  severe,  censorious,  or  injurious,  in  the 
relations  or  intercourse  of  life ;  if  we  are  unfaithful  parents  or  un- 
dutiful  children ;  if  we  are  harsh  masters  or  faithless  servants ;  if 
we  are  treacherous  friends  or  bad  neighbors  or  bitter  competitors 
or  corrupt  unprincipled  politicians  or  overreaching  dealers  in  bus- 
iness, we  are  wandering  at  a  great  distance  from  the  true  Masonic 
light. 

Masons  must  be  kind  and  affectionate  one  to  another.  Fre- 
quenting the  same  temples,  kneeling  at  the  same  altars,  they  should 
feel  that  respect  and  that  kindness  for  each  other,  which  their  com- 
mon relation  and  common  approach  to  one  God  should  inspire. 
There  needs  to  be  much  more  of  the  spirit  of  the  ancient  fellowship 
among  us ;  more  tenderness  for  each  other's  faults,  more  forgive- 
ness, more  solicitude  for  each  other's  improvement  and  good  for- 
tune ;  somewhat  of  brotherly  feeling,  that  it  be  not  shame  to  use 
the  word  "brother." 

Nothing  should  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  that  kindness  and 
affection :  neither  the  spirit  of  business,  absorbing,  eager,  and 
overreaching,  ungenerous  and  hard  in  its  dealings,  keen  and  bitter 
in  its  competitions,  low  and  sordid  in  its  purposes ;  nor  that  of 
ambition,  selfish,  mercenary,  restless,  circumventing,  living  only 
in  the  opinion  of  others,  envious  of  the  good  fortune  of  others, 


INTIMATE  SECRETARY.  123 

miserably  vain  of  its  own  success,  unjust,  unscrupulous,  and 
slanderous. 

He  that  does  me  a  favor,  hath  bound  me  to  make  him  a  return 
of  thankfulness.  The  obligation  comes  not  by  covenant,  nor  by 
his  own  express  intention ;  but  by  the  nature  of  the  thing ;  and 
is  a  duty  springing  up  within  the  spirit  of  the  obliged  person,  to 
whom  it  is  more  natural  to  love  his  friend,  and  to  do  good  for 
good,  than  to  return  evil  for  evil ;  because  a  man  may  forgive  an 
injury,  but  he  must  never  forget  a  good  turn.  He  that  refuses  to 
do  good  to  them  whom  he  is  bound  to  love,  or  to  love  that  which 
did  him  good,  is  unnatural  and  monstrous  in  his  affections,  and 
thinks  all  the  world  born  to  minister  to  him ;  with  a  greediness 
worse  than  that  of  the  sea,  which,  although  it  receives  all  rivers 
into  itself,  yet  it  furnishes  the  clouds  and  springs  with  a  return  of 
all  they  need.  Our  duty  to  those  who  are  our  benefactors  is,  to 
esteem  and  love  their  persons,  to  make  them  proportionable  re- 
turns of  service,  or  duty,  or  profit,  according  as  we  can,  or  as  they 
need,  or  as  opportunity  presents  itself ;  and  according  to  the  great- 
ness of  their  kindnesses. 

The  generous  man  cannot  but  regret  to  see  dissensions  and  dis- 
putes among  his  brethren.  Only  the  base  and  ungenerous  delight 
in  discord.  It  is  the  poorest  occupation  of  humanity  to  labor  to 
make  men  think  worse  of  each  other,  as  the  press,  and  too  com- 
monly the  pulpit, changing  places  with  the  hustingsand  the  tribune, 
do.  The  duty  of  the  Mason  is  to  endeavor  to  make  man  think 
better  of  his  neighbor ;  to  quiet,  instead  of  aggravating  difficul- 
ties, to  bring  together  those  who  are  severed  or  estranged  ;  to  keep 
friends  from  becoming  foes,  and  to  persuade  foes  to  become 
friends.  To  do  this,  he  must  needs  control  his  own  passions,  and 
be.  not  rash  and  hasty,  nor  swift  to  take  offence,  nor  easy  to  be  an- 
gered. 

For  anger  is  a  professed  enemy  to  counsel.  It  is  a  direct  storm, 
in  which  no  man  can  be  heard  to  speak  or  call  from  without ;  for 
if  you  counsel  gently,  you  are  disregarded ;  if  you  urge  it  and  be 
vehement,  you  provoke  it  more.  It  is  neither  manly  nor  ingenu- 
ous. It  makes  marriage  to  be  a  necessary  and  unavoidable  trouble ; 
friendships  and  societies  and  familiarities,  to  be  intolerable.  It 
multiplies  the  evils  of  drunkenness,  and  makes  the  levities  of  wine 
to  run  into  madness.  It  makes  innocent  jesting  to  be  the  begin- 
ning of  tragedies.  It  turns  friendship  into  hatred ;  it  makes  a 


1 24  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

man  lose  himself,  and  his  reason  and  his  argument,  in  disputation. 
It  turns  the  desires  of  knowledge  into  an  itch  of  wrangling.  It 
adds  insolency  to  power.  It  turns  justice  into  cruelty,  and  judg- 
ment into  oppression.  It  changes  discipline  into  tediousness  and 
hatred  of  liberal  institution.  It  makes  a  prosperous  man  to  be  en- 
vied, and  the  unfortunate  to  be  unpitied. 

See,  therefore,  that  first  controlling  your  own  temper,  and  gov- 
erning your  own  passions,  you  fit  yourself  to  keep  peace  and  har- 
mony among  other  men,  and  especially  the  brethren.  Above  all 
remember  that  Masonry  is  the  realm  of  peace,  and  that  "among 
Masons  there  must  be  no  dissension,  but  only  that  noble  emulation, 
which  can  best  work  and  best  agree."  Wherever  there  is  strife  and 
hatred  among  the  brethren,  there  is  no  Masonry ;  for  Masonry  is 
Peace,  and  Brotherly  Love,  and  Concord. 

Masonry  is  the  great  Peace  Society  of  the  world.  Wherever  it 
exists,  it  struggles  to  prevent  international  difficulties  and  dis- 
putes ;  and  to  bind  Republics,  Kingdoms,  and  Empires  together 
in  one  great  band  of  peace  and  amity.  It  would  not  so  often 
struggle  in  vain,  if  Masons  knew  their  power  and  valued  their 
oaths. 

Who  can  sum  up  the  horrors  and  woes  accumulated  in  a  single 
war?  Masonry  is  not  dazzled  with  all  its  pomp  and  circumstance, 
all  its  glitter  and  glory.  War  comes  with  its  bloody  hand  into  our 
very  dwellings.  It  takes  from  ten  thousand  homes  those  who  lived 
there  in  peace  and  comfort,  held  by  the  tender  ties  of  family  and 
kindred.  It  drags  them  away,  to  die  untended,  of  fever  or  expo- 
sure, in  infectious  climes ;  or  to  be  hacked,  torn,  and  mangled  in 
the  fierce  fight ;  to  fall  on  the  gory  field,  to  rise  no  more,  or  to  be 
borne  away,  in  awful  agony,  to  noisome  and  horrid  hospitals.  The 
groans  of  the  battle-field  are  echoed  in  sighs  of  bereavement  from 
thousands  of  desolated  hearths.  There  is  a  skeleton  in  every 
house,  a  vacant  chair  at  every  table.  Returning,  the  soldier  brings 
worse  sorrow  to  his  home,  by  the  infection  which  he  has  caught,  of 
camp-vices.  The  country  is  demoralized.  The  national  mind  is 
brought  down,  from  the  noble  interchange  of  kind  offices  with 
another  people,  to  wrath  and  revenge,  and  base  pride,  and  the  habit 
of  measuring  brute  strength  against  brute  strength,  in  battle. 
Treasures  are  expended,  that  would  suffice  to  build  ten  thousand 
churches,  hospitals,  and  universities,  or  rib  and  tie  together  a  con- 
tinent with  rails  of  iron.  If  that  treasure  were  sunk  in  the  sea,  it 


INTIMATE  SECRETARY.  125 

would  be  calamity  enough ;  but  it  is  put  to  worse  use ;  for  it  is  ex- 
pended in  cutting  into  the  veins  and  arteries  of  human  life,  until 
the  earth  is  deluged  with  a  sea  of  blood. 

Such  are  the  lessons  of  this  Degree.  You  have  vowed  to  make 
them  the  rule,  the  law,  and  the  guide  of  your  life  and  conduct. 
If  you  do  so,  you  will  be  entitled,  because  fitted,  to  advance  in 
Masonry.  If  you  do  not,  you  have  already  gone  too  far. 


&     l& 


VII. 
PROVOST   AND    JUDGE. 

THE  lesson  which  this  Degree  inculcates  is  JUSTICE,  in  decision 
and  judgment,  and  in  our  intercourse  and  dealing  with  other  men. 

In  a  country  where  trial  by  jury  is  known,  every  intelligent  man 
is  liable  to  be  called  on  to  act  as  a  judge,  either  of  fact  alone,  or  of 
fact  and  law  mingled  ;  and  to  assume  the  heavy  responsibilities 
which  belong  to  that  character. 

Those  who  are  invested  with  the  power  of  judgment  should 
judge  the  causes  of  all  persons  uprightly  and  impartially,  without 
any  personal  consideration  of  the  power  of  the  mighty,  or  the 
bribe  of  the  rich,  or  the  needs  of  the  poor.  That  is  the  cardinal 
rule,  which  no  one  will  dispute ;  though  many  fail  to  observe  it. 
But  they  must  do  more.  They  must  divest  themselves  of  preju- 
dice and  preconception.  They  must  hear  patiently,  remember 
accurately,  and  weigh  carefully  the  facts  and  the  arguments  offered 
before  them.  They  must  not  leap  hastily  to  conclusions,  nor  form 
opinions  before  they  have  heard  all.  They  must  not  presume 
crime  or  fraud.  They  must  neither  be  ruled  by  stubborn  pride  of 
opinion,  nor  be  too  facile  and  yielding  to  the  views  and  arguments 
of  .others.  In  deducing  the  motive  from  the  proven  act,  they 
must  not  assign  to  the  act  either  the  best  or  the  \vorst  motives,  but 
those  which  they  would  think  it  just  and  fair  for  the  world  to  as- 
sign to  it,  if  they  themselves  had  done  it :  nor  must  they  endeavor 
to  make  many  little  circumstances,  that  weigh  nothing  separately, 
weigh  much  together,  to  prove  their  own  acuteness  and  sagacity. 
These  are  sound  rules  for  every  juror,  also,  to  observe. 
126 


PROVOST   AND   JUDGE.  12J 

In  our  intercourse  with  others,  there  are  two  kinds  of  injustice: 
the  first,  of  those  who  offer  an  injury;  the  second,  of  those  who 
have  it  in  their  power  to  avert  an  injury  from  those  to  whom  it  is 
offered,  and  yet  do  it  not.  So  active  injustice  may  be  done  in  two 
ways — by  force  and  by  fraud, — of  which  force  is  lion-like,  and 
fraud  fox-like, — both  utterly  repugnant  to  social  duty,  but  fraud 
the  more  detestable. 

Every  wrong  done  by  one  man  to  another,  whether  it  affect  his 
person,  his  property,  his  happiness,  or  his  reputation,  is  an  offence 
against  the  law  of  justice.  The  field  of  this  Degree  is  therefore  a 
wide  and  vast  one ;  and  Masonry  seeks  for  the  most  impressive 
mode  of  enforcing  the  law  of  justice,  and  the  most  effectual  means 
of  preventing  wrong  and  injustice. 

To  this  end  it  teaches  this  great  and  momentous  truth :  that 
wrong  and  injustice  once  done  cannot  be  undone;  but  are  eternal 
in  their  consequences ;  once  committed,  are  numbered  with  the 
irrevocable  Past ;  that  the  wrong  that  is  done  contains  its  own 
retributive  penalty  as  surely  and  as  naturally  as  the  acorn  con- 
tains the  oak.  Its  consequences  are  its  punishment ;  it  needs  no 
other,  and  can  have  no  heavier ;  they  are  involved  in  its  commis- 
sion, and  cannot  be  separated  from  it.  A  wrong  done  to  another 
is  an  injury  done  to  our  own  Nature,  an  offence  against  our  own 
souls,  a  disfiguring  of  the  image  of  the  Beautiful  and  Good.  Pun- 
ishment is  not  the  execution  of  a  sentence,  but  the  occurrence  of 
an  effect.  It  is  ordained  to  follow  guilt,  not  by  the  decree  of  God 
as  a  judge,  but  by  a  law  enacted  by  H*im  as  the  Creator  and  Legis- 
lator of  the  Universe.  It  is  not  an  arbitrary  and  artificial  annex- 
ation, but  an  ordinary  and  logical  consequence ;  and  therefore 
must  be  borne  by  the  wrong-doer,  and  through  him  may  flow  on 
to  others.  It  is  the  decision  of  the  infinite  justice  of  God,  in  the 
form  of  law. 

There  can  be  no  interference  with,  or  remittance  of,  or  protec- 
tion from,  the  natural  effects  of  our  wrongful  acts.  God  will  not  in- 
terpose between  the  cause  and  its  consequence ;  and  in  that  sense 
there  can  be  no  forgiveness  of  sins.  The  act  which  has  debased 
our  soul  may  be  repented  of,  may  be  turned  from  ;  but  the  injury 
is  done.  The  debasement  may  be  redeemed  by  after-efforts,  the 
stain  obliterated  by  bitterer  struggles  and  severer  sufferings :  but 
the  efforts  and  the  endurance  which  might  have  raised  the  soul  to 
the  loftiest  heights  are  now  exhausted  in  merely  regaining  what 


128  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

it  has  lost.  There  must  always  be  a  wide  difference  between 
him  who  only  ceases  to  do  evil,  and  him  who  has  always  done 
well. 

He  will  certainly  be  a  far  more  scrupulous  watcher  over  his  con- 
duct, and  far  more  careful  of  his  deeds,  who  believes  that  those 
deeds  will  inevitably  bear  their  natural  consequences,  exempt  from 
after  intervention,  than  he  who  believes  that  penitence  and  par- 
don will  at  any  time  unlink  the  chain  of  sequences.  Surely  we 
shall  do  less  wrong  and  injustice,  if  the  conviction  is  fixed  and 
embedded  in  our  souls  that  everything  done  is  done  irrevocably, 
that  even  the  Omnipotence  of  God  cannot  uncommit  a  deed,  can- 
not make  that  undone  which  has  been  done;  that  every  act  of 
ours  must  bear  its  allotted  fruit,  according  to  the  everlasting  la\vs> 
— must  remain  forever  ineffaceably  inscribed  on  the  tablets  of 
Universal  Nature. 

If  you  have  wronged  another,  you  may  grieve,  repent,  and  reso- 
lutely determine  against  any  such  weakness  in  future.  You  may, 
so  far  as  it  is  possible,  make  reparation.  It  is  well.  The  injured 
party  may  forgive  you,  according  to  the  meaning  of  human  lan- 
guage; but  the  deed  is  done;  and  all  the  powers  of  Nature,  were 
they  to  conspire  in  your  behalf,  could  not  make  it  undone;  the 
consequences  to  the  body,  the  consequences  to  the  soul,  though  no 
man  may  perceive  them,  are  there,  are  written  in  the  annals  of  the 
Past,  and  must  reverberate  throughout  all  time. 

Repentance  for  a  wrong  done,  bears,  like  every  other  act,  its  own 
fruit,  the  fruit  of  purifying  the  heart  and  amending  the  Future. 
but  not  of  effacing  the  Past.  The  commission  of  the  wrong  is  an 
irrevocable  act;  but  it  does  not  incapacitate  the  soul  to  do  right 
for  the  future.  Its  consequences  cannot  be  expunged ;  but  its 
course  need  not  be  pursued.  Wrong  and  evil  perpetrated,  though 
ineffaceable,  call  for  no  despair,  but  for  efforts  more  energetic  than 
before.  Repentance  is  still  as  valid  as  ever ;  but  it  is  valid  to  se- 
cure the  Future,  not  to  obliterate  the  Past. 

Even  the  pulsations  of  the  air,  once  set  in  motion  by  the  human 
voice,  cease  not  to  exist  with  the  sounds  to  which  they  gave  rise. 
Their  quickly-attenuated  force  soon  becomes  inaudible  to  human 
ears.  But  the  waves  of  air  thus  raised  perambulate  the  surface  of 
earth  and  ocean,  and  in  less  than  twenty  hours,  every  atom  of  the 
atmosphere  takes  up  the  altered  movement  due  to  that  infinitesi- 
mal portion  of  primitive  motion  which  has  been  conveyed  to  it 


PROVOST  AND  JUDGE.  I2Q 

through  countless  channels,  and  which  must  continue  to  influence 
its  path  throughout  its  future  existence.  The  air  is  one  vast 
library,  on  whose  pages  is  forever  written  all  that  man  has  ever 
said  or  even  whispered.  There,  in  their  mutable,  but  unerring 
characters,  mixed  with  the  earliest,  as  well  as  the  latest  signs  of 
mortality,  stand  forever  recorded,  vows  unredeemed,  promises  un- 
fulfilled ;  perpetuating,  in  the  movements  of  each  particle,  all  in 
unison,  the  testimony  of  man's  changeful  will.  God  reads  that 
book,  though  we  cannot. 

So  earth,  air,  and  ocean  are  the  eternal  witnesses  of  the  acts 
that  we  have  done.  No  motion  impressed  by  natural  causes  or  by 
human  agency  is  ever  obliterated.  The  track  of  every  keel  which 
has  ever  disturbed  the  surface  of  the  ocean  remains  forever  regis- 
tered in  the  future  movements  of  all  succeeding  particles  which 
may  occupy  its  place.  Every  criminal  is  by  the  laws  of  the  Al- 
mighty irrevocably  chained  to  the  testimony  of  his  crime ;  for 
every  atom  of  his  mortal  frame,  through  whatever  changes  it's 
particles  may  migrate,  will  still  retain,  adhering  to  it  through 
every  combination,  some  movement  derived  from  that  very  mus- 
cular effort  by  which  the  crime  itself  was  perpetrated. 

What  if  our  faculties  should  be  so  enhanced  in  a  future  life  as 
to  enable  us  to  perceive  and  trace  the  ineffaceable  consequences  of 
our  idle  words  and  evil  deeds,  and  render  our  remorse  and  grief 
as  eternal  as  those  consequences  themselves?  No  more  fearful 
punishment  to  a  superior  intelligence  can  be  conceived,  than  to 
see  still  in  action,  with  the  consciousness  that  it  must  continue 
in  action  forever,  a  cause  of  wrong  put  in  motion  by  itself  ages 
before. 

Masonry,  by  its  teachings,  endeavors  to  restrain  men  from  the 
commission  of  injustice  a-nd  acts  of  wrong  and  outrage.  Though 
it  does  not  endeavor  to  usurp  the  place  of  religion,  still  its  code 
of  morals  proceeds  upon  other  principles  than  the  municipal  law ; 
and  it  condemns  and  punishes  offences  which  neither  that  law 
punishes  nor  public  opinion  condemns.  In  the  Masonic  law,  to 
cheat  and  overreach  in  trade,  at  the  bar,  in  politics,  are  deemed  no 
more  venial  than  theft;  nor  a  deliberate  lie  than  perjury;  nor 
slander  than  robbery  ;  nor  seduction  than  murder. 

Especially  it  condemns  those  wrongs  of  which  the  doer  induces 
another  to  partake.  He  may  repent ;  he  may,  after  agonizing 
struggles,  regain  the  path  of  virtue :  his  spirit  may  reachieve  its 


130  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

purity  through  much  anguish,  after  many  strifes ;  but  the  weaker 
fellow-creature  whom  he  led  astray,  whom  he  made  a  sharer  in  his 
guilt,  but  whom  he  cannot  make  a  sharer  in  his  repentance  and 
amendment,  whose  downward  course  (the  first  step  of  which  he 
taught)  he  cannot  check,  but  is  compelled  to  witness, — what  for- 
giveness of  sins  can  avail  him  there?  There  is  his  perpetual,  his 
inevitable  punishment,  which  no  repentance  can  alleviate,  and  no 
mercy  can  remit. 

Let  us  be  just,  also,  in  judging  of  other  men's  motives.  We 
know  but  little  of  the  real  merits  or  demerits  of  any  fellow-crea- 
ture. We  can  rarely  say  with  certainty  that  this  man  is  more 
guilty  than  that,  or  even  that  this  man  is  very  good  or  very 
wicked.  Often  the  basest  men  leave  behind  them  excellent  repu- 
tations. There  is  scarcely  one  of  us  who  has  not,  at  some  time  in 
his  life,  been  on  the  edge  of  the  commission  of  a  crime.  Every 
"one  of  us  can  look  back,  and  shuddering  see  the  time  when  our 
feet  stood  upon  the  slippery  crags  that  overhung  the  abyss  of 
guilt;  and  when,  if  temptation  had  been  a  little  more  urgent,  or 
a  little  longer  continued,  if  penury  had  pressed  us  a  little  harder, 
or  a  little  more  wine  had  further  disturbed  our  intellect,  dethroned 
our  judgment,  and  aroused  our  passions,  our  feet  would  have  slip- 
ped, and  we  should  have  fallen,  never  to  rise  again. 

We  may  be  able  to  say — "This  man  has  lied,  has  pilfered,  has 
forged,  has  embezzled  moneys  intrusted  to  him ;  and  that  man  has 
gone  through  life  with  clean  hands."  But  we  cannot  say  that  the 
former  has  not  struggled  long,  though  unsuccessfully,  against 
temptations  under  which  the  second  would  have  succumbed  with- 
out an  effort.  We  can  say  which  has  the  cleanest  hands  before 
man;  but  not  which  has  the  cleanest  soul  before  God.  We  may 
be  able  to  say,  this  man  has  committed  adultery,  and  that  man 
has  been  ever  chaste ;  but  we  cannot  tell  but  that  the  innocence 
of  one  may  have  been  due  to  the  coldness  of  his  heart,  to  the  ab- 
sence of  a  motive,  to  the  presence  of  a  fear,  to  the  slight  degree 
of  the  temptation  :  nor  but  that  the  fall  of  the  other  may  have 
been  preceded  by  the  most  vehement  self-contest,  caused  by  the 
most  over-mastering  frenzy,  and  atoned  for  by  the  most  hallowing 
repentance.  Generosity  as  well  as  niggardliness  may  be  a  mere 
yielding  to  native  temperament ;  and  in  the  eye  of  Heaven,  a  long 
life  of  beneficence  in  one  man  may  have  cost  less  effort,  and  may 
indicate  less  virtue  and  less  sacrifice  of  interest,  than  a  few  rare 


PROVOST   AND  JUDGE.  13! 

hidden  acts  of  kindness  wrung  by  duty  out  of  the  reluctant  and 
unsympathizing  nature  of  the  other.  There  may  be  more  real 
merit,  more  self-sacrificing  effort,  more  of  the  noblest  elements 
of  moral  grandeur,  in  a  life  of  failure,  sin,  and  shame,  than  in  a 
career,  to  our  eyes,  of  stainless  integrity. 

When  we  condemn  or  pity  the  fallen,  how  do  we  know  that, 
tempted  like  him,  we  should  not  have  fallen  like  him,  as  soon,  and 
perhaps  with  less  resistance?  How  can  we  know  what  zvc  should 
do  if  we  were  out  of  employment,  famine  crouching,  gaunt,  and 
hungry,  on  our  fireless  hearth,  and  our  children  wailing  for  bread? 
We  fall  not  because  we  are  not  enough  tempted!  He  that  hath 
fallen  may  be  at  heart  as  honest  as  we.  How  do  we  know  that  our 
daughter,  sister,  wife,  could  resist  the  abandonment,  the  desola- 
tion, the  distress,  the  temptation,  that  sacrificed  the  virtue  of  their 
poor  abandoned  sister  of  shame?  Perhaps  they  also  have  not 
fallen,  because  they  have  not  been  sorely  tempted !  Wisely  are 
we  directed  to  pray  that  we  may  not  be  exposed  to  temptation. 

Human  justice  must  be  ever  uncertain.  How  many  judicial 
murders  have  been  committed  through  ignorance  of  the  phenom- 
ena of  insanity !  How  many  men  hung  for  murder  who  were  no 
more  murderers  at  heart  than  the  jury  that  tried  and  the  judge 
that  sentenced  them !  It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  ad- 
ministration of  human  laws,  in  every  country,  is  not  one  gigantic 
mass  of  injustice  and  wrong.  God  seeth  not  as  man  seeth ;  and 
the  most  abandoned  criminal,  black  as  he  is  before  the  world,  may 
yet  have  continued  to  keep  some  little  light  burning  in  a  corner 
of  his  soul,  which  would  long  since  have  gone  out  in  that  of  those 
who  walk  proudly  in  the  sunshine  of  immaculate  fame,  if  they  had 
been  tried  and  tempted  like  the  poor  outcast. 

We  do  not  know  even  the  outside  life  of  men.  We  are  not  com- 
petent to  pronounce  even  on  their  deeds.  We  do  not  know  half 
the  acts  of  wickedness  or  virtue,  even  of  our  most  immediate  fel- 
lows. We  cannot  say,  with  certainty,  even  of  our  nearest  friend, 
that  he  has  not  committed  a  particular  sin,  and  broken  a  particu- 
lar commandment.  Let  each  man  ask  his  own  heart !  Of  how 
many  of  our  best  and  of  our  worst  acts  and  qualities  are  our  most 
intimate  associates  utterly  unconscious !  How  many  virtues  does 
not  the  world  give  us  credit  for,  that  we  do  not  possess ;  or  vices 
condemn  us  for,  of  which  we  nre  not  the  slaves  !  It  is  but  a  small 
portion  of  our  evil  deeds  and  thoughts  that  ever  comes  to  light; 


132  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  of  our  few  redeeming  goodnesses,  the  largest  portion  is  known 
to  God  alone. 

We  shall,  therefore,  be  just  in  judging  of  other  men,  only  when 
we  are  charitable;  and  we  should  assume  the  prerogative  of  judg- 
ing others  only  when  the  duty  is  forced  upon  us ;  since  we  are  so 
almost  certain  to  err,  and  the  consequences  of  error  are  so  serious 
No  man  need  covet  the  office  of  judge ;  for  in  assuming  it  he  as- 
sumes the  gravest  and  most  oppressive  responsibility.  Yet  you 
have  assumed  it ;  we  all  assume  it ;  for  man  is  ever  ready  to  judge, 
and  ever  ready  to  condemn  his  neighbor,  while  upon  the  same  state 
of  case  he  acquits  himself.  See,  therefore,  that  you  exercise  your 
office  cautiously  and  charitably,  lest,  in  passing  judgment  upon 
the  criminal,  you  commit  a  greater  wrong  than  that  for  which  you 
condemn  him,  and  the  consequences  of  which  must  be  eternal. 

The  faults  and  crimes  and  follies  of  other  men  are  not  unim- 
portant to  us ;  but  form  a  part  of  our  moral  discipline.  War  and 
bloodshed  at  a  distance,  and  frauds  which  do  not  affect  our  pecu- 
niary interest,  yet  touch  us  in  our  feelings,  and  concern  our  moral 
welfare.  They  have  much  to  do  with  all  thoughtful  hearts.  The 
public  eye  may  look  unconcernedly  on  the  miserable  victim  of  vice, 
and  that  shattered  wreck  of  a  man  may  move  the  multitude  to 
laughter  or  to  scorn.  But  to  the  Mason,  it  is  the  form  of  sacred 
humanity  that  is  before  him ;  it  is  an  erring  fellow-being ;  a  deso- 
late, forlorn,  forsaken  soul ;  and  his  thoughts,  enfolding  the  poor 
wretch,  will  be  far  deeper  than  those  of  indifference,  ridicule,  or 
contempt.  All  human  offences,  the  whole  system  of  dishonesty, 
evasion,  circumventing,  forbidden  indulgence,  and  intriguing  am- 
bition, in  which  men  are  struggling  with  each  other,  will  be  looked 
upon  by  a  thoughtful  Mason,  not  merely  as  a  scene  of  mean  toils 
and  strifes,  but  as  the  solemn  conflicts  of  immortal  minds,  for  ends 
vast  and  momentous  as  their  own  being.  It  is  a  sad  and  unworthy 
strife,  and  may  well  be  viewed  with  indignation ;  but  that  indig- 
nation must  melt  into  pity.  For  the  stakes  for  which  these  game- 
sters play  are  not  those  which  they  imagine,  not  those  which  are 
in  sight.  For  example,  this  man  plays  for  a  petty  office,  and  gains 
it ;  but  the  real  stake  he  gains  is  sycophancy,  uncharitableness, 
slander,  and  deceit. 

Good  men  are  too  proud  of  their  goodness.  They  are  respecta- 
ble ;  dishonor  comes  not  near  them ;  their  countenance  has  weight 
and  influence ;  their  robes  are  unstained ;  the  poisonous  breath  of 


PROVOST  AND  JUDGE.  133 

calumny  has  never  been  breathed  upon  their  fair  name.  How  easy 
it  is  for  them  to  look  down  with  scorn  upon  the  poor  degraded 
offender ;  to  pass  him  by  with  a  lofty  step ;  to  draw  up  the  folds 
of  their  garment  around  them,  that  they  may  not  be  soiled  by  his 
touch !  Yet  the  Great  Master  of  Virtue  did  not  so  ;  but  descended 
to  familiar  intercourse  with  publicans  and  sinners,  with  the  Samar- 
itan woman,  with  the  outcasts  and  the  Pariahs  of  the  Hebrew 
world. 

Many  men  think  themselves  better,  in  proportion  as  they  can 
detect  sins  in  others !  When  they  go  over  the  catalogue  of  their 
neighbor's  unhappy  derelictions  of  temper  or  conduct,  they  often, 
amidst  much  apparent  concern,  feel  a  secret  exultation,  that 
destroys  all  their  own  pretensions  to  wisdom  and  moderation,  and 
even  to  virtue.  Many  even  take  actual  pleasure  in  the  sins  of 
others ;  and  this  is  the  case  with  every  one  whose  thoughts  are 
often  employed  in  agreeable  comparisons  of  his  own  virtues  with 
his  neighbors'  faults. 

The  power  of  gentleness  is  too  little  seen  in  the  world ;  the  sub- 
duing influences  of  pity,  the  might  of  love,  the  control  of  mildness 
over  passion,  the  commanding  majesty  of  that  perfect  character 
which  mingles  grave  displeasure  with  grief  and  pity  for  the  offend- 
er. So  it  is  that  a  Mason  should  treat  his  brethren  who  go  astray. 
Not  with  bitterness ;  nor  yet  with  good-natured  easiness,  nor  with 
worldly  indifference,  nor  with  the  philosophic  coldness,  nor  with  a 
laxity  of  conscience,  that  accounts  everything  well,  that  passes 
under  the  seal  of  public  opinion ;  but  with  charity,  with  pitying 
loving-kindness. 

The  human  heart  will  not  bow  willingly  to  what  is  infirm  and 
wrong  in  human  nature.  If  it  yields  to  us,  it  must  yield  to  what 
is  divine  in  us.  The  wickedness  of  my  neighbor  cannot  submit  to 
my  wickedness  ;  his  sensuality,  for  instance,  to  my  anger  against 
his  vices.  My  faults  are  not  the  instruments  that  are  to  arrest 
his  faults.  And  therefore  impatient  reformers,  and  denouncing 
preachers,  and  hasty  reprovers,  and  angry  parents,  and  irritable 
relatives  generally  fail,  in  their  several  departments,  to  reclaim  the 
erring. 

A  moral  offence  is  sickness,  pain,  loss,  dishonor,  in  the  immor- 
tal part  of  man.  It  is  guilt,  and  misery  added  to  guilt.  It  is  itself 
calamity ;  and  brings  upon  itself,  in  addition,  the  calamity  of  God's 
disapproval,  the  abhorrence  of  all  virtuous  men,  and  the  soul's  own 


134  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

abhorrence.  Deal  faithfully,  but  patiently  and  tenderly,  with  this 
evil !  It  is  no  matter  for  petty  provocation,  nor  for  personal  strife, 
nor  for  selfish  irritation. 

Speak  kindly  to  your  erring  brother !  God  pities  him :  Christ 
has  died  for  him:  Providence  waits  for  him:  Heaven's  mercy 
yearns  toward  him  ;  and  Heaven's  spirits  are  ready  to  welcome  him 
back  with  joy.  Let  your  voice  be  in  unison  with  all  those  powers 
that  God  is  using  for  his  recovery  ! 

If  one  defrauds  you,  and  exults  at  it,  he  is  the  most  to  be  pitied 
of  human  beings.  He  has  done  himself  a  far  deeper  injury  than  he 
has  done  you.  It  is  him,  and  not  you,  whom  God  regards  with 
mingled  displeasure  and  compassion ;  and  His  judgment  should 
be  your  law.  Among  all  the  benedictions  of  the  Holy  Mount 
there  is  not  one  for  this  man ;  but  for  the  merciful,  the  peace- 
makers, and  the  persecuted  they  are  poured  out  freely. 

We  are  all  men  of  like  passions,  propensities,  and  exposures. 
There  are  elements  in  us  all,  which  might  have  been  perverted, 
through  the  successive  processes  of  moral  deterioration,  to  the 
worst  of  crimes.  The  wretch  whom  the  execration  of  the  throng- 
ing crowd  pursues  to  the  scaffold,  is  not  worse  than  any  one  of  that 
multitude  might  have  become  under  similar  circumstances.  He 
is  to  be  condemned  indeed,  but  also  deeply  to  be  pitied. 

It  does  not  become  the  frail  and  sinful  to  be  vindictive  toward 
even  the  worst  criminals.  We  owe  much  to  the  good  Providence 
of  God,  ordaining  for  us  a  lot  more  favorable  to  virtue.  We  all  had 
that  within  us,  that  might  have  been  pushed  to  the  same  excess. 
Perhaps  we  should  have  fallen  as  he  did,  with  less  temptation.  Per- 
haps we  have  done  acts,  that,  in  proportion  to  the  temptation  or 
provocation,  were  less  excusable  than  his  great  crime.  Silent  pity 
and  sorrow  for  the  victim  should  mingle  with  our  detestation  of 
the  guilt.  Even  the  pirate  who  murders  in  cold  blood  on  the  high 
seas,  is  such  a  man  as  you  or  I  might  have  been.  Orphanage  in 
childhood,  or  base  and  dissolute  and  abandoned  parents ;  an  un- 
friended youth ;  evil  companions ;  ignorance  and  want  of  moral 
cultivation;  the  temptations,  of  sinful  pleasure  or  grinding  pov- 
erty ;  familiarity  with  vice ;  a  scorned  and  blighted  name ;  seared 
and  crushed  affections ;  desperate  fortunes ;  these  are  steps  that 
might  have  led  any  one  among  us  to  unfurl  upon  the  high  seas  the 
bloody  flag  of  universal  defiance ;  to  wage  war  with  our  kind ;  to 
live  the  life  and  die  the  death  of  the  reckless  and  remorseless  free- 


1'ROVOST  AND  JUDGE.  135 

hooter.  Many  affecting  relationships  of  humanity  plead  with  us 
to  pity  him.  His  head  once  rested  on  a  mother's  bosom.  He  was 
o"oe  the  object  of  sisterly  love  and  domestic  endearment.  Perhaps 
his  hand,  since  often  red  with  blood,  once  clasped  another  little 
loving  hand  at  the  altar.  Pity  him  then ;  his  blighted  hopes  and 
his  crushed  heart !  It  is  proper  that  frail  and  erring  creatures 
like  us  should  do  so;  should  feel  the  crime,  but  feel  it  as  weak, 
tempted,  and  rescued  creatures  should.  It  may  be  that  when  God 
weighs  men's  crimes,  He  will  take  into  consideration  the  tempta- 
tions and  the  adverse  circumstances  that  led  to  them,  and  the  op- 
portunities for  moral  culture  of  the  offender  ;  and  it  may  be  that  our 
own  offences  will  weigh  heavier  than  we  think,  and  the  murderer's 
lighter  than  according  to  man's  judgment. 

On  all  accounts,  therefore,  let  the  true  Mason  never  forget  the 
solemn  injunction,  necessary  to  be  observed  at  almost  every  mo- 
ment of  a  busy  life:  "JUDGE  NOT>  LEST  YE  YOURSELVES  BE  JUDGED: 

FOR  WHATSOEVER  JUDGMENT  YE  MEASURE  UNTO  OTHERS,  THE 
SAME  SHALL  IN  TURN  BE  MEASURED  UNTO  YOU."  Such  is  the 

lesson  taught  the  Provost  and  Judge. 


~     4 


VIII. 
INTENDANT  OF  THE  BUILDING. 

IN  this  Degree  you  have  been  taught  the  important  lesson,  that 
none  are  entitled  to  advance  in  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish 
Rite,  who  have  not  by  study  and  application  made  themselves 
familiar  with  Masonic  learning  and  jurisprudence.  The  Degrees 
of  this  Rite  are  not  for  those  who  are  content  with  the  mere  work 
and  ceremonies,  and  do  not  seek  to  explore  the  mines  of  wisdom 
that  lie  buried  beneath  the  surface.  You  still  advance  toward  the 
Light,  toward  that  star,  blazing  in  the  distance,  which  is  an  em- 
blem of  the  Divine  Truth,  given  by  God  to  the  first  men,  and 
preserved  amid  all  the  vicissitudes  of  ages  in  the  traditions  and 
teachings  of  Masonry.  How  far  you  will  advance,  depends  upon 
yourseJf  alone.  Here,  as  everywhere  in  the  world,  Darkness 
struggles  with  Light,  and  clouds  and  shadows  intervene  between 
you  and  the  Truth. 

When  you  shall  have  become  imbued  with  the  morality  of  Ma- 
sonry, with  which  you  yet  are.  and  for  some  time  will  be  exclu- 
sively occupied, — when  you  shall  have  learned  to  practise  all  the 
virtues  which  it  inculcates ;  when  they  become  familiar  to  you  as 
your  Household  Gods:  then  will  you  be  prepared  to  receive  its 
lofty  philosophical  instruction,  and  to  scale  the  heights  upon 
whose  summit  Light  and  Truth  sit  enthroned.  Step  by  step  men 
must  advance  toward  Perfection :  and  each  Masonic  Degree  is 
meant  to  be  one  of  those  steps.  Each  is  a  development  of  a  par- 
ticular duty;  and  in  the  present  you  are  taught  charity  and  be- 
136 


INTENDANT  OF  THE  BUILDING.  137 

nevolence ;  to  be  to  your  brethren  an  example  of  virtue ;  to  correct 
yourown  faults ;  and  to  endeavor  to  correct  those  of  your  brethren. 

Here,  as  in  all  the  Degrees,  you  meet  with  the  emblems  and  the 
names  of  Deity,  the  true  knowledge  of  whose  character  and  attri- 
butes it  has  ever  been  a  chief  object  of  Masonry  to  perpetuate.  To 
appreciate  His  infinite  greatness  and  goodness,  to  rely  implicitly 
upon  His  Providence,  to  revere  and  venerate  Him  as  the  Supreme 
Architect,  Creator,  and  Legislator  of  the  universe,  is  the  first  of 
Masonic  duties. 

The  Battery  of  this  Degree,  and  the  five  circuits  which  you 
made  around  the  Lodge,  allude  to  the  five  points  of  fellowship, 
and  are  intended  to  recall  them  vividly  to  your  mind.  To  go  upon 
a  brother's  errand  or  to  his  relief,  even  barefoot  and  upon  flinty 
ground ;  to  remember  him  in  your  supplications  to  the  Deity ;  to 
clasp  him  to  your  heart,  and  protect  him  against  malice  and  evil- 
speaking  ;  to  uphold  him  when  about  to  stumble  and  fall ;  and  to 
give  him  prudent,  honest,  and  friendly  counsel,  are  duties  plainly 
written  upon  the  pages  of  God's  great  code  of  law,  and  first  among 
the  ordinances  of  Masonry. 

The  first  sign  of  the  Degree  is  expressive  of  the  diffidence  and 
humility  with  which  we  inquire  into  the  nature  and  attributes  of 
the  Deity;  the  second,  of  the  profound  awe  and  reverence  with 
which  we  contemplate  His  glories ;  and  the  third,  of  the  sorrow 
with  which  we  reflect  upon  our  insufficient  observance  of  our  du- 
ties, and  our  imperfect  compliance  with  His  statutes. 

The  distinguishing  property  of  man  is  to  search  for  and  follow 
after  truth.  Therefore,  when  relaxed  from  our  necessary  cares 
and  concerns,  we  then  covet  to  see,  to  hear,  and  to  learn  some- 
what ;  and  we  esteem  knowledge  of  things,  either  obscure  or  won- 
derful, to  be  the  indispensable  means  of  l-iving  happily.  Truth, 
Simplicity,  and  Candor  are  most  agreeable  to  the  nature  of  man- 
kind. Whatever  is  virtuous  consists  either  in  Sagacity,  an.d  the 
perception  of  Truth ;  or  in  the  preservation  of  Human  Society, 
by  giving  to  every  man  his  due,  and  observing  the  faith  of  con- 
tracts ;  or  in  the  greatness  and  firmness  of  an  elevated  and  unsub- 
dued mind ;  or  in  observing  order  and  regularity  in  all  our  words 
and  in  all  our  actions ;  in  which  consist  Moderation  and  Temperance. 

Masonry  has  in  all  times  religiously  preserved  that  enlightened 
faith  from  which  flow  sublime  Devotedness,  the  sentiment  of  Fra- 
ternity fruitful  of  good  works,  the  spirit  of  indulgence  and  peace, 
10 


138  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  sweet  hopes  and  effectual  consolations ;  and  inflexibility  in  the 
accomplishment  of  the  most  painful  and  arduous  duties.  It  has 
always  propagated  it  with  ardor  and  perseverance ;  and  therefore 
it  labors  at  the  present  day  more  zealously  than  ever.  Scarcely  a 
Masonic  discourse  is  pronounced,  that  does  not  demonstrate  the 
necessity  and  advantages  of  this  faith,  and  especially  recall  the  two 
constitutive  principles  of  religion,  that  make  all  religion, — love  of 
God,  and  love  of  our  neighbor.  Masons  carry  these  principles  into 
the  bosoms  of  their  families  and  of  society.  While  the  Sectarians 
of  former  times  enfeebled  the  religious  spirit,  Masonry,  forming 
one  great  People  over  the  whole  globe,  and  marching  under  the 
great  banner  of  Charity  and  Benevolence,  preserves  that  religious 
feeling,  strengthens  it,  extends  it  in  its  purity  and  simplicity,  as  it 
has  always  existed  in  the  depths  of  the  human  heart,  as  it  existed 
even  under  the  dominion  of  the  most  ancient  forms  of  worship, 
but  where  gross  and  debasing  superstitions  forbade  its  recognition. 

A  Masonic  Lodge  should  resemble  a  bee-hive,  in  which  all  the 
members  work  together  with  ardor  for  the  common  good.  Ma- 
sonry is  not  made  for  cold  souls  and  narrow  minds,  that  do  not 
comprehend  its  lofty  mission  and  sublime  apostolate.  Here  the 
anathema  against  lukewarm  souls  applies.  To  comfort  misfortune, 
to  popularize  knowledge,  to  teach  whatever  is  true  and  pure  in  re- 
ligion and  philosophy,  to  accustom  men  to  respect  order  and  the 
proprieties  of  life,  to  point  out  the  way  to  genuine  happiness,  to 
prepare  for  that  fortunate  period,  when  all  the  fractions  of  the 
Human  Family,  united  by  the  bonds  of  Toleration  and  Frater- 
nity, shall  be  but  one  household, — these  are  labors  that  may  well 
excite  zeal  and  even  enthusiasm. 

We  do  not  now  enlarge  upon  or  elaborate  these  ideas.  We  but 
utter  them  to  you  briefly,  as  hints,  upon  which  you  may  at  your 
leisure  reflect.  Hereafter,  if  you  continue  to  advance,  they  will  be 
unfolded,  explained,  and  developed. 

Masonry  utters  no  impracticable  and  extravagant  precepts,  cer- 
tain, because  they  are  so,  to  be  disregarded.  It  asks  of  its  initiates 
nothing  that  it  is  not  possible  and  even  easy  for  them  to  perform. 
Its  teachings  are  eminently  practical ;  and  its  statutes  can  be 
obeyed  by  every  just,  upright,  and  honest  man,  no  matter  what  his 
faith  or  creed.  Its  object  is  to  attain  the  greatest  practical  good, 
without  seeking  to  make  men  perfect.  It  does  not  meddle  with 
the  domain  of  religion,  nor  inquire  into  the  mysteries  of  regen- 


INTENDANT   OF   THE    BUILDING.  139 

eration.  It  teaches  those  truths  that  are  written  by  the  finger  of 
God  upon  the  heart  of  man,  those  views  of  duty  which  have  been 
wrought  out  by  the  meditations  of  the  studious,  confirmed  by  the 
allegiance  of  the  good  c.nd  wise,  and  stamped  as  sterling  by  the 
response  they  find  in  every  uncorrupted  mind.  It  does  not  dog- 
matize, nor  vainly  imagine  dogmatic  certainty  to  be  attainable. 

Masonry  does  not  occupy  itself  with  crying  down  this  world, 
with  its  splendid  beauty,  its  thrilling  interests,  its  glorious  works, 
its  noble  and  holy  affections ;  nor  exhort  us  to  detach  our  hearts 
from  this  earthly  life,  as  empty,  fleeting,  and  unworthy,  and  fix 
them  upon  Heaven,  as  the  only  sphere  deserving  the  love  of  the 
loving  or  the  meditation  of  the  wise.  It  teaches  that  man  has 
high  duties  to  perform,  and  a  high  destiny  to  fulfill,  on  this  earth  ; 
th?.t  this  world  is  not  merely  the  portal  to  another ;  and  that  this 
life,  though  not  our  only  one,  is  an  integral  one,  and  the  particular 
one  with  which  we  are  here  meant  to  be  concerned ;  that  the  Pres- 
ent is  our  scene  of  action,  and  the  Future  for  speculation  and 
for  trust;  that  man  was  sent  upon  the  earth  to  live  in  it,  to  enjoy 
it,  to  study  it,  to  love  it,  to  embellish  it,  to  make  the  most  of  it. 
It  is  his  country,  on  which  he  should  lavish  his  affections  and  his 
efforts.  It  is  here  his  influences  are  to  operate.  It  is  his  house, 
and  not  a  tent;  his  home,  and  not  merely  a  school.  He  is  sent 
into  this  world,  not  to  be  constantly  hankering  after,  dreaming  of, 
preparing  for  another ;  but  to  do  his  duty  and  fulfill  his  destiny 
on  this  earth ;  to  do  all  that  lies  in  his  power  to  improve  it,  to 
render  it  a  scene  of  elevated  happiness  to  himself,  to  those  around 
him,  to  those  who  are  to  come  after  him.  His  life  here  is  part  of 
his  immortality ;  and  this  world,  also,  is  among  the  stars. 

And  thus,  Masonry  teaches  us,  will  man  best  prepare  for  that 
Future  which  he  hopes  for.  The  Unseen  cannot  hold  a  higher 
place  in  our  affections  than  the  Seen  and  the  Familiar.  The  law 
of  our  being  is  Love  of  Life,  and  its  interests  and  adornments ; 
love  of  the  world  in  which  our  lot  is  cast,  engrossment  with  the 
interests  and  affections  of  earth.  Not  a  low  or  sensual  love ;  not 
love  of  wealth,  of  fame,  of  ease,  of  power,  of  splendor.  Not  low 
worldliness  ;  but  the  love  of  Earth  as  the  garden  on  which  the 
Creator  has  lavished  such  miracles  of  beauty ;  as  the  habitation 
of  humanity,  the  arena  of  its  conflicts,  the  scene  of  its  illimitable 
progress,  the  dwelling-place  of  the  wise,  the  good,  the  active,  the 
loving,  and  the  dear ;  the  place  of  opportunity  for  the  development 


140  .  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

by  means  of  sin  and  suffering  and  sorrow,  of  the  noblest  passions, 
the  loftiest  virtues,  and  the  tenderest  sympathies. 

They  take  very  unprofitable  pains,  who  endeavor  to  persuade 
men  that  they  are  obliged  wholly  to  despise  this  world,  and  all  that 
is  in  it,  even  whilst  they  themselves  live  here.  God  hath  not  taken 
all  that  pains  in  forming  and  framing  and  furnishing  and  adorn- 
ing the  world,  that  they  who  were  made  by  Him  to  live  in  it 
should  despise  it.  It  will  be  enough,  if  they  do  not  love  it  too  im- 
moderately. It  is  useless  to  attempt  to  extinguish  all  those  affec- 
tions and  passions  which  are  and  always  will  be  inseparable  from 
human  nature.  As  long  as  the  world  lasts,  and  honor  and  virtue 
and  industry  have  reputation  in  the  world,  there  will  be  ambition 
and  emulation  and  appetite  in  the  best  and  most  accomplished  men 
in  it ;  and  if  there  were  not,  more  barbarity  and  vice  and  wicked- 
ness would  cover  every  nation  of  the  world,  than  it  now  suffers 
under. 

Those  only  who  feel  a  deep  interest  in,  and  affection  for,  this 
world,  will  work  resolutely  for  its  amelioration.  Those  who  under- 
value this  life,  naturally  become  querulous  and  discontented,  and 
lose  their  interest  in  the  welfare  of  their  fellows.  To  serve  them, 
and  so  to  do  our  duty  as  Masons,  we  must  feel  that  the  object  is 
worth  the  exertion ;  and  be  content  with  this  world  in  which  God 
has  placed  us,  until  He  permits  us  to  remove  to  a  better  one.  He 
is  here  with  us,  and  does  not  deem  this  an  unworthy  world. 

It  is  a  serious  thing  to  defame  and  belie  a  whole  world  ;  to  speak 
of  it  as  the  abode  of  a  poor,  toiling,  drudging,  ignorant,  contempt- 
ible race.  You  would  not  so  discredit  your  family,  your  friendly 
circle,  your  village,  your  city,  your  country.  The  world  is  not  a 
wretched  and  a  worthless  one ;  nor  is  it  a  misfortune,  but  a  thing 
to  be  thankful  for,  to  be  a  man.  If  life  is  worthless,  so  also  is  im- 
mortality. 

In  society  itself,  in  that  living  mechanism  of  human  relation- 
ships that  spreads  itself  over  the  world,  there  is  a  finer  essence 
within,  that  as  truly  moves  it,  as  any  power,  heavy  or  expansive, 
moves  the  sounding  manufactory  or  the  swift-flying  car.  The 
man-machine  hurries  to  and  fro  upon  the  earth,  stretches  out  its 
hands  on  every  side,  to  toil,  to  barter,  to  unnumbered  labors  and 
enterprises ;  and  almost  always  the  motive,  that  which  moves  it, 
;s  something  that  takes  hold  of  the  comforts,  affections,  and  hopes 
of  social  existence.  True,  the  mechanism  often  works  with  diffi- 


INTENDANT   OF   THE    BUILDING.  14! 

culty,  drags  heavily,  grates  and  screams  with  harsh  collision.  True, 
the  essence  of  finer  motive,  becoming  intermixed  with  baser  and 
coarser  ingredients,  often  clogs,  obstructs,  jars,  and  deranges  the 
free  and  noble  action  of  social  life.  But  he  is  neither  grateful  nor 
wise,  who  looks  cynically  on  all  this,  and  loses  the  tine  sense  of 
social  good  in  its  perversions.  That  I  can  be  a  friend,  that  I  can 
have  a  friend,  though  it  were  but  one  in  the  world ;  that  fact,  that 
wondrous  good  fortune,  we  may  set  against  all  the  sufferings  of 
our  social  nature.  That  there  is  such  a  place  on  earth  as  a  home, 
that  resort  and  sanctuary  of  in-walled  and  shielded  joy,  we  may 
set  against  all  the  surrounding  desolations  of  life.  That  one  can 
be  a  true,  social  man,  can  speak  his  true  thoughts,  amidst  all  the 
j anglings  of  controversy  and  the  warring  of  opinions ;  that  fact 
from  within,  outweighs  all  facts  from  without. 

In  the  visible  aspect  and  action  of  society,  often  repulsive  and 
annoying,  we  are  apt  to  lose  the  due  sense  of  its  invisible  bless- 
ings. As  in  Nature  it  is  not  the  coarse  and  palpable,  not  soils  and 
rains,  nor  even  fields  and  flowers,  that  are  so  beautiful,  as  the  in- 
visible spirit  of  wisdom  and  beauty  that  pervades  it ;  so  in  society, 
it  is  the  invisible,  and  therefore  unobserved,  that  is  most  beautiful. 

What  nerves  the  arm  of  toil  ?  If  man  minded  himself  alone, 
he  would  fling  down  the  spade  and  axe,  and  rush  to  the  desert ;  or 
roam  through  the  world  as  a  wilderness,  and  make  that  world  a 
desert.  His  home,  which  he  sees  not,  perhaps,  but  once  or  twice 
in  a  day,  is  the  invisible  bond  of  the  world.  It  is  the  good,  strong, 
and  noble  faith  that  men  have  in  each  other,  which  gives  the  lof- 
tiest character  to  business,  trade,  and  commerce.  Fraud  occurs  in 
the  rush  of  business;  but  it  is  the  exception.  Honesty  is  the 
rule ;  and  all  the  frauds  in  the  world  cannot  tear  the  great  bond  of 
human  confidence.  If  they  could,  commerce  would  furl  its  sails 
on  every  sea,  and  all  the  cities  of  the  world  would  crumble  into 
ruins.  The  bare  character  of  a  man  on  the  other  side,  of  the 
world,  whom  you  never  saw,  whom  you  never  will  see,  you  hold 
good  for  a  bond  of  thousands.  The  most  striking  feature  of  the 
political  state  is  not  governments,  nor  constitutions,  nor  laws,  nor 
enactments,  nor  the  judicial  power,  nor  the  police  ;  but  the  univer- 
sal will  of  the  people  to  be  governed  by  the  common  weal.  Take 
off  that  restraint,  and  no  government  on  earth  could  stand  for  an 
hour. 

Of  the  many  teachings  of  Masonry,  one  of  the  most  valuable  is, 


142  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

that  we  should  not  depreciate  this  life.  It  does  not  hold,  that 
when  we  reflect  on  the  destiny  that  awaits  man  on  earth,  we  ought 
to  bedew  his  cradle  with  our  tears ;  but,  like  the  Hebrews,  it  hails 
the  birth  of  a  child  with  joy,  and  holds  that  his  birthday  should 
be  a  festival. 

It  has  no  sympathy  with  those  who  profess  to  have  proved  this 
life,  and  found  it  little  worth;  who  have  deliberately  made  up 
their  minds  that  it  is  far  more  miserable  than  happy;  because  its 
employments  are  tedious,  and  their  schemes  often  baffled,  their 
friendships  broken,  or  their  friends  dead,  its  pleasures  palled,  and 
its  honors  faded,  and  its  paths  beaten,  familiar,  and  dull. 

Masonry  deems  it  no  mark  of  great  piety  toward  God  to  dis- 
parage, if  not  despise,  the  state  that  He  has  ordained  for  us.  It 
does  not  absurdly  set  up  the  claims  of  another  world,  not  in  com- 
parison merely,  but  in  competition,  with  the  claims  of  this.  It 
looks  upon  both  as  parts  of  one  system.  It  holds  that  a  man  may 
make  the  best  of  this  world  and  of  another  at  the  same  time.  It 
does  not  teach  its  initiates  to  think  better  of  other  works  and  dis- 
pensations of  God,  by  thinking  meanly  of  these.  It  does  not  look 
upon  life  as  so  much  time  lost;  nor  regard  its  employments  as 
trifles  unworthy  of  immortal  beings ;  nor  tell  its  followers  to  fold 
their  arms,  as  if  in  disdain  of  their  state  and  species ;  but  it  looks 
soberly  and  cheerfully  upon  the  world,  as  a  theatre  of  worthy 
action,  of  exalted  usefulness,  and  of  rational  and  innocent  enjoy- 
ment. 

It  holds  that,  with  all  its  evils,  life  is  a  blessing.  To  deny  that 
is  to  destroy  the  basis  of  all  religion,  natural  and  revealed.  The 
very  foundation  of  all  religion  is  laid  on  the  firm  belief  that  God 
is  good ;  and  if  this  life  is  an  evil  and  a  curse,  no  such  belief  can 
be  rationally  entertained.  To  level  our  satire  at  humanity  and 
human  existence,  as  mean  and  contemptible ;  to  look  on  this  world 
as  the  habitation  of  a  miserable  race,  fit  only  for  mockery  and 
scorn ;  to  consider  this  earth  as  a  dungeon  or  a  prison,  which  has 
no  blessing  to  offer  but  escape  from  it,  is  to  extinguish  the  primal 
light  of  faith  and  hope  and  happiness,  to  destroy  the  basis  of  reli- 
gion, and  Truth's  foundation  in  the  goodness  of  God.  If  it  in- 
deed be  so,  then  it  matters  not  what,  else  is  true  or  not  true ;  spec- 
ulation is  vain  and  faith  is  vain ;  and  all  that  belongs  to  man's 
highest  being  is  buried  in  the  ruins  of  misanthropy,  melancholy, 
and  des  air. 


INTENDANT  OF  THE   BUILDING.  143 

Our  love  of  life ;  the  tenacity  with  which,  in  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing, we  cling  to  it ;  our  attachment  to  our  home,  to  the  spot  that 
gave  us  birth,  to  any  place,  however  rude,  unsightly,  or  barren,  on 
which  the  history  of  our  years  has  been  written,  all  show  how  dear 
are  the  ties  of  kindred  and  society.  Misery  makes  a  greater  im- 
pression upon  us  than  happiness;  because  the  former  is  not  the 
habit  of  our  minds.  It  is  a  strange,  unusual  guest,  and  we  are 
more  conscious  of  its  presence.  Happiness  lives  with  us,  and  we 
forget  it.  It  does  not  excite  us,  nor  disturb  the  order  and  course 
of  our  thoughts.  A  great  agony  is  an  epoch  in  our  life.  We  re- 
member our  afflictions,  as  we  do  the  storm  and  earthquake, 
because  they  are  out  of  the  common  course  of  things.  They  are 
like  disastrous  events,  recorded  because  extraordinary ;  and  with 
whole  and  unnoticed  periods  of  prosperity  between.  We  mark 
and  signalize  the  times  of  calamity;  but  many  happy  days  and 
unnoted  periods  of  enjoyment  pass,  that  are  unrecorded  either  in 
the  book  of  memory,  or  in  the  scanty  annals  of  our  thanksgiving. 
We  are  little  disposed  and  less  able  to  call  up  from  the  dim  remem- 
brances of  our  past  years,  the  peaceful  moments,  the  easy  sensa- 
tions, the  bright  thoughts,  the  quiet  reveries,  the  throngs  of  kind 
affections  in  which  life  flowed  on,  bearing  us  almost  unconsciously 
upon  its  bosom,  because  it  bore  us  calmly  and  gently. 

Life  is  not  only  good ;  but  it  has  been  glorious  in  the  experience 
of  millions.  The  glory  of  all  human  virtue  clothes  it.  The  splen- 
dors of  devotedness,  beneficence,  and  heroism  are  upon  it ;  the 
crown  of  a  thousand  martyrdoms  is  upon  its  brow.  The  bright- 
ness of  the  soul  shines  through  this  visible  and  sometimes  dark- 
ened life ;  through  all  its  surrounding  cares  and  labors.  The 
humblest  life  may  feel  its  connection  with  its  Infinite  Source. 
There  is  something  mighty  in  the  frail  inner  man ;  something  of 
immortality  in  this  momentary  and  transient  being.  The  mind 
stretches  away,  on  every  side,  into  infinity.  Its  thoughts  flash 
abroad,  far  into  the  boundless,  the  immeasurable,  the  infinite ;  far 
into  the  great,  dark,  teeming  future ;  and  become  powers  and  in- 
fluences in  other  ages.  To  know  its  wonderful  Author,  to  bring 
down  wisdom  from  the  Eternal  Stars,  to  bear  upward  its  homage, 
gratitude,  and  love,  to  the  Ruler  of  all  worlds,  to  be  immortal  in 
our  influences  projected  far  into  the  slow-approaching  Future, 
makes  life  most  worthy  and  most  glorious. 

Life  is  the  wonderful  creation  of  God.    It  is  light,  sprung  from 


144  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

void  darkness ;  power,  waked  from  inertness  and  impotence ;  be- 
ing created  from  nothing;  and  the  contrast  may  well  enkindle 
wonder  and  delight.  It  is  a  rill  from  the  infinite,  overflowing 
goodness ;  and  from  the  moment  when  it  first  gushes  up  into  the 
light,  to  that  when  it  mingles  with  the  ocean  of  Eternity,  that 
Goodness  attends  it  and  ministers  to  it.  It  is  a  great  and  glorious 
gift.  There  is  gladness  in  its  infant  voices ;  joy  in  the  buoyant 
step  of  its  youth ;  deep  satisfaction  in  its  strong  maturity ;  and 
peace  in  its  quiet  age.  There  is  good  for  the  good ;  virtue  for  the 
faithful ;  and  victory  for  the  valiant.  There  is,  even  in  this  hum- 
ble life,  an  infinity  for  those  whose  desires  are  boundless.  There 
are  blessings  upon  its  birth ;  there  is  hope  in  its  death ;  and  eter- 
nity in  its  prospect.  Thus  earth,  which  binds  many  in  chains,  is 
to  the  Mason  both  the  starting-place  and  goal  of  immortality. 
Many  it  buries  in  the  rubbish  of  dull  cares  and  wearying  vanities ; 
but  to  the  Mason  it  is  the  lofty  mount  of  meditation,  where 
Heaven,  and  Infinity  and  Eternity  are  spread  before  him  and 
around  him.  To  the  lofty-minded,  the  pure,  and  the  virtuous,  this 
life  is  the  beginning  of  Heaven,  and  a  part  of  immortality. 

God  hath  appointed  one  remedy  for  all  the  evils  in  the  world ; 
and  that  is  a  contented  spirit.  We  may  be  reconciled  to  poverty 
and  a  low  fortune,  if  we  suffer  contentedness  and  equanimity  to 
make  the  proportions.  No  man  is  poor  who  doth  not  think  him- 
self so ;  but  if,  in  a  full  fortune,  with  impatience  he  desires  more, 
he  proclaims  his  wants  and  his  beggarly  condition.  This  virtue 
of  contentedness  was  the  sum  of  all  the  old  moral  philosophy,  and 
is  of  most  universal  use  in  the  whole  course  of  our  lives,  and  the 
only  instrument  t©  ease  the  burdens  of  the  world  and  the  enmities 
of  sad  chances.  It  is  the  great  reasonableness  of  complying  with 
the  Divine  Providence,  which  governs  all  the  world,  and  hath  so 
ordered  us  in  the  administration  of  His  great  family.  It  is  fit  that 
God  should  dispense  His  gifts  as  He  pleases ;  and  if  we  m-urmur 
here,  we  may,  at  the  next  melancholy,  be  troubled  that  He  did  not 
make  us  to  be  angels  or  stars. 

We  ourselves  make  our  fortunes  good  or  bad ;  and  when  God 
lets  loose  a  Tyrant  upon  us,  or  a  sickness,  or  scorn,  or  a  lessened 
f 01  tune,  if  \ve  fear  to  die,  or  know  not  how  to  be  patient,  or  are 
proud,  or  covetous,  then  the  calamity  sits  heavy  on  us.  But  if  we 
know  how  to  manage  a  noble  principle,  and  fear  not  death  so  much 
as  a  dishonest  action,  and  think  impatience  a  worse  evil  than  a 


INTENDANT  OF  THE   BUILDING.  145 

fever,  and  pride  to  be  the  greatest  disgrace  as  well  as  the  greatest 
folly,  and  poverty  far  preferable  to  the  torments  of  avarice,  \ve  may 
still  bear  an  even  mind  and  smile  at  the  reverses  of  fortune  and 
the  ill-nature  of  Fate. 

If  thou  hast  lost  thy  land,  do  not  also  lose  thy  constancy :  and 
if  thou  must  die  sooner  than  others,  or  than  thou  didst  expect,  yet 
do  not  die  impatiently.  For  no  chance  is  evil  to  him  who  is  con- 
tent, and  to  a  man  nothing  is  miserable  unless  it  be  unreasonable. 
No  man  can  make  another  man  to  be  his  slave,  unless  that  other 
hath  first  enslaved  himself  to  life  and  death,  to  pleasure  or  pain, 
to  hope  or  fear ;  command  these  passions,  and  you  are  freer  than 
the  Parthian  Kings. 

When  an  enemy  reproaches  us,  let  us  look  on  him  as  an  impar- 
tial relator  of  our  faults ;  for  he  will  tell  us  truer  than  our  fondest 
friend  will,  and  we  may  forgive  his  anger,  while  we  make  use  of 
the  plainness  of  his  declamation.  The  ox,  when  he  is  weary, 
treads  truest ;  and  if  there  be  nothing  else  in  abuse,  but  that  it 
makes  us  to  walk  warily,  and  tread  sure  for  fear  of  our  enemies, 
that  is  better  than  to  be  flattered  into  pride  and  carelessness. 

If  thou  fallest  from  thy  employment  in  public,  take  sanctuary 
in  an  honest  retirement,  being  indifferent  to  thy  gain  abroad,  or 
thy  safety  at  home.  When  the  north  wind  blows  hard,  and  it  rains 
sadly,  we  do  not  sit  down  in  it  and  cry ;  but  defend  ourselves 
against  it  with  a  warm  garment,  or  a  good  fire  and  a  dry  roof.  So 
when  the  storm  of  a  sad  mischance  beats  upon  our  spirits,  we  may 
turn  it  into  something  that  is  good,  if  we  resolve  to  make  it  so ; 
and  with  equanimity  and  patience  may  shelter  ourselves  from  its 
inclement  pitiless  pelting.  If  it  develop  our  patience,  and  give 
occasion  for  heroic  endurance,  it  hath  done  us  good  enough  to  re- 
compense us  sufficiently  for  all  the  temporal  affliction ;  for  so  a 
wise  man  shall  overrule  his  stars ;  and  have  a  greater  influence 
upon  his  own  content,  than  all  the  constellations  and  planets  of 
the  firmament. 

Compare  not  thy  condition  with  the  few  above  thee,  but  to  se- 
cure thy  content,  look  upon  those  thousands  with  whom  thou 
wouldst  not,  for  any  interest,  change  thy  fortune  and  condition. 
A  soldier  must  not  think  himself  unprosperous.  if  he  be  not  suc- 
cessful as  Alexander  or  Wellington;  nor  any  man  deem  himself 
unfortunate  that  he  hath  not  the  wealth  of  Rothschild  :  but  rather 
let  the  former  rejoice  that  he  is  not  lessened  like  the  many  generals 


146  MORALS    AND  DOGMA. 

who  went  down  horse  and  man  before  Napoleon,  and  the  latter 
that  he  is  not  the  beggar  who,  bareheaded  in  the  bleak  winter 
wind  holds  out  his  tattered  hat  for  charity.  There  may  be  many 
who  are  richer  and  more  fortunate ;  but  many  thousands  who  are 
very  miserable,  compared  to  thee. 

After  the  worst  assaults  of  Fortune,  there  will  be  something 
left  to  us, — a  merry  countenance,  a  cheerful  spirit,  and  a  good  con- 
science, the  Providence  of  God,  our  hopes  of  Heaven,  our  charity 
for  those  who  have  injured  us;  perhaps  a  loving  wife,  and  many 
friends  to  pity,  and  some  to  relieve  us ;  and  light  and  air,  and  all 
the  beauties  of  Nature ;  we  can  read,  discourse,  and  meditate ;  and 
having  still  these  blessings,  we  should  be  much  in  love  with  sor- 
row and  peevishness  to  lose  them  all,  and  prefer  to  sit  down  on 
our  little  handful  of  thorns. 

Enjoy  the  blessings  of  this  day,  if  God  sends  them,  and  the  evils 
of  it  bear  patiently  and  calmly ;  for  this  day  only  is  ours :  we  are 
dead  to  yesterday,  and  we  are  not  yet  born  to  the  morrow.  When 
our  fortunes  are  violently  changed,  our  spirits  are  unchanged,  if 
they  always  stood  in  the  suburbs  and  expectation  of  sorrows  and 
reverses.  The  blessings  of  immunity,  safeguard,  liberty,  and  in- 
tegrity deserve  the  thanksgiving  of  a  whole  life.  We  are  quit  from 
a  thousand  calamities,  every  one  of  which,  if  it  were  upon  us, 
would  make  us  insensible  of  our  present  sorrow,  and  glad  to  re- 
ceive it  in  exchange  for  that  other  greater  affliction. 

Measure  your  desires  by  your  fortune  and  condition,  not  your 
fortunes  by  your  desires :  be  governed  by  your  needs,  not  by  your 
fancy ;  by  nature,  not  by  evil  customs  and  ambitious  principles. 
It  is  no  evil  to  be  poor,  but  to  be  vicious  and  impatient.  Is  that 
beast  better,  that  hath  two  or  three  mountains  to  graze  on,  than 
the  little  bee  that  feeds  on  dew  or  manna,  and  lives  upon  what  falls 
every  morning  from  the  store-houses  of  Heaven,  clouds  and 
Providence? 

There  are  some  instances  of  fortune  and  a  fair  condition  that 
cannot  stand  with  some  others ;  but  if  you  desire  this,  you  must 
lose  that,  and  unless  you  be  content  with  one,  you  lose  the  com- 
fort of  both.  If  you  covet  learning,  you  must  have  leisure  and  a 
retired  life ;  if  honors  of  State  and  political  distinctions,  you  must 
be  ever  abroad  in  public,  and  get  experience,  and  do  all  men's 
business,  and  keep  all  company,  and  have  no  leisure  at  all.  If  you 
will  be  rich,  you  must  be  frugal ;  if  you  will  be  popular,  you  must 


JNTENDANT   OF    THE    BUILDING.  147 

be  bountiful ;  if  a  philosopher,  you  must  despise  riches.  If  you 
would  be  famous  as  Epaminondas,  accept  also  his  poverty,  for  it 
added  lustre  to  his  person,  and  envy  to  his  fortune,  and  his  virtue 
without  it  could  not.  have  been  so  excellent.  If  you  would  have 
the  reputation  of  a  martyr,  you  must  needs  accept  his  persecution ; 
if  of  a  benefactor  of  the  world,  the  world's  injustice ;  if  truly  great, 
you  must  expect  to  see  the  mob  prefer  lesser  men  to  yourself. 

God  esteems  it  one  of  His  glories,  that  He  brings  good  out  of 
evil ;  and  therefore  it  were  but  reason  we  should  trust  Him  to 
govern  His  own  world  as  He  pleases ;  and  that  we  should  patiently 
wait  until  the  change  cometh,  or  the  reason  is  discovered. 

A  Mason's  contentedness  must  by  no  means  be  a  mere  contented 
selfishness,  like  his  who,  comfortable  himself,  is  indifferent  to  the 
discomfort  of  others.  There  will  always  be  in  this  world  wrongs 
to  forgive,  suffering  to  alleviate,  sorrow  asking  for  sympathy,  ne- 
cessities and  destitution  to  relieve,  and  ample  occasion  for  the 
exercise  of  active  charity  and  beneficence.  And  he  who  sits  un- 
concerned amidst  it  all,  perhaps  enjoying  his  own  comforts  and 
luxuries  the  more,  by  contrasting  them  with  the  hungry  and  rag- 
ged destitution  and  shivering  misery  of  his  fellows,  is  not  con- 
tented, but  selfish  and  unfeeling. 

It  is  the  saddest  of  all  sights  upon  this  earth,  that  of  a  man  lazy 
and  luxurious,  or  hard  and  penurious,  to  whom  want  appeals  in 
vain,  and  suffering  cries  in  an  unknown  tongue.  The  man  whose 
hasty  anger  hurries  him  into  violence  and  crime  is  not  half  so  un- 
worthy to  live.  He  is  the  'faithless  steward,  that  embezzles  what 
God  has  given  him  in  trust  for  the  impoverished  and  suffering 
among  his  brethren.  The  true  Mason  must  be  and  must  have  a 
right  to  be  content  with  himself;  and  he  can  be  so  only  when  he 
lives  not  for  himself  alone,  but  for  others  also,  who  need  his  assist- 
ance and  have  a  claim  upon  his  sympathy. 

"Charity  is  the  great  channel,"  it  has  been  well  said,  "through 
which  God  passes  all  His  mercy  upon  mankind.  For  we  receive 
absolution  of  our  sins  in  proportion  to  our  forgiving  our  brother. 
This  is  the  rule  of  our  hopes  and  the  measure  of  our  desire  in 
this  world ;  and  on  the  day  of  death  and  judgment,  the  great  sen- 
tence upon  mankind  shall  be  transacted  according  to  our  alms, 
which  is  the  other  part  of  charity.  God  himself  is  love;  and 
every  degree  of  charity  that  dwells  in  us  is  the  participation  of  the 
Divine  nature," 


148  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

These  principles  Masonry  reduces  to  practice.  By  them  it  ex- 
pects you  to  be  hereafter  guided  and  governed.  It  especially 
inculcates  them  upon  him  who  employs  the  labor  of  others,  for- 
bidding him  to  discharge  them,  when  to  want  employment  is  to 
starve ;  or  to  contract  for  the  labor  of  man  or  woman  at  so  low  a 
price  that  by  over-exertion  they  must  sell  him  their  blood  and  life 
at  the  same  time  with  the  labor  of  their  hands. 

These  Degrees  are  also  intended  to  teach  more  than  morals.  The 
symbols  and  ceremonies  of  Masonry  have  more  than  one  meaning. 
They  rather  conceal  than  disclose  the  Truth.  They  hint  it  only,  at 
least ;  and  their  varied  meanings  are  only  to  be  discovered  by  re- 
flection-and  study.  Truth  is  not  only  symbolized  by  Light,  but 
as  the  ray  of  light  is  separable  into  rays  of  different  colors,  so  is 
truth  separable  into  kinds.  It  is  the  province  of  Masonry  to  teach 
all  truths — not  moral  truth  alone,  but  political  and  philosophical, 
and  even  religious  truth,  so  far  as  concerns  the  great  and  essential 
principles  of  each.  The  sphynx  was  a  symbol.  To  whom  has  it 
disclosed  its  inmost  meaning?  Who  knows  the  symbolic  meaning 
of  the  pyramids  ? 

You  will  hereafter  learn  who  are  the  chief  foes  of  human  liberty 
symbolized  by  the  assassins  of  the  Master  Khurum ;  and  in  their 
fate  you  may  see  foreshadowed  that  which  we  earnestly  hope  will 
hereafter  overtake  those  enemies  of  humanity,  against  whom  Ma- 
sonry has  struggled  so  long. 


IX. 
ELECT  OF  THE  NINE. 

[Elu  of  the  Nine.] 

ORIGINALLY  created  to  reward  fidelity,  obedience,  and  devotion, 
this  Degree  was  consecrated  to  bravery,  devotedness,  and  patriot- 
ism ;  and  your  obligation  has  made  known  to  you  the  duties  which 
you  have  assumed.  They  are  summed  up  in  the  simple  mandate, 
"Protect  the  oppressed  against  the  oppressor ;  and  devote  yourself 
to  the  honor  and  interests  of  your  Country." 

Masonry  is  not  "speculative,"  nor  theoretical,  but  experimental ; 
not  sentimental,  but  practical.  It  requires  self-renunciation  and 
self-control.  It  wears  a  stern  face  toward  men's  vices,  and  inter- 
feres with  many  of  our  pursuits  and  our  fancied  pleasures.  It  pen- 
etrates beyond  the  region  of  vague  sentiment ;  beyond  the  regions 
where  moralizers  and  philosophers  have  woven  their  fine  theories 
and  elaborated  their  beautiful  maxims,  to  the  very  depths  of  the 
heart,  rebuking  our  littlenesses  and  meannesses,  arraigning  our 
prejudices  and  passions,  and  warring  against  the  armies  of  our 
vices. 

It  wars  against  the  passions  that  spring  out  of  the  bosom  of  a 
world  of  fine  sentiments,  a  wrorld  of  admirable  sayings  and  foul 
practices,  of  good  maxims  and  bad  deeds ;  whose  darker  passions 
are  not  only  restrained  by  custom  and  ceremony,  but  hidden  even 
from  itself  by  a  veil  of  beautiful  sentiments.  This  terrible  sole- 
cism has  existed  in  all  ages.  Romish  sentimentalism  has  often 
covered  infidelity  and  vice ;  Protestant  straightness  often  lauds 
spirituality  and  faith,  and  neglects  homely  truth,  candor,  and  gen- 
erosity ;  and  ultra-liberal  Rationalistic  refinement  sometimes  soars 

149 


150 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


to  heaven  in  its  dreams,  and  wallows  in  the  mire  of  earth  in  its 
deeds. 

There  may  be  a  world  of  Masonic  sentiment;  and  yet  a  world 
of  little  or  no  Masonry.  In  many  minds  there  is  a  vague  and  gen- 
eral sentiment  of  Masonic  charity,  generosity,  and  disinterested- 
ness, but  no  practical,  active  virtue,  nor  habitual  kindness,  self- 
sacrifice,  or  liberality.  Masonry  plays  about  them  like  the  cold 
though  brilliant  lights  that  flush  and  eddy  over  Northern  skies. 
There  are  occasional  flashes  of  generous  and  manly  feeling,  tran- 
sitory splendors,  and  momentary  gleams  of  just  and  noble  thought, 
and  transient  coruscations,  that  light  the  Heaven  of  their  imagina- 
tion ;  but  there  is  no  vital  warmth  in  the  heart ;  and  it  remains  as 
cold  and  sterile  as  the  Arctic  or  Antarctic  regions.  They  do  nothing ; 
they  gain  no  victories  over  themselves;  they  make  no  progress; 
they  are  still  in  the  Northeast  corner  of  the  Lodge,  as  when  they 
first  stood  there  as  Apprentices ;  and  they  do  not  cultivate  Ma- 
sonry, with  a  cultivation,  determined,  resolute,  and  regular,  like 
their  cultivation  of  their  estate,  profession,  or  knowledge.  Their 
Masonry  takes  its  chance  in  general  and  inefficient  sentiment, 
mournfully  barren  of  results ;  in  words  and  formulas  and  fine  pro- 
fessions. 

Most  men  have  sentiments,  but  not  principles.  The  former  are 
temporary  sensations,  the  latter  permanent  and  controlling  im- 
pressions of  goodness  and  virtue.  The  former  are  general  and 
involuntary,  and  do  not  rise  to  the  character  of  virtue.  Every  one 
feels  them.  They  flash  up  spontaneously  in  every  heart.  The 
latter  are  rules  of  action,  and  shape  and  control  our  conduct ;  and 
it  is  these  that  Masonry  insists  upon. 

We  approve  the  right;  but  pursue  the  wrong.  It  is  the  old 
story  of  human  deficiency.  No  one  abets  or  praises  injustice, 
fraud,  oppression,  covetousness,  revenge, envy,  or  slander;  and  yet 
how  many  who  condemn  these  things,  are  themselves  guilty  of 
them.  It  is  no  rare  thing  for  him  whose  indignation  is  kindled  at 
a  tale  of  wicked  injustice,  cruel  oppression,  base  slander,  or  misery 
inflicted  by  unbridled  indulgence ;  whose  anger  flames  in  behalf 
of  the  injured  and  ruined  victims  of  wrong;  to  be  in  some  relation 
unjust,  or  oppressive,  or  envious,  or  self-indulgent,  or  a  careless 
talker  of  others.  How  wonderfully  indignant  the  penurious  man 
often  is,  at  the  avarice  or  want  of  public  spirit  of  another ! 

A  great  Preacher  well  said,  "Therefore  thou  art  inexcusable,  O 


ttl-ECT  OF  THE  NINE.  l$l 

Man,  whosoever  thou  art,  that  judgest;  for  wherein  thou  judgest 
another,  thou  condemnest  thyself:  for  thou  that  judgest,  doest  the 
same  things."  It  is  amazing  to  see  how  men  can  talk  of  virtue  and 
honor,  whose  life  denies  both.  It  is  curious  to  see  with  what  a 
marvellous  facility  many  bad  men  quote  Scripture.  It  seems  to 
comfort  their  evil  consciences,  to  use  good  words ;  and  to  gloze 
over  bad  deeds  with  holy  texts,  wrested  to  their  purpose.  Often, 
the  more  a  man  talks  about  Charity  and  Toleration,  the  less  he  has 
of  either;  the  more  he  talks  about  Virtue,  the  smaller  stock  he 
has  of  it.  The  mouth  speaks  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart ; 
but  often  the  very  reverse  of  what  the  man  practises.  And  the 
vicious  and  sensual  often  express,  and  in  a  sense  feel,  strong  dis- 
gust at  vice  and  sensuality.  Hypocrisy  is  not  so  common  as  is 
imagined. 

Here,  in  the  Lodge,  virtue  and  vice  are  matters  of  reflection  and 
feeling  only.  There  is  little  opportunity  here,  for  the  practice  of 
either;  and  Masons  yield  to  the  argument  here,  with  facility  and 
readiness ;  because  nothing  is  to  follow.  It  is  easy,  and  safe,  here, 
to  fed  upon  these  matters.  But  to-morrow,  when  they  breathe  the 
atmosphere  of  worldly  gains  and  competitions,  and  the  passions 
are  again  stirred  at  the  opportunities  of  unlawful  pleasure,  all 
their  fine  emotions  about  virtue,  all  their  generous  abhorrence  of 
selfishness  and  sensuality,  melt  away  like  a  morning  cloud. 

For  the  time,  their  emotions  and  sentiments  are  sincere  and 
real.  Men  may  be  really,  in  a  certain  way,  interested  in  Masonry, 
while  fatally  deficient  in  virtue.  It  is  not  always  hypocrisy.  Men 
pray  most  fervently  and  sincerely,  and  yet  are  constantly  guilty 
of  acts  so  bad  and  base,  so  ungenerous  and  unrighteous,  that  the 
crimes  that  crowd  the  dockets  of  our  courts  are  scarcely  worse. 

A  man  may  be  a  good  sort  of  man  in  general,  and  yet  a  very 
bad  man  in  particular :  good  in  the  Lodge  and  bad  in  the  world ; 
good  in  public,  and  bad  in  his  family ;  good  at  home,  and  bad  on 
a  journey  or  in  a  strange  city.  Many  a  man  earnestly  desires  to 
be  a  good  Mason.  He  says  so,  and  is  sincere.  But  if  you  require 
him  to  resist  a  certain  passion,  to  sacrifice  a  certain  indulgence,  to 
control  his  appetite  at  a  particular  feast,  or  to  keep  his  temper  in 
a  dispute,  you  will  find  that  he  does  not  wish  to  be  a  good  Mason, 
in  that  particular  case;  or,  wishing,  is  not  able  to  resist  his  worse 
impulses. 

The  duties  of  life  are  more  than  life.  The  law  imposeth  it  upon 


152  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

i 

every  citizen,  that  he  prefer  the  urgent  service  of  his  country  be- 
fore the  safety  of  his  life.  If  a  man  be  commanded,  saith  a  great 
writer,  to  bring  ordnance  or  munition  to  relieve  any  of  the  King's 
towns  that  are  distressed,  then  he  cannot  for  any  danger  of  tem- 
pest justify  the  throwing  of  them  overboard;  for  there  it  holdeth 
which  was  spoken  by  the  Roman,  when  the  same  necessity  of 
weather  was  alleged  to  hold  him  from  embarking :  "Necesse  est  ut 
earn,  non  ut  vivam:"  it  needs  that  I  go :  it  is  not  necessary  I  should 
live. 

How  ungratefully  he  slinks  away,  who  dies,  and  does  nothing  to 
reflect  a  glory  to  Heaven  ?  How  barren  a  tree  he  is,  who  lives,  and 
spreads,  and  cumbers  the  ground,  yet  leaves  not  one  seed,  not  one 
good  work  to  generate  another  after  him  !  All  cannot  leave  alike ; 
yet  all  may  leave  something,  answering  their  proportions  and  their 
kinds.  Those  are  dead  and  withered  grains  of  corn,  out  of  which 
there  will  not  one  ear  spring.  He  will  hardly  find  the  way  to 
Heaven,  who  desires  to  go  thither  alone. 

Industry  is  never  wholly  unfruitful.  If  it  bring  not  joy  with 
the  incoming  profit,  it  will  yet  banish  mischief  from  thy  busied 
gates.  There  is  a  kind  of  good  angel  waiting  upon  Diligence  that 
ever  carries  a  laurel  in  his  hand  to  crown  her.  How  unworthy 
was  that  man  of  the  world  who  never  did  aught,  but  only  lived 
and  died !  That  we  have  liberty  to  do  anything,  we  should  ac- 
count it  a  gift  from  the  favoring  Heavens;  that  we  have  minds 
sometimes  inclining  us  to  use  that  liberty  well,  is  a  great  bounty 
of  the  Deity, 

Masonry  is  action,  and  not  inertness.  It  requires  its  Initiates  to 
WORK,  actively  and  earnestly,  for  the  benefit  of  their  brethren, 
their  country,  and  mankind.  It  is  the  patron  of  the  oppressed, 
as  it  isthe comforter  and  consoler  of  the  unfortunate  and  wretched. 
It  seems  to  it  a  worthier  honor  to  be  the  instrument  of  advance- 
ment and  reform,  than  to  enjoy  all  that  rank  and  office  and  lofty 
titles  can  bestow.  It  is  the  advocate  of  the  common  people  in 
those  things  which  concern  the  best  interests  of  mankind.  It 
hates  insolent  power  and  impudent  usurpation.  It  pities  the  poor, 
the  sorrowing,  the  disconsolate ;  it  endeavors  to  raise  and  improve 
the  ignorant,  the  sunken,  and  the  degraded. 

Its  fidelity  to  its  mission  will  be  accurately  evidenced,  by  the 
extent  of  the  efforts  it  employs,  and  the  means  it  sets  on  foot,  to 
improve  the  people  at  large  and  to  better  their  condition ;  chiefest 


ELECT   OF    THE    NINE.  153 

of  which,  within  its  reach,  is  to  aid  in  the  education  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  poor.  An  intelligent  people,  informed  of  its  rights, 
will  soon  come  to  know  its  power,  and  cannot  long  be  oppressed ; 
but  if  there  be  not  a  sound  and  virtuous  populace,  the  elaborate 
ornaments  at  the  top  of  the  pyramid  of  society  will  be  a  wretched 
compensation  for  the  want  of  solidity  at  the  base.  It  is  never  safe 
for  a  nation  to  repose  on  the  lap  of  ignorance:  and  if  there  ever 
was  a  time  when  public  tranquillity  was  insured  by  the  absence  of 
knowledge,  that  season  is  past.  Unthinking  stupidity  cannot 
sleep,  without  being  appalled  by  phantoms  and  shaken  by  terrors. 
The  improvement  of  the  mass  of  the  people  is  the  grand  security 
for  popular  liberty ;  in  the  neglect  of  which,  the  politeness,  refine- 
ment, and  knowledge  accumulated  in  the  higher  orders  and 
wealthier  classes  will  some  day  perish  like  dry  grass  in  the  hot  fire 
of  popular  fury. 

It  is  not  the  mission  of  Masonry  to  engage  in  plots  and  conspir- 
acies against  the  civil  government.  It  is  not  the  fanatical  propa- 
gandist of  any  creed  or  theory ;  nor  does  it  proclaim  itself  the 
enemy  of  kings.  It  is  the  apostle  of  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity; but  it  is  no  more  the  high-priest  of  republicanism  than  of 
constitutional  monarchy.  It  contracts  no  entangling  alliances 
with  any  sect  of  theorists,  dreamers,  or  philosophers.  It  does  not 
know  those  as  its  Initiates  who  assail  the  civil  order  and  all  lawful 
authority,  at  the  same  time  that  they  propose  to  deprive  the  dying 
of  the  consolations  of  religion.  It  sits  apart  from  all  sects  and 
creeds,  in  its  own  calm  and  simple  dignity,  the  same  under  every 
government.  It  is  still  that  which  it  was  in  the  cradle  of  the  hu- 
man race,  when  no  human  foot  had  trodden  the  soil  of  Assyria 
and  Egypt,  and  no  colonies  had  crossed  the  Himalayas  into  South- 
ern India,  Media,  or  Etruria. 

It  gives  no  countenance  to  anarchy  and  licentiousness  ;  and  no 
illusion  of  glory,  or  extravagant  emulation  of  the  ancients  in- 
flames it  with  an  unnatural  thirst  for  ideal  and  Utopian  liberty. 
It  teaches  that  in  rectitude  of  life  and  sobriety  of  habits  is  the 
only  sure  guarantee  for  the  continuance  of  political  freedom ;  and 
it  is  chiefly  the  soldier  of  the  sanctity  of  the  laws  and  the  rights 
of  conscience. 

It  recognizes  it  as  a  truth,  that  necessity,  as  well  as  abstract 
right  and  ideal  justice,  must  have  its  part  in  the  making'  of  laws, 
the  administration  of  affairs,  and  the  regulation  of  relations  in 
ii 


154  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

society.  It  sees,  indeed,  that  necessity  rules  in  all  the  affairs  of 
man.  It  knows  that  where  any  man,  or  any  number  or  race  of 
men,  are  so  imbecile  of  intellect,  so  degraded,  so  incapable  of  self- 
control,  so  inferior  in  the  scale  of  humanity,  as  to  be  unfit  to  be 
intrusted  with  the  highest  prerogatives  of  citizenship,  the  great 
law  of  necessity,  for  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  community  and 
country,  requires  them  to  remain  under  the  control  of  those  of 
larger  intellect  and  superior  wisdom.  It  trusts  and  believes  that 
God  will,  in  his  own  good  time,  work  out  his  own  great  and  wise 
purposes ;  and  it  is  willing  to  wait,  where  it  does  not  see  its  own 
way  clear  to  some  certain  good. 

It  hopes  and  longs  for  the  day  when  all  the  races  of  men,  even 
the  lowest,  will  be  elevated,  and  become  fitted  for  political  freedom  ; 
when,  like  all  other  evils  that  afflict  the  earth,  pauperism,  and 
bondage  or  abject  dependence,  shall  cease  and  disappear.  But  it 
does  not  preach  revolution  to  those  who  are  fond  of  kings,  nor  re- 
bellion that  can  end  only  in  disaster  and  defeat,  or  in  substituting 
one  tyrant  for  another,  or  a  multitude  of  despots  for  one. 

Wherever  a  people  is  fit  to  be  free  and  to  govern  itself,  and  gen- 
erously strives  to  be  so,  there  go  all  its  sympathies.  It  detests  the 
tyrant,  the  lawless  oppressor,  the  military  usurper,  and  him  who 
abuses  a  lawful  power.  It  frowns  upon  cruelty,  and  a  wanton  dis- 
regard of  the  rights  of  humanity.  It  abhors  the  selfish  employer, 
and  exerts  its  influence  to  lighten  the  burdens  which  want  and 
dependence  impose  upon  the  workman,  and  to  foster  that  human- 
ity and  kindness  which  man  owes  to  even  his  poorest  and  most 
unfortunate  brother. 

It  can  never  be  employed,  in  any  country  under  Heaven,  to  teach 
a  toleration  for  cruelty,  to  weaken  moral  hatred  for  guilt,  or  to 
deprave  and  brutalize  the  human  mind.  The  dread  of  punish- 
ment will  never  make  a  Mason  an  accomplice  in  so  corrupting  his 
countrymen,  and  a  teacher  of  depravity  and  barbarity.  If  any- 
where, as  has  heretofore  happened,  a  tyrant  should  send  a  satirist 
on  his  tyranny  to  be  convicted  and  punished  as  a  libeller,  in  a 
court  of  justice,  a  Mason,  if  a  juror  in  such  a  case,  though  in 
sight  of  the  scaffold  streaming  with  the  blood  of  the  innocent, 
and  within  hearing  of  the  clash  of  the  bayonets  meant  to  overawe 
the  court,  would  rescue  the  intrepid  satirist  from  the  tyrant's 
fangs,  and  send  his  officers  out  from  the  court  with  defeat  and 
disgrace. 


ELECT  OF  THE  NINE.  155 

Even  if  all  law  and  liberty  were  trampled  under  the  feet  of 
Jacobinical  demagogues  or  a  military  banditti,  and  great  crimes 
were  perpetrated  with  a  high  hand  against  all  who  were  deservedly 
the  objects  of  public  veneration;  if  the  people,  overthrowing  law, 
roared  like  a  sea  around  the  courts  of  justice,  and  demanded  the 
blood  of  those  who,  during  the  temporary  fit  of  insanity  and 
drunken  delirium,  had  chanced  to  become  odious  to  it,  for  true 
words  manfully  spoken,  or  unpopular  acts  bravely  done,  the  Ma- 
sonic juror,  unawed  alike  by  the  single  or  the  many-headed  tyrant, 
would  consult  the  dictates  of  duty  alone,  and  stand  with  a  noble 
firmness  between  the  human  tigers  and  their  coveted  prey. 

The  Mason  would  much  rather  pass  his  life  hidden  in  the  re- 
cesses of  the  deepest  obscurity,  feeding  his  mind  even  with  the 
visions  and  imaginations  of  good  deeds  and  noble  actions,  than  to 
be  placed  on  the  most  splendid  throne  of  the  universe,  tantalized 
with  a  denial  of  the  practice  of  all  which  can  make  the  greatest 
situation  any  other  than  the  greatest  curse.  And  if  he  has  been 
enabled  to  lend  the  slightest  step  to  any  great  and  laudable  de- 
signs ;  if  he  has  had  any  share  in  any  measure  giving  quiet  to  pri- 
vate property  and  to  private  conscience,  making  lighter  the  yoke 
of  poverty  and  dependence,  or  relieving  deserving  men  from  op- 
pression ;  if  he  has  aided  in  securing  to  his  countrymen  that  best 
possession,  peace ;  if  he  has  joined  in  reconciling  the  different  sec- 
tions of  his  own  country  to  each  other,  and  the  people  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  their  own  creating;  and  in  teaching  the  citizen  to 
look  for  his  protection  to  the  laws  of  his  country,  and  for  his  com- 
fort to  the  good-will  of  his  countrymen ;  if  he  has  thus  taken 
his  part  with  the  best  of  men  in  the  best  of  their  actions, 
he  may  well  shut  the  book,  even  if  he  might  wish  to  read  a  page 
or  two  more.  It  is  enough  for  his  measure.  He  has  not  lived 
in  vain. 

Masonry  teaches  that  all  power  is  delegated  for  the  good,  and  not 
for  the  injury  of  the  People;  and  that,  when  it  is  perverted  from 
the  original  purpose,  the  compact  is  broken,  and  the  right  ought 
to  be  resumed ;  that  resistance  to  power  usurped  is  not  merely  a 
duty  which  man  owes  to  himself  and  to  his  neighbor,  but  a  duty 
which  he  owes  to  his  God,  in  asserting  and  maintaining  the  rank 
which  He  gave  him  in  the  creation.  This  principle  neither  the 
rudeness  of  ignorance  can  stifle  nor  the  enervation  of  refinement 
extinguish.  It  makes  it  base  for  a  man  to  suffer  when  he  ought 


1^6  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

to  act ;  and,  tending  to  preserve  to  him  the  original  destinations 
of  Providence,  spurns  at  the  arrogant  assumptions  of  Tyrants  and 
vindicates  the  independent  quality  of  the  race  of  which  we  are  a 
part. 

The  wise  and  well-informed  Mason  will  not  fail  to  be  the  votary 
of  Liberty  and  Justice.  He  will  be  ready  to  exert  himself  in  their 
defence,  wherever  they  exist.  It  cannot  be  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence to  him  when  his  own  liberty  and  that  of  other  men,  with 
whose  merits  and  capacities  he  is  acquainted,  are  involved  in  the 
event  of  the  struggle  to  be  made;  but  his  attachment  will  be  to 
the  cause,  as  the  cause  of  man;  and  not  merely  to  the  country. 
Wherever  there  is  a  people  that  understands  the  value  of  political 
justice,  and  is  prepared  to  assert  it,  that  is  his  country;  wherever 
he  can  most  contribute  to  the  diffusion  of  these  principles  and  the 
real  happiness  of  mankind,  that  is  his  country.  Nor  does  he  de- 
sire for  any  country  any  other  benefit  than  justice. 

The  true  Mason  identifies  the  honor  of  his  country  with  his 
own.  Nothing  more  conduces  to  the  beauty  and  glory  of  one's 
country  than. the  preservation  against  all  enemies  of  its  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  The  world  will  rrever  willingly  let  die  the  names 
of  those  patriots  who  in  her  different  ages  have  received  upon  their 
own  breasts  the  blows  aimed  by  insolent  enemies  at  the  bosom  of 
their  country. 

But  also  it  conduces,  and  in  no  small  measure,  to  the  beauty  and 
glory  of  one's  country,  that  justice  should  always  be  administered 
there  to  all  alike,  and  neither  denied,  sold,  nor  delayed  to  any  one ; 
that  the  interest  of  the  poor  should  be  looked  to,  and  none  starve 
or  be  houseless,  or  clamor  in  vain  for  work ;  that  the  child  and  the 
feeble  woman  should  not  be  overworked,  or  even  the  apprentice  or 
slave  be  stinted  of  food  or  overtasked  or  mercilessly  scourged  ;  and 
that  God's  great  laws  of  mercy,  humanity,  and  compassion  should 
be  everywhere  enforced,  not  only  by  the  statutes,  but  also  by  the 
power  of  public  opinion.  And  he  who  labors,  often  against  re- 
proach and  obloquy,  and  oftener  against  indifference  and  apathy, 
to  bring  about  that  fortunate  condition  of  things  when  that  great 
code  of  divine  law  shall  be  everywhere  and  punctually  obeyed,  is 
no  less  a  patriot  than  he  who  bares  his  bosom  to  the  hostile  steel 
in  the  ranks  of  his  country's  soldiery. 

For  fortitude  is  not  only  seen  resplendent  on  the  field  of  battle 
and  amid  the  clash  of  arms,  but  he  displays  its  energy  under 


ELECT   OF   THE    N INK.  157 

every  difficulty  and  against  every  assailant.  He  who  wars  against 
cruelty,  oppression,  and  hoary  abuses,  fights  for  his  country's 
honor,  which  these  things  soil ;  and  her  honor  is  as  important  as 
her  existence.  Often,  indeed,  the  warfare  against  those  abuses 
which  disgrace  one's  country  is  quite  as  hazardous  and  more  dis- 
couraging than  that  against  her  enemies  in  the  field ;  and  merits 
equal,  if  not  greater  reward. 

For  those  Greeks  and  Romans  who  are  the  objects  of  our  admi- 
ration employed  hardly  any  other  virtue  in  the  extirpation  of 
tyrants,  than  that  love  of  liberty,  which  made  them  prompt  in 
seizing  the  sword,  and  gave  them  strength  to  use  it.  With  facility 
they  accomplish  the  undertaking,  amid  the  general  shout  of 
praise  and  joy ;  nor  did  they  engage  in  the  attempt  so  much  as  an 
enterprise  of  perilous  and  doubtful  issue,  as  a  contest  the  most 
glorious  in  which  virtue  could  be  signalized ;  which  infallibly  led 
to  present  recompense ;  which  bound  their  brows  with  wreaths  of 
laurel,  and  consigned  their  memories  to  immortal  fame. 

But  he  who  assails  hoary  abuses,  regarded  perhaps  with  a  super- 
stitious reverence,  and  around  which  old  laws  stand  as  ramparts 
and  bastions  to  defend  them ;  who  denounces  acts  of  cruelty  and 
outrage  on  humanity  which  make  every  perpetrator  thereof  his 
personal  enemy,  and  perhaps  make  him  looked  upon  with  suspi- 
cion by  the  people  among  whom  he  lives,  as  the  assailant  of  an 
established  order  of  things  of  which  he  assails  only  the  abuses, 
and  of  laws  of  which  he  attacks  only  the  violations, — he  can 
scarcely  look  for  present  recompense,  nor  that  his  living  brows 
will  be  wreathed  with  laurel.  And  if,  contending  against  a  dark 
array  of  long-received  opinions,  superstitions,  obloquy,  and  fears, 
\vhich  most  men  dread  more  than  they  do  an  army  terrible  with 
banners,  the  Mason  overcomes,  and  emerges  from  the  contest  vic- 
torious;  or  if  he  does  not  conquer,  but  is  borne  down  and  swept 
away  by  the  mighty  current  of  prejudice,  passion,  and  interest ; 
in  either  case,  the  loftiness  of  spirit  which  he  displays  merits  for 
him  more  than  a  mediocrity  of  fame. 

He  has  already  lived  too  long  who  has  survived  the  ruin  of  his 
country  ;  and  he  who  can  enjoy  life  after  such  an  event  deservesnot 
to  have  lived  at  all.  Nor  does  he  any  more  deserve  to  live  who  looks 
contentedly  upon  abuses  that  disgrace,  and  cruelties  that  dishonor, 
and  scenes  of  misery  and  destitution  and  brutalization  that  dis- 
figure his  country ;  or  sordid  meanness  and  ignoble  revenges  that 


158  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

make  her  a  by-word  and  a  scoff  among  all  generous  nations ;  and 
does  not  endeavor  to  remedy  or  prevent  either. 

Not  often  is  a  country  at  war ;  nor  can  every  one  be  allowed  the 
privilege  of  offering  his  heart  to  the  enemy's  bullets.  But  in  these 
patriotic  labors  of  peace,  in  preventing,  remedying,  arid  reforming 
evils,  oppressions,  wrongs,  cruelties,  and  outrages,  every  Mason 
can  unite ;  and  every  one  can  effect  something,  and  share  the  honor 
and  glory  of  the  result. 

For  the  cardinal  names  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind  are 
few  and  easily  to  be  counted  up;  but  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  spend  their  days  in  the  preparations  which  are  to  speed 
the  predestined  change,  in  gathering  and  amassing  the  materials 
which  are  to  kindle  and  give  light  and  warmth,  when  the  fire  from 
Heaven  shall  have  descended  on  them.  Numberless  are  the  sutlers 
and  pioneers,  the  engineers  and  artisans,  who  attend  the  march  of 
intellect.  Many  move  forward  in  detachments,  and  level  the  way 
over  which  the  chariot  is  to  pass,  and  cut  down  the  obstacles  that 
would  impede  its  progress ;  and  these  too  have  their  reward.  If 
they  labor  diligently  and  faithfully  in  their  calling,  not  only  will 
they  enjoy  that  calm  contentment  which  diligence  in  the  lowliest 
task  never  fails  to  win ;  not  only  will  the  sweat  of  their  brows  be 
sweet,  and  the  sweetener  of  the  rest  that  follows ;  but,  when  the 
victory  is  at  last  achieved,  they  will  come  in  for  a  share  in  the 
glory ;  even  as  the  meanest  soldier  who  fought  at  Marathon  or  at 
King's  Mountain  became  a  sharer  in  the  glory  of  those  saving 
days ;  and  within  his  own  household  circle,  the  approbation  of 
which  approaches  the  nearest  to  that  of  an  approving  conscience, 
was  looked  upon  as  the  representative  of  all  his  brother-heroes ; 
and  could  tell  such  tales  as  made  the  tear  glisten  on  the  cheek  of 
his  wife,  and  lit  up  his  boy's  eyes  with  an  unwonted  sparkling 
eagerness.  Or,  if  he  fell  in  the  fight,  and  his  place  by  the  fireside 
and  at  the  table  at  home  was  thereafter  vacant,  that  place  was 
sacred ;  and  he  was  often  talked  of  there  in  the  long  winter  even- 
ings ;  and  his  family  was  deemed  fortunate  in  the  neighborhood, 
because  it  had  had  a  hero  in  it,  who  had  fallen  in  defence  of  his 
country. 

Remember  that  life's  length  is  not  measured  by  its  hours  and 
days,  but  by  that  which  we  have  done  therein  for  our  country  and 
kind.  A  useless  life  is  short,  if  it  last  a  century ;  but  that  of 
Alexander  was  long  as  the  life  of  the  oak,  though  he  died  at  thir- 


ELECT  OF  THE  NINE.  .  159 

ty-five.  We  may  do  much  in  a  few  years,  and  we  may  do  nothing 
in  a  lifetime.  If  we  but  eat  and  drink  and  sleep,  and  let  every- 
thing go  on  around  us  as  it  pleases ;  or  if  we  live  but  to  amass 
wealth  or  gain  office  or  wear  titles,  we  might  as  well  not  hav^  lived 
at  all ;  nor  have  we  any  right  to  expect  immortality. 

Forget  not,  therefore,  to  what  you  have  devoted  yourself  in  this 
Degree:  defend  weakness  against  strength,  the  friendless  against 
the  great,  the  oppressed  against  the  oppressor!  Be  ever  vigilant 
and  watchful  of  the  interests  and  honor  of  your  country !  and 
may  the  Grand  Architect  of  the  Universe  give  you  that  strength 
and  wisdom  which  shall  enable  you  well  and  faithfully  to  perform 
these  high  duties ! 


X. 
ILLUSTRIOUS  ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN. 

[Elu  of  the  Fifteen.] 

THIS  Degree  is  devoted  to  the  same  objects  as  those  of  the  Elu 
of  Nine ;  and  also  to  the  cause  of  Toleration  and  Liberality  against 
Fanaticism  and  Persecution,  j. >olitical  and  religious ;  and  to  that  of 
Education,  Instruction,  and  Enlightenment  against  Error,  Barbar- 
ism, and  Ignorance.  To  these  objects  you  have  irrevocably  and 
forever  devoted  your  hand,  your  heart,  and  your  intellect ;  and 
whenever  in  your  presence  a  Chapter  of  this  Degree  is  opened,  you 
will  be  most  solemnly  reminded  of  your  vows  here  taken  at  the 
altar. 

Toleration,  holding  that  every  other  man  has  the  same  right  to 
his  opinion  and  faith  that  we  have  to  ours ;  and  liberality,  holding 
that  as  no  human  being  can  with  certainty  say,  in  the  clash  and 
conflict  of  hostile  faiths  and  creeds,  what  is  truth,  or  that  he  is 
surely  in  possession  of  it,  so  every  one  should  feel  that  it  is  quite 
possible  that  another  equally  honest  and  sincere  with  himself,  and 
yet  holding  the  contrary  opinion,  may  himself  be  in  possession  of 
the  truth,  and  that  whatever  one  firmly  and  conscientiously  be- 
lieves, is  truth,  to  him — these  are  the  mortal  enemies  of  that  fanat- 
icism which  persecutes  for  opinion's  sake,  and  initiates  crusades 
against  whatever  it,  in  its  imaginary  holiness,  deems  to  be  contrary 
to  the  law  of  God  or  verity  of  dogma.  And  education,  instruc- 
tion, and  enlightenment  are  the  most  certain  means  by  which 
fanaticism  and  intolerance  can  be  rendered  powerless. 

No  true  Mason  scoffs  at  honest  convictions  and  an  ardent  zeal 
in  the  cause  of  what  one  believes  to  be  truth  and  justice.  But  he 
1 60 


ILLUSTRIOUS  ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN.  l6l 

does  absolutely  deny  the  right  of  any  man  to  assume  the  preroga- 
tive of  Deity,  and  condemn  another's  faith  and  opinions  as  deserv- 
ing to  be  punished  because  heretical.  Nor  does  he  approve  the 
course  of  those  who  endanger  the  peace  and  quiet  of  great  nations, 
and  the  best  interest  of  their  own  race  by  indulging  in  a  chimeri- 
cal and  visionary  philanthropy — a  luxury  which  chiefly  consists  in 
drawing  their  robes  around  them  to  avoid  contact  with  their  fel- 
lows, and  proclaiming  themselves  holier  than  they. 

For  he  knows  that  such  follies  are  often  more  calamitous  than 
the  ambition  of  kings;  and  that  intolerance  and  bigotry  have 
been  infinitely  greater  curses  to  mankind  than  ignorance  and  error. 
Better  any  error  than  persecution !  Better  any  opinion  than  the 
thumb-screw,  the  rack,  and  the  stake!  And  he  knows  also  how 
unspeakably  absurd  it  is,  for  a  creature  to  whom  himself  and 
everything  around  him  are  mysteries,  to  torture  and  slay  others, 
because  they  cannot  think  as  he  does  in  regard  to  the  profoundest 
of  those  mysteries,  to  understand  which  is  utterly  beyond  the 
comprehension  of  either  the  persecutor  or  the  persecuted. 

Masonry  is  not  a  religion.  He  who  makes  of  it  a  religious 
belief,  falsifies  and  denaturalizes  it.  The  Brahmin,  the  Jew,  the 
Mahometan,  the  Catholic,  the  Protestant,  each  professing  his  pe- 
culiar religion,  sanctioned  by  the  laws,  by  time,  and  by  climate, 
must  needs  retain  it,  and  cannot  have  two  religions ;  for  the  social 
and  sacred  laws  adapted  to  the  usages,  manners,  and  prejudices  of 
particular  countries,  are  the  work  of  men. 

But  Masonry  teaches,  and  has  preserved  in  their  purity,  the  car- 
dinal tenets  of  the  old  primitive  faith,  which  underlie  and  are  the 
foundation  of  all  religions.  All  that  ever  existed  have  had  a  basis 
of  truth ;  and  all  have  overlaid  that  truth  with  errors.  The  prim- 
itive truths  taught  by  the  Redeemer  were  sooner  corrupted,  and 
intermingled  and  alloyed  with  fictions  than  when  taught  to  the 
first  of  our  race.  Masonry  is  the  universal  morality  which  is  suit- 
able to  the  inhabitants  of  every  clime,  to  the  man  of  every  creed. 
It  has  taught  no  doctrines,  except  those  truths  that  tend  directly 
to  the  well-being  of  man ;  and  those  who  have  attempted  to  direct 
it  toward  useless  vengeance,  political  ends,  and  Jesuitism,  have 
merely  perverted  it  to  purposes  foreign  to  its  pure  spirit  and  real 
nature. 

Mankind  outgrows  the  sacrifices  and  the  mythologies  of  the 
childhood  of  the  world.  Yet  it  is  easy  for  human  indolence  to 


l62  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

linger  near  these  helps,  and  refuse  to  pass  further  on.  So  the  un- 
adventurous  Nomad  in  the  Tartarian  wild  keeps  his  flock  in  the 
same  close-cropped  circle  where  they  first  learned  to  browse,  while 
the  progressive  man  roves  ever  forth  "to  fresh  fields  and  pastures 
new." 

The  latter  is  the  true  Mason ;  and  the  best  and  indeed  the  only 
good  Mason  is  he  who  with  the  power  of  business  does  the  work  of 
life ;  the  upright  mechanic,  merchant,  or  farmer,  the  man  with 
the  f/ower  of  thought,  of  justice,  or  of  love,  he  whose  whole  life 
is  One  great  act  of  performance  of  Masonic  duty.  The  natural 
use  of  the  strength  of  a  strong  man  or  the  wisdom  of  a  wise  one, 
is  to  do  the  work  of  a  strong  man  or  a  wise  one.  The  natural 
work  of  Masonry  is  practical  life;  the  use  of  all  the  faculties  in 
their  proper  spheres,  and  for  their  natural  function.  Love  of 
Truth,  justice,  and  generosity  as  attributes  of  God,  must  appear  in 
a  life  marked  by  these  qualities;  that  is  the  only  effectual  ordi- 
nance of  Masonry.  A  profession  of  one's  convictions,  joining  the 
Order,  assuming  the  obligations,  assisting  at  the  ceremonies,  are 
of  the  same  value  in  science  as  in  Masonry ;  the  natural  form  of 
Masonry  is  goodness,  morality,  living  a  true,  just,  affectionate, 
self-faithful  life,  from  the  motive  of  a  good  man.  It  is  loyal  obe- 
dience to  God's  law. 

The  good  Mason  does  the  good  thing  which  comes  in  his  way, 
and  because  it  comes  in  his  way ;  from  a  love  of  duty,  and  not 
merely  because  a  law,  enacted  by  man  or  God,  commands  his  will 
to  do  it.  He  is  true  to  his  mind,  his  conscience,  heart,  and  soul, 
and  feels  small  temptation  to  do  to  others  what  he  would  not  wish 
to  receive  from  them.  He  will  deny  himself  for  the  sake  of  his 
brother  near  at  hand.  His  desire  attracts  in  the  line  of  his  duty, 
both  being  in  conjunction.  Not  in  vain  does  the  poor  or  the  op- 
pressed look  up  to  him.  You  find  such  men  in  all  Christian  sects, 
Protestant  and  Catholic,  in  all  the  great  religious  parties  of  the 
civilized  world,  among  Buddhists,  Mahometans,  and  Jews.  They 
are  kind  fathers,  generous  citizens,  unimpeachable  in  their  busi- 
ness, beautiful  in  their  daily  lives.  You  see  their  Masonry  in  their 
work  and  in  their  play.  It  appears  in  all  the  forms  of  their  ac- 
tivity, individual,  domestic,  social,  ecclesiastical,  or  political.  Trus 
Masonry  within  must  be  morality  without.  It  must  become 
eminent  morality,  which  is  philanthropy.  The  true  Mason  loves 
not  only  his  kindred  and  his  country,  but  all  mankind ;  not  only 


ILLUSTRIOUS  ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN.  163 

the  good,  but  also  the  evil,  among  his  brethren.  He  has  more 
goodness  than  the  channels  of  his  daily  life  will  hold.  It  runs 
over  the  banks,  to  water  and  to  feed  a  thousand  thirsty  plants. 
Not  content  with  the  duty  that  lies  along  his  track,  he  goes  out  to 
seek  it;  not  only  willing,  he  has  a  salient  longing  to  do  good,  to 
spread  his  truth,  his  justice,  his  generosity,  his  Masonry  over  all 
the  world.  His  daily  life  is  a  profession  of  his  Masonry,  published 
in  perpetual  good-will  to  men.  He  can  not  be  a  persecutor. 

Not  more  naturally  does  the  beaver  build  or  the  mocking-bird 
sing  his  own  wild,  gushing  melody,  than  the  true  Mason  lives  in 
this  beautiful  outward  life.  So  from  the  perennial  spring  swells 
forth  the  stream,  to  quicken  the  meadow  with  new  access  of  green, 
and  perfect  beauty  bursting  into  bloom.  Thus  Masonry  does  the 
work  it  was  meant  to  do.  The  Mason  does  not  sigh  and  weep,  and 
make  grimaces.  He  lives  right  on.  If  his  life  is,  as  whose  is  not, 
marked  with  errors,  and  with  sins,  he  ploughs  over  the  barren 
spot  with  his  remorse,  sows  with  new  seed,  and  the  old  desert  blos- 
soms like  a  rose.  He  is  not  confined  to  set  forms  of  thought,  pi 
action,  or  of  feeling.  He  accepts  what  his  mind  regards  as  true, 
what  his  conscience  decides  is  right,  what  his  heart  deems  generous 
and  noble ;  and  all  else  he  puts  far  from  him.  Though  the  ancient 
and  the  honorable  of  the  Earth  bid  him  bow  down  to  them,  his 
stubborn  knees  bend  only  at  the  bidding  of  his  manly  soul.  His 
Masonry  is  his  freedom  before  God,  not  his  bondage  unto  men.  His 
mind  acts  after  the  universal  law  of  the  intellect,  his  conscience 
according  to  the  universal  moral  law,  his  affections  and  his  soul 
after  the  universal  law  of  each,  and  so  he  is  strong  with  the 
strength  of  God,  in  this  four-fold  way  communicating  with  Him. 

The  old  theologies,  the  philosophies  of  religion  of  ancient  times, 
will  not  suffice  us  now.  The  duties  of  life  are  to  be  done ;  we  are 
to  do  them,  consciously  obedient  to  the  law  of  God,  not  atheistic- 
ally,  loving  only  our  selfish  gain.  There  are  sins  of  trade  to  be 
corrected.  Everywhere  morality  and  philanthropy  are  needed. 
There  are  errors  to  be-  made  way  with,  and  their  place  supplied 
with  new  truths,  radiant  with  the  glories  of  Heaven.  There  are 
great  wrongs  and  evils,  in  Church  and  State,  in  domestic,  social, 
and  public  life,  to  be  righted  and  outgrown.  Masonry  cannot  in 
our  age  forsake  the  broad  way  of  life.  She  must  journey  on  in  the 
open  street,  appear  in  the  crowded  square,  and  teach  men  by  her 
deeds,  her  life  more  eloquent  than  any  lips. 


1-64  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

This  Degree  is  chiefly  devoted  to  TOLERATION  ;  and  it  inculcates 
in  the  strongest  manner  that  great  leading  idea  of  the  Ancient 
Art,  that  a  belief  in  the  one  True  God.  and  a  moral  and  virtuous 
life,  constitute  the  only  religious  requisites  needed  to  enable  a  man 
to  be  a  Mason. 

Masonry  has  ever  the  most  vivid  remembrance  of  the  terrible 
and  artificial  torments  that  were  used  to  put  down  new  forms  of 
religion  or  extinguish  the  old.  It  sees  with  the  eye  of  memory  the 
ruthless  extermination  of  all  the  people  of  all  sexes  and  ages,  be- 
cause it  was  their  misfortune  not  to  know  the  God  of  the  Hebrews, 
or  to  worship  Him  under  the  wrong  name,  by  the  savage  troops  of 
Moses  and  Joshua.  It  sees  the  thumb-screws  and  the  racks,  the 
whip,  the  gallows,  and  the  stake,  the  victims  of  Diocletian  and 
Alva,  the  miserable  Covenanters,  the  Non-Conformists,  Servetus 
burned,  and  the  unoffending  Quaker  hung.  It  sees  Cranmer  hold 
his  arm,  now  no  longer  erring,  in  the  flame  until  the  hand  drops 
off  in  the  consuming  heat.  It  sees  the  persecutions  of  Peter  and 
Paul,  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen,  the  trials  of  Ignatius,  Polycarp, 
Justin,  and  Irenaeus ;  and  then  in  turn  the  sufferings  of  the 
wretched  Pagans  under  the  Christian  Emperors,  as  of  the  Papists 
in  Ireland  and  under  Elizabeth  and  the  bloated  Henry.  The  Ro- 
man Virgin  naked  before  the  hungry  lions ;  young  Margaret  Gra- 
ham tied  to  a  stake  at  low-water  mark,  and  there  left  to  drown, 
singing  hymns  to  God  until  the  savage  waters  broke  over  her 
head ;  and  all  that  in  all  ages  have  suffered  by  hunger  and  naked- 
ness, peril  and  prison,  the  rack,  the  stake,  and  the  sword, — it  sees 
them  all,  and  shudders  at  the  long  roll  of  human  atrocities.  And 
it  sees  also  the  oppression  still  practised  in  the  name  of  religion — 
men  shot  in  a  Christian  jail  in  Christian  Italy  for  reading  the 
Christian  Bible ;  in  almost  every  Christian  State,  laws  forbidding 
freedom  of  speech  on  matters  relating  to  Christianity ;  and  the 
gallows  reaching  its  arm  over  the  pulpit. 

The  fires  of  Moloch  in  Syria,  the  harsh  mutilations  in  the  name 
of  Astarte,  Cybele,  Jehovah ;  the  barbarities  of  imperial  Pagan 
Torturers ;  the  still  grosser  torments  which  Roman-Gothic  Chris- 
tians in  Italy  and  Spain  heaped  on  their  brother-men ;  the  fiendish 
cruelties  to  which  Switzerland,  France,  the  Netherlands,  England, 
Scotland,  Ireland,  America,  have  been  witnesses,  are  none  too  pow- 
erful to  warn  man  of  the  unspeakable  evils  which  follow  from  mis- 
takes and  errors  in  the  matter  of  religion,  and  especially  from 


ILLUSTRIOUS  ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN.  165 

investing  the  God  of  Love  with  the  cruel  and  vindictive  pas- 
sions of  erring  humanity,  and  making  blood  to  have  a  sweet 
savor  in  his  nostrils,  and  groans  of  agony  to  be  delicious  to  his 
ears. 

Man  never  had  the  right  to  usurp  the  unexercised  prerogative 
of  God,  and  condemn  and  punish  another  for  his  belief.  Born  in 
a  Protestant  land,  we  are  of  that  faith.  If  we  had  opened  our  eyes 
to  the  light  under  the  shadows  of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  we  should 
have  been  devout  Catholics ;  born  in  the  Jewish  quarter  of  Aleppo, 
we  should  have  contemned  Christ  as  an  imposter ;  in  Constanti- 
nople, we  should  have  cried  "Allah  il  Allah,  God  is  great  and  Ma- 
homet is  his  prophet!"  Birth,  place,  and  education  give  us  our 
faith.  Few  believe  in  any  religion  because  they  have  examined 
the  evidences  of  its  authenticity,  and  made  up  a  formal  judgment, 
upon  weighing  the  testimony.  Not  one  man  in  ten  thousand 
knows  anything  about  the  proofs  of  his  faith.  We  believe  what 
we  are  taught ;  and  those  are  most  fanatical  who  know  least  of  the 
evidences  on  which  their  creed  is  based.  Facts  and  testimony  are 
not,  except  in  very  rare  instances,  the  ground-work  of  faith.  It  is 
an  imperative  law  of  God's  Economy,  unyielding  and  inflexible  as 
Himself,  that  man  shall  accept  without  question  the  belief  of  those 
among  whom  he  is  born  and  reared;  the  faith  so  made  a  part  of 
his  nature  resists  all  evidence  to  the  contrary ;  and  he  will  disbe- 
lieve even  the  evidence  of  his  own"  senses,  rather  than  yield  up  the 
religious  belief  which  has  grown  up  in  him,  flesh  of  his  flesh  and 
bone  of  his  bone. 

What  is  truth  to  me  is  not  truth  to  another.  The  same  argu- 
ments and  evidences  that  convince  one  mind  make  no  impression 
on  another.  This  difference  is  in  men  at  their  birth.  No  man  is 
entitled  positively  to  assert  that  he  is  right,  where  other  men, 
equally  intelligent  and  equally  well-informed,  hold  directly  the 
opposite  opinion.  Each  thinks  it  impossible  for  the  other  to  be 
sincere,  and  each,  as  to  that,  is  equally  in  error.  "What  is  truth f" 
was  a  profound  question,  the  most  suggestive  one  ever  put  to  man. 
Many  beliefs  of  former  and  present  times  seem  incomprehensible. 
They  startle  us  with  a  new  glimpse  into  the  human  soul,  that  mys- 
terious thing,  more  mysterious  the  more  we  note  its  workings. 
Here  is  a  man  superior  to  myself  in  intellect  and  learning;  and 
yet  he  sincerely  believes  what  seenis  to  me  too  absurd  to  merit 
confutation ;  and  I  cannot  conceive,  and  sincerely  do  not  believe, 


1 66  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

that  he  is  both  sane  and  honest.  And  yet  he  is  both.  His  reason 
is  as  perfect  as  mine,  and  he  is  as  honest  as  I. 

The  fancies  of  a  lunatic  are  realities,  to  him.  Our  dreams  are 
realities  while  they  last;  and,  in  the  Past,  no  more  unreal  than 
what  we  have  acted  in  our  waking  hours.  No  man  can  say  that 
he  hath  as  sure  possession  of  the  truth  as  of  a  chattel.  When 
men  entertain  opinions  diametrically  opposed  to  each  other,  and 
each  is  honest,  who  shall  decide  which  hath  the  Truth;  and  how 
can  either  say  with  certainty  that  he  hath  it?  We  know  not 
what  is  the  truth.  That  we  ourselves  believe  and  feel  absolutely 
certain  that  our  own  belief  is  true,  is  in  reality  not  the  slightest 
proof  of  the  fact,  seem  it  never  so  certain  and  incapable  of  doubt 
to  us.  No  man  is  responsible  for  the  Tightness  of  his  fai'.h;  but 
only  for  the  w/rightness  of  it. 

Therefore  no  man  hath  or  ever  had  a  right  to  persecute  another 
for  his  belief ;  for  there  cannot  be  two  antagonistic  rights ;  and  if 
one  can  persecute  another,  because  he  himself  is  satisfied  that  the 
belief  of  that  other  is  erroneous,  the  other  has,  for  the  same  rea- 
son, equally  as  certain  a  right  to  persecute  him. 

The  truth  comes  to  us  tinged  and  colored  with  our  prejudices 
and  our  preconceptions,  which  are  as  old  as  ourselves,  and  strong 
with  a  divine  force.  It  comes  to  us  as  the  image  of  a  rod  comes  to 
us  through  the  water,  bent  and  distorted.  An  argument  sinks 
into  and  convinces  the  mind  of  one  man,  while  from  that  of  ano- 
ther it  rebounds  like  a  ball  of  ivory  dropped  on  marble.  It  is  no 
merit  in  a  man  to  have  a  particular  faith,  excellent  and  sound  and 
philosophic  as  it  may  be,  when  he  imbibed  it  with  his  mother's 
milk.  It  is  no  more  a  merit  than  his  prejudices  and  his  passions. 

The  sincere  Moslem  has  as  much  right  to  persecute  us,  as  we  to 
persecute  him ;  and  therefore  Masonry  wisely  requires  no  more 
than  a  belief  in  One  Great  All-Powerful  Deity,  the  Father  and 
Preserver  of  the  Universe.  Therefore  it  is  she  teaches  her  votaries 
that  toleration  is  one  of  the  chief  duties  of  every  good  Mason,  a 
component  part  of  that  charity  without  which  we  are  mere  hollow 
images  of  true  Masons,  mere  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbals. 

No  evil  hath  so  afflicted  the  world  as  intolerance  of  religious 
opinion.  The  human  beings  it  has  slain  in  various  ways,  if  once 
and  together  brought  to  life,  would  make  a  nation  of  people ;  left 
to  live  and  increase,  would  have  doubled  the  population  of  the 
civilized  portion  of  the  globe ;  among  which  civilized  portion  it 


ILLUSTRIOUS  ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN.  167 

chiefly  is  that  religious  wars  are  waged.  The  treasure  and  the 
human  labor  thus  lost  would  have  made  the  earth  a  garden,  in 
which,  but  for  his  evil  passions,  man  might  now  be  as  happy  as  in 
Eden. 

No  man  truly  obeys  the  Masonic  law  who  merely  tolerates 
those  whose  religious  opinions  are  opposed  to  his  own.  Every 
man's  opinions  are  his  own  private  property,  and  the  rights  of  all 
men  to  maintain  ef  ch  his  own  are  perfectly  equal.  Merely  to  tol- 
erate, to  bear  ivith  an  opposing  opinion,  is  to  assume  it  to  be  he- 
retical ;  and  assert  the  right  to  persecute,  if  we  would ;  and  claim 
our  toleration  of  :'t  as  a  merit.  The  Mason's  creed  goes  farther 
than  that.  No  n  in,  it  holds,  has  any  right  in  any  way  to  inter- 
fere with  the  religious  belief  of  another.  It  holds  that  each  man 
is  absolutely  sovereign  as  to  his  own  belief,  and  that  belief  is  a 
matter  absolutely  foreign  to  all  who  do  not  entertain  the  same 
belief;  and  that,  if  there  were  any  right  of  persecution  at  all,  it 
would  in  all  cases  be  a  mutual  right;  because  one  party  has  the 
same  right  as  the  other  to  sit  as  judge  in  his  own  case ;  and  God  is 
the  only  magistrate  that  can  rightfully  decide  between  them.  To 
that  great  Judge,  Masonry  refers  the  matter;  and  opening  wide 
its  portals,  it  invites  to  enter  there  and  live  in  peace  and  harmony, 
the  Protestant,  the  Catholic,  the  Jew,  the  Moslem ;  every  man 
who  will  lead  a  truly  virtuous  and  moral  life,  love  his  brethren, 
minister  to  the  sick  and  distressed,  and  believe  in  the  ONE,  Ail- 
Powerful,  All-Wise,  everywhere-Present  GOD,  Architect,  Creator, 
and  Preserver  of  all  things,  by  whose  universal  law  of  Harmony 
ever  rolls  on  this  universe,  the  great,  vast,  infinite  circle  of  suc- 
cessive Dea-th  and  Life: — to  whose  INEFFABLE  NAME  let  all  true 
Masons  pay  profoundest  homage !  for  whose  thousand  blessings 
poured  upon  us,  let  us  feel  the  sincerest  gratitude,  now,  henceforth, 
and  forever ! 

We  may  well  be  tolerant  of  each  other's  creed ;  far  in  every 
faith  there  are  excellent  moral  precepts.  Far  in  the  South  of 
Asia,  Zoroaster  taught  this  doctrine:  "On  commencing  a  journey, 
the  Faithful  should  turn  his  thoughts  toward  Ormuzd,  and  confess 
him,  in  the  purity  of  his  heart,  to  be  King  of  the  World ;  he 
should  love  him,  do  him  homage,  and  serve  him.  He  must  be 
upright  and  charitable,  despise  the  pleasures  of  the  body,  and  avoid 
pride  and  haughtiness,  and  vice  in  all  its  forms,  and  especially 
falsehood,  one  of  the  basest  sins  of  which  man  can  be  guilty.  He 


l68  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

must  forget  injuries  and  not  avenge  himself.  He  must  honor  the 
memory  of  his  parents  and  relatives.  At  night,  before  retiring  to 
sleep,  he  should  rigorously  examine  his  conscience,  and  repent  of 
the  faults  which  weakness  or  ill-fortune  had  caused  him  to  com- 
mit." He  was  required  to  pray  for  strength  to  persevere  in  the 
Good,  and  to  obtain  forgiveness  for  his  errors.  It  was  his  duty  to 
confess  his  faults  to  a  Magus,  or  to  a  layman  renowned  for  his  vir- 
tues, or  to  the  Sun.  Fasting  and  maceration  were  prohibited ;  and, 
on  the  contrary,  it  was  his  duty  suitably  to  nourish  the  body  and 
to  maintain  its  vigor,  that  his  soul  might  be  strong  to  resist  the 
Genius  of  Darkness;  that  he  might  more  attentively  read  the 
Divine  Word,  and  have  more  courage  to  perform  noble  deeds. 

And  in  the  North  of  Europe  the  Druids  taught  devotion  to 
friends,  indulgence  for  reciprocal  \vrongs,  love  of  deserved  praise, 
prudence,  humanity,  hospitality,  respect  for  old  age,  disregard  of 
the  future,  temperance,  contempt  of  death,  and  a  chivalrous  defer- 
ence to  woman.  Listen  to  these  maxims  from  the  Hava  Maal,  or 
Sublime  Book  of  Odin  : 

"If  thou  hast  a  friend,  visit  him  often ;  the  path  will  grow  over 
with  grass,  and  the  trees  soon  cover  it,  if  thou  dost  not  constantly 
walk  upon  it.  He  is  a  faithful  friend,  who,  having  but  two  loaves, 
gives  his  friend  one.  Be  never  first  to  break  with  thy  friend ;  sor- 
row wrings  the  heart  of  him  who  has  no  one  save  himself  with 
whom  to  take  counsel.  There  is  no  virtuous  man  who  has  not 
some  vice,  no  bad  man  who  has  not  some  virtue.  Happy  he  who 
obtains  the  praise  and  good-will  of  men ;  for  all  that  depends  on 
the  will  of  another  is  hazardous  and  uncertain.  Riches  flit  away 
in  the  twinkl-ing  of  an  eye ;  they  are  the  most  inconstant  of 
friends ;  flocks  and  herds  perish,  parents  die,  friends  are  not  im- 
mortal, thou  thyself  diest ;  I  know  but  one  thing  that  doth  not 
die,  the  judgment  that  is  passed  upon  the  dead.  Be  humane  to- 
ward those  whom  thou  meetest  on  the  road.  If  the  guest  that 
cometh  to  thy  house  is  a-cold,  give  him  fire ;  the  man  who  has 
journeyed  over  the  mountains  needs  food  and  dry  garments.  Mock 
not  at  the  aged ;  for  words  full  of  sense  come  often  from  the 
wrinkles  of  age.  Be  moderately  wise,  and  not  over-prudeni .  Let 
no  one  seek  to  know  his  destiny,  if  he  would  sleep  tranquilly. 
There  is  no  malady  more  cruel  than  to  be  discontented  with  our 
lot.  The  glutton  eats  his  own  death  ;  and  the  wise  man  laughs  at 
the  fool's  greediness.  Nothing  is  more  injurious  to  the  young  than 


ILLUSTRIOUS  ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN.  169 

excessive  drinking;  the  more  one  drinks  the  more  he  loses  his 
reason ;  the  bird  of  forgetfulness  sings  before  those  who  intoxicate 
themselves,  and  wiles  away  their  souls.  Man  devoid  of  sense  be- 
lieves he  will  live  always  if  he  avoids  war ;  but,  if  the  lances  spare 
him,  old  age  will  give  him  no  quarter.  Better  live  well  than  live 
long.  When  a  man  lights  a  fire  in  his  house,  death  comes  before 
it  goes  out." 

And  thus  said  the  Indian  books :  "Honor  thy  father  and  mother. 
Never  forget  the  benefits  thou  hast  received.  Learn  while  thou 
art  young.  Be  submissive  to  the  laws  of  thy  country.  Seek  the 
company  of  virtuous  men.  Speak  not  of  God  but  with  respect. 
Live  on  good  terms  with  thy  fellow-citizens.  Remain  in  thy  proper 
place.  Speak  ill  of  no  one.  Mock  at  the  bodily  infirmities  of 
none.  Pursue  not  unrelentingly  a  conquered  enemy.  Strive  to 
acquire  a  good  reputation.  The  best  bread  is  that  for  which  one 
is  indebted  to  his  own  labor.  Take  counsel  with  wise  men.  The 
more  one  learns,  the  more  he  acquires  the  faculty  of  learning. 
Knowledge  is  the  most  permanent  wealth.  As  well  be  dumb  as 
ignorant.  The  true  use  of  knowledge  is  to  distinguish  good  from 
evil.  Be  not  a  subject  of  shame  to  thy  parents.  What  one  learns 
in  youth  endures  like  the  engraving  upon  a  rock.  He  is  wise  who 
knows  himself.  Let  thy  books  be  thy  best  friends.  When  thou 
attainest  an  hundred  years,  cease  to  learn.  Wisdom  is  solidly 
planted,  even  on  the  shifting  ocean.  Deceive  no  one,  not  even 
thine  enemy.  Wisdom  is  a  treasure  that  everywhere  commands 
its  value.  Speak  mildly,  even  to  the  poor.  It  is  sweeter  to  for- 
give than  to  take  vengeance.  Gaming  and  quarrels  lead  to  misery. 
There  is  no  true  merit  without  the  practice  of  virtue.  To  honor 
our  mother  is  the  most  fitting  homage  we  can  pay  the  Divinity. 
There  is  no  tranquil  sleep  without  a  clear  conscience.  He  badly 
understands  his  interest  who  breaks  his  word." 

Twenty- four  centuries  ago  these  were  the  Chinese  Ethics : 

"The  Philosopher  [Confucius]  said,  'SAN!  my  doctrine  is  sim- 
ple, and  easy  to  be  understood.'  THSENG-TSEU  replied,  'that  is 
certain.'  The  Philosopher  having  gone  out,  the  disciples  asked 
what  their  master  had  meant  to  say.  THSENG-TSEU  responded. 
'The  doctrine  of  our  Master  consists  solely  in  being  upright  of 
heart,  and  loving  our  neighbor  as  we  love  ourself.'  " 

About  a  century  later,  the  Hebrew  law  said,  "If  any  man  hate 
his  neighbor  .  .  .  then  shall  ye  do  unto  him,  as  he  had  thought  to 


170  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

do  unto  his  brother  .  .  .  Better  is  a  neighbor  that  is  near,  than  a 
brother  afar  off  .  .  .  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

In  the  same  fifth  century  before  Christ,  SOCRATES  the  Grecian 
said,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

Three  generations  earlier,  ZOROASTER  had  said  to  the  Persians: 
"Offer  up  thy  grateful  prayers  to  the  Lord,  the  most  just  and  pure 
Ormuzd,  the  supreme  and  adorable  God,  who  thus  declared  to  his 
Prophet  Zerdusht :  'Hold  it  not  meet  to  do  unto  others  what  thou 
wouldst  not  desire  done  unto  thyself;  do  that  unto  the  people, 
which,  when  done  to  thyself,  is  not  disagreeable  unto  thee.' ' 

The  same  doctrine  had  been  long  taught  in  the  schools  of  Bab- 
ylon, Alexandria,  and  Jerusalem.  A  Pagan  declared  to  the  Phar- 
isee HILLEL  that  he  was  ready  to  embrace  the  Jewish  religion,  if 
he  could  make  known  to  him  in  a  few  words  a  summary  of  the 
whole  law  of  Moses.  "That  which  thou  likest  not  done  to  thy- 
self," said  Hillel,  "do  it  not  unto  thy  neighbor.  Therein  is  all  the 
law :  the  rest  is  nothing  but  the  commentary  upon  it." 

"Nothing  is  more  natural,"  said  CONFUCIUS,  "nothing  more 
simple,  than  the  principles  of  that  morality  which  I  endeavor,  by 
salutary  maxims,  to  inculcate  in  you  ...  It  is  humanity;  which 
is  to  say,  that  universal  charity  among  all  of  our  species,  without 
distinction.  It  is  uprightness ;  that  is,  that  rectitude  of  spirit 
and  of  heart,  which  makes  one  seek  for  truth  in  everything,  and 
desire  it,  without  deceiving  one's  self  or  others.  It  is,  finally,  sin- 
cerity or  good  faith ;  which  is  to  say,  that  frankness,  that  open- 
ness of  heart,  tempered  by  self-reliance,  which  excludes  all  feints 
and  all  disguising,  as  much  in  speech  as  in  action." 

To  diffuse  useful  information,  to  further  intellectual  refinement, 
sure  forerunner  of  moral  improvement,  to  hasten  the  coming  of 
the  great  day,  when  the  dawn  of  general  knowledge  shall  chase 
away  the  lazy,  lingering  mists  of  ignorance  and  error,  even  from 
the  base  of  the  great  social  pyramid,  is  indeed  a  high  calling,  in 
which  the  most  splendid  talents  and  consummate  virtue  may  well 
press  onward,  eager  to  bear  a  part.  From  the  Masonic  ranks 
ought  to  go  forth  those  whose  genius  and  not  their  ancestry  enno- 
ble them,  to  open  to  all  ranks  the  temple  of  science,  and  by  their 
own  example  to  make  the  humblest  men  emulous  to  climb  steps 
no  longer  inaccessible,  and  enter  the  unfolded  gates  burning  in 
the  sun. 

The  highest  intellectual  cultivation  is  perfectly  compatible  with 


ILLUSTRIOUS   ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN.  171 

the  daily  cares  and  toils  of  working-men.  A  keen  relish  for  the 
most  sublime  truths  of  science  belongs  alike  to  every  class  of 
mankind.  And,  as  philosophy  was  taught  in  the  sacred  groves  of 
Athens,  and  under  the  Portico,  and  in  the  old  Temples  of  Egypt 
and  India,  so  in  our  Lodges  ought  Knowledge  to  be  dispensed,  the 
Sciences  taught,  and  the  Lectures  become  like  the  teachings  of 
Socrates  and  Plato,  of  Agassiz  and  Cousin. 

Real  knowledge  never  permitted  either  turbulence  or  unbelief; 
but  its  progress  is  the  forerunner  of  liberality  and  enlightened 
toleration.  Whoso  dreads  these  may  well  tremble ;  for  he  may  be 
well  assured  that  their  day  is  at  length  come,  and  must  put  to 
speedy  flight  the  evil  spirits  of  tyranny  and  persecution,  which 
haunted  the  long  night  now  gone  down  the  sky.  And  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  time  will  soon  arrive,  when,  as  men  will  no  longer 
suffer  themselves  to  be  led  blindfold  in  ignorance,  so  will  they  no 
more  yield  to  the  vile  principle  of  judging  and  treating  their  fel- 
low-creatures, not  according  to  the  intrinsic  merit  of  their  actions, 
but  according  to  the  accidental  and  involuntary  coincidence  of 
their  opinions. 

Whenever  we  come  to  treat  with  entire  respect  those  who  con- 
scientiously differ  from  ourselves,  the  only  practical  effect  of  a  dif- 
ference will  be,  to  make  us  enlighten  the  ignorance  on  one  side  or 
the  other,  from  which  it  springs,  by  instructing  them,  if  it  be 
theirs ;  ourselves,  if  it  be  our  own ;  to  the  end  that  the  only  kind 
of  unanimity  may  be  produced  which  is  desirable  among  rational 
beings, — the  agreement  proceeding  from  full  conviction  after  the 
freest  discussion. 

The  Elu  of  Fifteen  ought  therefore  to  take  the  lead  of  his  fel- 
low-citizens, not  in  frivolous  amusements,  not  in  the  degrading 
pursuits  of  the  ambitious  vulgar;  but  in  the  truly  noble  task  of 
enlightening  the  mass  of  his  countrymen,  and  of  leaving  his  own 
name  encircled,  not  with  barbaric  splendor,  or  attached  to  courtly 
gewgaws,  but  illustrated  by  the  honors  most  worthy  of  our  ra- 
tional nature ;  coupled  with  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  grate- 
fully pronounced  by  a  few,  at  least,  whom  his  wise  beneficence  has 
rescued  from  ignorance  and  vice. 

We  say  to  him,  in  the  words  of  the  great  Roman :  "Men  in  no 
respect  so  nearly  approach  to  the  Deity,  as  when  they  confer  bene- 
fits on  men.  To  serve  and  do  good  to  as  many  as  possible, — there 
is  nothing  greater  in  your  fortune  than  that  you  should  be  able, 


1^2  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  nothing  finer  in  your  nature,  than  that  you  should  be  desir- 
ous to  do  this."  This  is  the  true  mark  for  the  aim  of  every  man 
and  Mason  who  either  prizes  the  enjoyment  of  pure  happiness,  or 
sets  a  right  value  upon  a  high  and  unsullied  renown.  And  if  the 
benefactors  of  mankind,  when  they  rest  from  their  noble  labors, 
shall  be  permitted  to  enjoy  hereafter,  as  an  appropriate  reward  of 
their  virtue,  the  privilege  of  looking  down  upon  the  blessings  with 
which  their  exertions  and  charities,  and  perhaps  their  toils  and 
sufferings  have  clothed  the  scene  of  their  former  existence,  it  will 
not,  in  a  state  of  exalted  purity  and  wisdom,  be  the  founders  of 
mighty  dynasties,  the  conquerors  of  new  empires,  the  Caesars, 
Alexanders,  and  Tamerlanes ;  nor  the  mere  Kings  and  Counsel- 
lors, Presidents  and  Senators,  who  have  lived  for  their  party 
chiefly,  and  for  their  country  only  incidentally,  often  sacrificing  to 
their  own  aggrandizement  or  that  of  their  faction  the  good  of  their 
fellow-creatures ; — it  will  not  be  they  who  will  be  gratified  by  con- 
templating the  monuments  of  their  inglorious  fame ;  but  those 
will  enjoy  that  delight  and  march  in  that  triumph,  who  can  trace 
the  remote  effects  of  their  enlightened  benevolence  in  the  im- 
proved condition  of  their  species,  and  exult  in  the  reflection,  that 
the  change  which  they  at  last,  perhaps  after  many  years,  survey, 
with  eyes  that  age  and  sorrow  can  make  dim  no  more, — of  Knowl- 
edge become  Power, — Virtue  sharing  that  Empire, — Superstition 
dethroned,  and  Tyranny  exiled,  is,  if  even  only  in  some  small  and 
very  slight  degree,  yet  still  in  some  degree,  the  fruit,  precious  if 
costly,  and  though  late  repaid  yet  long  enduring,  of  their  own 
self-denial  and  strenuous  exertion,  of  their  own  mite  of  charity 
and  aid  to  education  wisely  bestowed,  and  of  the  hardships  and 
hazards  which  they  encountered  here  below. 

Masonry  requires  of  its  Initiates  and  votaries  nothing  that  is 
impracticable.  It  does  not  demand  that  they  should  undertake 
to  climb  to  those  lofty  and  sublime  peaks  of  a  theoretical  and  im- 
aginary unpractical  virtue,  high  and  cold  and  remote  as  the  eternal 
snows  that  wrap  the  shoulders  of  Chimborazo,  and  at  least  as  in- 
accessible as  they.  It  asks  that  alone  to  be  done  which  is  easy  to 
be  clone.  It  overtasks  no  one's  strength,  and  asks  no  one  to  go 
beyond  his  means  and  capacities.  It  does  not  expect  one  whose 
business  or  profession  yields  him  little  more  than  the  wants  of 
himself  and  his  family  require,  and  whose  time  is  necessarily  oc- 
cupied by  his  daily  vocations,  to  abandon  or  neglect  the  business 


ILLUSTRIOUS  ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN.  173 

by  which  he  and  his  children  live,  and  devote  himself  and  his 
means  to  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men.  It  does  not  ex- 
pect him  to  publish  books  for  the  people,  or  to  lecture,  to  the  ruin 
of  his  private  affairs,  or  to  found  academies  and  colleges,  build  up 
libraries,  and  entitle  himself  to  statues. 

But  it  does  require  and  expect  every  man  of  us  to  do  something, 
within  and  according  to  his  means;  and  there  is  no  Mason  who 
cannot  do  some  thing,  if  not  alone,  then  by  combination  and  asso- 
ciation. 

If  a  Lodge  cannot  aid  in  founding  a  school  or  an  academy  it 
can  still  do  something.  It  can  educate  one  boy  or  girl,  at  least, 
the  child  of  some  poor  or  departed  brother.  And  it  should  never 
be  forgotten,  that  in  the  poorest  unregarded  child  that  seems 
abandoned  to  ignorance  and  vice  may  slumber  the  virtues  of  a 
Socrates,  the  intellect  of  a  Bacon  or  a  Bossuet,  the  genius  of  a 
Shakespeare,  the  capacity  to  benefit  mankind  of  a  Washington ; 
and  that  in  rescuing  him  from  the  mire  in  which  he  is  plunged, 
and  giving  him  the  means  of  education  and  development,  the 
Lodge  that  does  it  may  be  the  direct  and  immediate  means  cf  con- 
ferring upon  the  world  as  great  a  boon  as  that  given  it  by  John 
Faust  the  boy  of  Mentz ;  may  perpetuate  the  liberties  of  a  country 
and  change  the  destinies  of  nations,  and  write  a  new  chapter  in 
the  history  of  the  world. 

For  we  never  know  the  importance  of  the  act  we  do.  The 
daughter  of  Pharaoh  little  thought  what  she  was  doing  for' the 
human  race,  and  the  vast  unimaginable  consequences  that  de- 
pended on  her  charitable  act,  when  she  drew  the  little  child  of  a 
Hebrew  woman  from  among  the  rushes  that  grew  along  the  bank 
oi  the  Nile,  and  determined  to  rear  it  as  if  it  were  her  own. 

How  often  has  an  act  of  charity,  costing  the  doer  little,  given 
to  the  world  a  great  painter,  a  great  musician,  a  great  inventor! 
How  often  has  such  an  act  developed  the  ragged  boy  into  the  ben- 
efactor of  his  race !  On  what  small  and  apparently  unimportant 
circumstances  have  turned  and  hinged  the  fates  of  the  world's 
great  conquerors.  There  is  no  law  that  limits  the  returns  that 
shall  be  reaped  from  a  single  good  deed.  The  widow's  mite  may 
not  only  be  as  acceptable  to  God,  but  may  produce  as  great  results 
as  the  rich  man's  costly  offerinrr.  The  poorest  boy.  helped  by  be- 
nevolence, may  come  to  lead  armies,  to  control  senates,  to  decide 
on  peace  and  war,  to  dictate  to  cabinets ;  and  his  magnificent 


174  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

thoughts  and  noble  words  may  be  law  many  years  hereafter  to  mil- 
lions of  men  yet  unborn. 

But  the  opportunity  to  effect  a  great  good  does  not  often  occur 
to  any  one.  It  is  worse  than  folly  for  one  to  lie  idle  and  inert,  and 
expect  the  accident  to  befall  him,  by  which  his  influences  shall  live 
forever.  He  can  expect  that  to  happen,  only  in  consequence  of  one 
or  many  or  all  of  a  long  series  of  acts.  He  can  expect  to  benefit 
the  world  only  as  men  attain  other  results;  by  continuance,  by 
persistence,  by  a  steady  and  uniform  habit  of  laboring  for  the 
enlightenment  of  the  world,  to  the  extent  of  his  means  and  ca- 
pacity. 

For  it  is,  in  all  instances,  by  steady  labor,  by  giving  enough  of 
application  to  our  work,  and  having  enough  of  time  for  the  doing 
of  it,  by  regular  pains-taking,  and  the  plying  of  constant  assidui- 
ties, and  not  by  any  process  of  legerdemain,  that  we  secure  the 
strength  and  the  staple  of  real  excellence.  It  was  thus  that  De- 
mosthenes, clause  after  clause,  and  sentence  after  sentence,  elabo- 
rated to  the  uttermcst  his  immortal  orations.  It  was  thus  that 
Newton  pioneered  his  way,  by  the  steps  of  an  ascending  geometry, 
to  the  mechanism  of  the  Heavens,  and  Le  Verrier  added  a  planet 
to  our  Solar  System. 

It  is  a  most  erroneous  opinion  that  those  who  have  left  the  most 
stupendous  monuments  of  intellect  behind  them,  were  not  differ- 
ently exercised  from  the  rest  of  the  species,  but  only  differently 
gifted ;  that  they  signalized  themselves  only  by  their  talent,  and 
hardly  ever  by  their  industry ;  for  it  is  in  truth  to  the  most  stren- 
uous application  of  those  commonplace  faculties  which  are  dif- 
fused among  all,  that  they  are  indebted  for  the  glories  which  now 
encircle  their  remembrance  and  their  name. 

We  must  not  imagine  it  to  be  a  vulgarizing  of  genius,  that  it 
should  be  lighted  up  in  any  other  way  than  by  a  direct  inspiration 
from  Heaven  ;  nor  ove-rlook  the  steadfastness  of  purpose,  the  devo- 
tion to  some  single  but  great  object,  the  unweariedness  of  labor 
that  is  given,  not  in  convulsive  and  preternatural  throes,  but  by 
little  and  little  as  the  strength  of  the  mind  may  bear  it ;  the  accu- 
mulation of  many  small  efforts,  instead  of  a  few  grand  and  gigan- 
tic, but  perhaps  irregular  movements,  on  the  part  of  energies  that 
are  marvellous ;  by  which  former  alone  the  great  results  are 
brought  out  that  write  their  enduring  records  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  and  in  the  history  of  nations  and  of  man. 


ILLUSTRIOUS  ELECT  OF  THE  FIFTEEN.  175 

We  must  not  overlook  these  elements,  to  which  genius  owes  the 
best  and  proudest  of  her  achievements ;  nor  imagine  that  qualities 
so  generally  possessed  as  patience  and  pains-taking,  and  resolute 
industry,  have  no  share  in  upholding  a  distinction  so  illustrious 
as  that  of  the  benefactor  of  his  kind. 

We  must  not  forget  that  great  results  are  most  ordinarily  pro- 
duced by  an  aggregate  of  many  contributions  and  exertions ;  as  it 
is  the  invisible  particles  of  vapor,  each  separate  and  distinct  from 
the  other,  that,  rising  from  the  oceans  and  their  bays  and  gulfs, 
from  lakes  and  rivers,  and  wide  morasses  and  overflowed  plains, 
float  away  as  clouds,  and  distill  upon  the  earth  in  dews,  and  fall  in 
showers  and  rain  and  snows  upon  the  broad  plains  and  rude  moun- 
tains, and  make  the  great  navigable  streams  that  are  the  arteries 
along  which  flows  the  life-blood  of  a  country. 

And  so  Masonry  can  do  much,  if  each  Mason  be  content  to  do 
his  share,  and  if  their  united  efforts  are  directed  by  wise  counsels 
to  a  common  purpose.  "It  is  for  God  and  for  Omnipotency  to  do 
mighty  things  in  a  moment ;  but  by  degrees  to  grow  to  greatness 
is  the  course  that  He  hath  left  for  man." 

If  Masonry  will  but  be  true  to  her  mission,  and  Masons  to  their 
promises  and  obligations — if,  re-entering  vigorously  upon  a  career 
of  beneficence,  she  and  they  will  but  pursue  it  earnestly  and  unfal- 
teringly, remembering  that  our  contributions  to  the  cause  of  char- 
ity and  education  then  deserve  the  greatest  credit  when  it  costs  us 
something,  the  curtailing  of  a  comfort  or  the  relinquishment  of  a 
luxury,  to  make  them — if  we  will  but  give  aid  to  what  were  once 
Masonry's  great  schemes  for  human  improvement,  not  fitfully  and 
spasmodically,  but  regularly  and  incessantly,  as  the  vapors  rise 
and  the  springs  run,  and  as  the  sun  rises  and  the  stars  come  up 
into  the  heavens,  then  we  may  be  sure  that  great  results  will  be 
attained  and  a  great  work  done.  And  then  it  will  most  surely  be 
seen  that  Masonry  is  not  effete  or  impotent,  nor  degenerated  nor 
drooping  to  a  fatal  decay. 


XL 
SUBLIME  ELECT  OF  THE  TWELVE; 

OR 

PRINCE  AMETH. 
[Elu  of  the  Twelve.] 

THE  duties  of  a  Prince  Ameth  are,  to  be  earnest,  true,  reliable, 
and  sincere;  to  protect  the  people  against  illegal  impositions  and 
exactions ;  to  contend  for  their  political  rights,  and  to  see,  as  far  as 
he  may  or  can,  that  those  bear  the  burdens  who  reap  the  benefits 
of  the  Government. 

You  are  to  be  true  unto  all  men. 

You  are  to  be  frank  and  sincere  in  all  things. 

You  are  to  be  earnest  in  doing  whatever  it  is  your  duty  to  do. 

And  no  man  must  repent  that  he  has  relied  upon  your  resolve, 
your  profession,  or  your  word. 

The  great  distinguishing  characteristic  of  a  Mason  is  sympathy 
with  his  kind.  He  recognizes  in  the  human  race  one  great  family, 
all  connected  with  himself  by  those  invisible  links,  and  that 
mighty  net-work  of  circumstance,  forged  and  woven  by  God. 

Feeling  that  sympathy,  it  is  his  first  Masonic  duty  to  serve  his 
fellow-man.  At  his  first  entrance  into  the  Order,  he  ceases  to  be 
isolated,  and  becomes  one  of  a  great  brotherhood,  assuming  new 
duties  toward  every  Mason  that  lives,  as  every  Mason  at  the  same 
moment  assumes  them  toward  him. 

Nor  are  those  duties  on  his  part  confined  to  Masons  alone.  He 
assumes  many  in  regard  to  his  country,  and  especially  toward  the 
great,  suffering  masses  of  the  common  people ;  for  they  too  are  his 
brethren,  and  God  hears  them,  inarticulate  as  the  meanings  oi 
their  misery  are.  By  all  proper  means,  of  persuasion  and  influ- 
176 


SUBLIME  ELECT  OF  THE  TWELVE.  177 

ence,  and  otherwise,  if  the  occasion  and  emergency  require,  ne  is 
bound  to  defend  them  against  oppression,  and  tyrannical  and  ille- 
gal exactions. 

He  labors  equally  to  defend  and  to  improve  the  people.  He  does 
not  flatter  them  to  mislead  them,  nor  fawn  upon  them  to  rule 
them,  nor  conceal  his  opinions  to  humor  them,  nor  tell  them  that 
they  can  never  err,  and  that  their  voice  is  the  voice  of  God.  He 
knows  that  the  safety  of  every  free  government,  and  its  continu- 
ance and  perpetuity  depend  upon  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of 
the  common  people;  and  that,  unless  their  liberty  is  of  such  a 
kind  as  arms  can  neither  procure  nor  take  away ;  unless  it  is  the 
fruit  of  manly  courage,  of  justice,  temperance,  and  generous  vir- 
tue— unless,  being  such,  it  has  taken  deep  rcot  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  the  people  at  large,  there  will  not  long  be  wanting  those 
who  will  snatch  from  them  by  treachery  what  they  have  acquired 
by  arms  or  institutions. 

He  knows  that  if,  after  being  released  from  the  toils  of  war,  the 
people  neglect  the  arts  of  peace ;  if  their  peace  and  liberty  be  a 
state  of  warfare;  if  war  be  their  only  virtue,  and  the  summit  of 
their  praise,  they  will  soon  find  peace  the  most  adverse  to  their 
interests.  It  will  be  only  a  more  distressing  war ;  and  that  which 
they  imagined  liberty  will  be  the  worst  of  slavery.  For,  unless  by 
the  means  of  knowledge  and  morality,  not  frothy  and  loquacious, 
but  genuine,  unadulterated,  and  sincere,  they  clear  the  horizon  of 
the  mind  from  those  mists  of  error  and  passion  which  arise  from 
ignorance  and  vice,  they  will  always  have  those  who  will  bend  their 
necks  to  the  yoke  as  if  they  were  brutes ;  who,  notwithstanding  all 
their  triumphs,  will  put  them  up  to  the  highest  bidder,  as  if  they 
were  mere  booty  made  in  war;  and  find  an  exuberant  source  of 
wealth  and  power,  in  the  people's  ignorance,  prejudice,  and  pas- 
sions. 

The  people  that  does  not  subjugate  the  propensity  of  the  wealthy 
to  avarice,  ambition,  and  sensuality,  expel  luxury  from  them  and 
their  families,  keep  down  pauperism,  diffuse  knowledge  among  the 
poor,  and  labor  to  raise  the  abject  from  the  mire  of  vice  and  low 
indulgence,  and  to  keep  the  industrious  from  starving  in  sight  of 
luxurious  festivals,  will  find  that  it  has  cherished,  in  that  avarice, 
ambition,  sensuality,  selfishness,  and  luxury  of  the  one  class,  and 
that  degradation,  misery,  drunkenness,  ignorance,  and  brutaliza- 
tion  of  the  other,  more  stubborn  and  intractable  despots  at  home 


178  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

than  it  ever  encountered  in  the  field ;  and  even  its  very  bowels  will 
be  continually  teeming  with  the  intolerable  progeny  of  tyrants. 

These  are  the  first  enemies  to  be  subdued;  this  constitutes  the 
campaign  of  Peace ;  these  are  triumphs,  difficult  indeed,  but 
bloodless ;  and  far  more  honorable  than  those  trophies  which  are 
purchased  only  by  slaughter  and  rapine ;  and  if  not  victors  in  this 
service,  it  is  in  vain  to  have  been  victorious  over  the  despotic  enemy 
in  the  field. 

For  if  any  people  thinks  that  it  is  a  grander;  a  more  benefi- 
cial, or  a  wiser  policy,  to  invent  subtle  expedients  by  stamps 
and  imposts,  for  increasing  the  revenue  and  draining  the  life-blood 
of  an  impoverished  people;  to  multiply  its  naval  and  military 
force ;  to  rival  in  craft  the  ambassadors  of  foreign  states ;  to  plot 
the  swallowing  up  of  foreign  territory ;  to  make  crafty  treaties  and 
alliances;  to  rule  prostrate  states  and  abject  provinces  by  fear  and 
force;  than  to  administer  unpolluted  justice  to  the  people,  to  re- 
lieve the  condition  and  raise  the  estate  of  the  toiling  masses,  redress 
the  injured  and  succor  the  distressed  and  conciliate  the  discon- 
tented, and  speedily  restore  to  every  one  his  own ;  then  that  people 
is  involved  in  a  cloud  of  error,  and  will  too  late  perceive,  when  the 
illusion  of  these  mighty  benefits  has  vanished,  that  in  neglecting 
these,  which  it  thought  inferior  considerations,  it  has  only  been 
precipitating  its  own  ruin  and  despair. 

Unfortunately,  every  age  presents  its  own  special  problem,  most 
difficult  and  often  impossible  to  solve ;  and  that  which  this  age 
offers,  and  forces  upon  the  consideration  of  all  thinking  men,  is 
this— how,  in  a  populous  and  wealthy  country,  blessed  with  free 
institutions  and  a  constitutional  government,  are  the  great  masses 
of  the  manual-labor  class  to  be  enabled  to  have  steady  work  at  fair 
wages,  to  be  kept  from  starvation,  and  their  children  from  vice  and 
debauchery,  and  to  be  furnished  with  that  degree,  not  of  mere 
reading  and  writing,  but  of  knozvledge,  that  shall  fit  them  intelli- 
gently to  do  the  duties  and  exercise  the  privileges  of  freemen ; 
even  to  be  intrusted  with  the  dangerous  right  of  suffrage? 

For  though  we  do  not  know  why  God,  being  infinitely  merciful 
as  well  as  wise,  has  so  ordered  it.  it  seems  to  be  unquestionably  his 
law,  that  even  in  civilized  and  Christian  countries,  the  large  mass 
of  the  population  shall  be  fortunate,  if,  during  their  whole  life, 
from  infancy  to  old  age,  in  health  and  sickness,  they  have  enough 
of  the  commonest  and  coarsest  food  to  keep  themselves  and  their 


SUBLIME  ELECT  OF  THE  TWELVE.  179 

children  from  the  continual  gnawing  of  hunger — enough  of  the 
commonest  and  coarsest  clothing  to  protect  themselves  and  their 
little  ones  from  indecent  exposure  and  the  bitter  cold ;  and  if  they 
have  over  their  heads  the  rudest  shelter. 

And  He  seems  to  have  enacted  this  law — which  no  human  com- 
munity has  yet  found  the  means  to  abrogate — that  when  a  country 
becomes  populous,  capital  shall  concentrate  in  the  hands  of  a  lim- 
ited number  of  persons,  and  labor  become  more  and  more  at  its 
mercy,  until  mere  manual  labor,  that  of  the  weaver  and  iron- 
worker, and  other  artisans,  eventually  ceases  to  be  worth  more 
than  a  bare  subsistence,  and  often,  in  great  cities  and  vast  extents 
of  country,  not  even  that,  and  goes  or  crawls  about  in  rags,  beg- 
ging, and  starving  for  want  of  work. 

While  every  ox  and  horse  can  find  work,  and  is  worth  being  fed, 
it  is  not  always  so  with  man.  To  be  employed,  to  have  a  chance 
to  work  at  anything  like  fair  wages,  becomes  the  great  engrossing 
object  of  a  man's  life.  The  capitalist  can  live  without  employing 
the  laborer,  and  discharges  him  whenever  that  labor  ceases  to  be 
profitable.  At  the  moment  when  the  weather  is  most  inclement, 
provisions  dearest,  and  rents  highest,  he  turns  him  off  to  starve. 
If  the  day-laborer  is  taken  sick,  his  wages  stop.  When  old,  he  has 
no  pension  to  retire  upon.  His  children  cannot  be  sent  to  school ; 
for  before  their  bones  are  hardened  they  must  get  to  work  lest  they 
starve.  The  man,  strong  and  able-bodied,  works  for  a  shilling  or 
two  a  day,  and  the  woman  shivering  over  her  little  pan  of  coals, 
when  the  mercury  drops  far  below  zero,  after  her  hungry  children 
have  wailed  themselves  to  sleep,  sews  by  the  dim  light  of  her  lonely 
candle,  for  a  bare  pittance,  selling  her  life  to  him  who  bargained 
only  for  the  work  of  her  needle. 

Fathers  and  mothers  slay  their  children,  to  have  the  burial-fees, 
that  with  the  price  of  one  child's  life  they  may  continue  life  in 
those  that  survive.  Little  girls  with  bare  feet  sweep  the  street- 
crossings,  when  the  winter  wind  pinches  them,  and  beg  piteously 
for  pennies  of  those  who  wear  warm  furs.  Children  grow  up  in 
squalid  misery  and  brutal  ignorance  ;  want  compels  virgin  and  wife 
to  prostitute  themselves :  women  starve  and  freeze,  and  lean  up 
against  the  walls  of  workhouses,  like  bundles  of  foul  rags,  all  night 
long,  and  night  after  night,  when  the  cold  rain  falls,  and  there 
chances  to  be  no  room  for  them  within  :  and  hundreds  of  families 
are  crowded  into  a  single  building,  rife  with  horrors  and  teeming 


jgO  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

with  foul  air  and  pestilence;  where  men,  women,  and  children 
huddle  together  in  their  filth ;  all  ages  and  all  colors  sleeping  in- 
discriminately together ;  while,  in  a  great,  free,  Republican  State, 
in  the  full  vigor  of  its  youth  and  strength,  one  person  in  every 
seventeen  is  a  pauper  receiving  charity. 

How  to  deal  with  this  apparently  inevitable  evil  and  mortal  dis- 
ease is  by  far  the  most  important  of  all  social  problems.  What  is 
to  be  done  with  pauperism  and  over-supply  of  labor  ?  How  is  the 
life  of  any  country  to  last,  when  brutality  and  drunken  semi-bar- 
barism vote,  and  hold  offices  in  their  gift,  and  by  fit  representatives 
of  themselves  control  a  government?  How,  if  not  wisdom  and 
authority,  but  turbulence  and  low  vice  are  to  exalt  to  senatorships 
miscreants  reeking  with  the  odors  and  pollution  of  the  hell,  the 
prize-ring,  the  brothel,  and  the  stock-exchange,  where  gambling  is 
legalized  and  rascality  is  laudable? 

Masonry  will  do  all  in  its  power,  by  direct  exertion  and  co-oper- 
ation, to  improve  and  inform  as  well  as  to  protect  the  people ;  to 
better  their  physical  condition,  relieve  their  miseries,  supply  their 
wants,  and  minister  to  their  necessities.  Let  every  Mason  in  this 
good  work  do  all  that  may  be  in  his  power. 

For  it  is  true  now,  as  it  always  was  and  always  will  be,  that  to  be 
free  is  the  same  thing  as  to  be  pious,  to  be  wise,  to  be  temperate 
and  just,  to  be  frugal  and  abstinent,  and  to  be  magnanimous  and 
brave;  and  to  be  the  opposite  of  all  these  is  the  same  as  to  be  a 
slave.  And  it  usually  happens,  by  the  appointment,  and,  as  it 
were,  retributive  justice  of  the  Deity,  that  that  people  which  can  - 
not  govern  themselves,  and  moderate  their  passions,  but  crouch 
under  the  slavery  of  their  lusts  and  vices,  are  delivered  up  to  the 
sway  of  those  whom  they  abhor,  and  made  to  submit  to  an  invol- 
untary servitude. 

And  it  is  also  sanctioned  by  the  dictates  of  justice  and  by  the 
constitution  of  Nature,  that  he  who,  from  the  imbecility  or  de- 
rangement of  his  intellect,  is  incapable  of  governing  himself, 
should,  like  a  minor,  be  committed  to  the  government  of  another. 

Above  all  things  let  us  never  forget  that  mankind  constitutes 
one  great  brotherhood  ;  all  born  to  encounter  suffering  and  sorrow, 
and  therefore  bound  to  sympathize  with  each  other. 

For  no  tower  of  Pride  was  ever  yet  high  enough  to  lift  its  pos- 
sessor above  the  trials  and  fears  and  frailties  of  humanity.  No 
human  hand  ever  built  the  wall,  nor  ever  shall,  that  will  keep  out 


SUBLIME  ELECT  OF  THE  TWELVE.  l8l 

affliction,  pain,  and  infirmity.  Sickness  and  sorrow,  trouble  and 
death,  are  dispensations  that  level  everything.  They  know  none, 
high  nor  low.  The  chief  wants  of  life,  the  great  and  grave  necessi- 
ties of  the  human  soul,  give  exemption  to  none.  They  make  all 
poor,  all  weak.  They  put  supplication  in  the  mouth  of  every 
human  being,  as  truly  as  in  that  of  the  meanest  beggar. 

But  the  principle  of  misery  is  not  an  evil  principle.  We  err, 
and  the  consequences  teach  us  wisdom.  All  elements,  all  the  laws 
of  things  around  us,  minister  to  this  end ;  and  through  the  paths 
of  painful  error  and  mistake,  it  is  the  design  of  Providence  to  lead 
us  to  truth  and  happiness.  If  erring  only  taught  us  to  err :  if 
mistakes  confirmed  us  in  imprudence;  if  the  miseries  caused  by 
vicious  indulgence  had  a  natural  tendency  to  make  us  more  abject 
slaves  of  vice,  then  suffering  would  be  wholly  evil.  But,  on  the 
contrary,  all  tends  and  is  designed  to  produce  amendment  and  im- 
provement. Suffering  is  the  discipline  of  virtue ;  of  that  which  is 
infinitely  better  than  happiness,  and  yet  embraces  in  itself  all  essen- 
tial happiness.  It  nourishes,  invigorates,  and  perfects  it.  Virtue 
is  the  prize  of  the  severely-contested  race  and  hard-fought  battle ; 
and  it  is  worth  all  the  fatigue  and  wounds  of  the  conflict.  Man 
should  go  forth  with  a  brave  and  strong  heart,  to  battle  with  ca- 
lamity. He  is  to  master  it,  and  not  let  it  become  his  master.  He 
is  not  to  forsake  the  post  of  trial  and  of  peril ;  but  to  stand  firmly 
in  his  lot,  until  the  great  word  of  Providence  shall  bid  him  fly,  or 
bid  him  sink.  With  resolution  and  courage  the  Mason  is  to  do 
the  work  which  it  is  appointed  for  him  to  do,  looking  through  the 
dark  cloud  of  human  calamity,  to  the  end  that  rises  high  and 
bright  before  him.  The  lot  of  sorrow  is  great  and  sublime.  None 
suffer  forever,  nor  for  nought,  nor  without  purpose.  It  is  the 
ordinance  of  God's  wisdom,  and  of  His  Infinite  Love,  to  procure 
for  us  infinite  happiness  and  glory. 

Virtue  is  the  truest  liberty ;  nor  is  he  free  who  stoops  to  pas- 
sions ;  nor  he  in  bondage  who  serves  a  noble  master.  Examples 
are  the  best  and  most  lasting  lectures ;  virtue  the  best  example. 
He  that  hath  clone  good  deeds  and  set  good  precedents,  in  sincerity, 
is  happy.  Time  shall  not  outlive  his  worth.  He  lives  truly  after 
death, whose  good  deeds  are  his  pillarsof  remembrance  :  andno  chy 
but  adds  some  grains  to  his  heap  of  glory.  Good  works  are  seeds, 
that  after  sowing  return  us  a  continual  harvest ;  and  the  memory 
of  noble  actions  is  more  enduring  than  monuments  of  marble. 


1 82  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

Life  is  a  school.  The  world  is  neither  prison  nor  penitentiary, 
nor  a  palace  of  ease,  nor  an  amphitheatre  for  games  and  specta- 
cles; but  a  place  of  instruction,  and  discipline.  Life  is  given  for 
moral  and  spiritual  training;  and  the  entire  course  of  the  great 
school  of  life  is  an  education  for  virtue,  happiness,  and  a  future 
existence.  The  periods  of  Life  are  its  terms;  all  human  condi- 
tions, its  forms;  all  human  employments,  its  lessons.  Families 
are  the  primary  departments  of  this  moral  education ;  the  various 
circles  of  society,  its  advanced  stages;  Kingdoms  and  Republics, 
its  universities. 

Riches  and  Poverty,  Gayeties  and  Sorrows,  Marriages  and 
Funerals,  the  ties  of  life  bound  or  broken,  fit  and  fortunate,  or  un- 
toward and  painful,  are  all  lessons.  Events  are  not  blindly  and 
carelessly  flung  together.  Providence  does  not  school  one  man, 
and  screen  another  from  the  fiery  trial  of  its  lessons.  It  has  nei- 
ther rich  favorites  nor  poor  victims.  One  event  happeneth  to  all. 
One  end  and  one  design  concern  and  urge  all  men. 

The  prosperous  man  has  been  at  school.  Perhaps  he  has  thought 
that  it  was  a  great  thing,  and  he  a  great  personage ;  but  he  has 
been  merely  a  pupil.  He  thought,  perhaps,  that  he  was  Master, 
and  had  nothing  to  do,  but  to  direct  and  command ;  but  there  was 
ever  a  Master  above  him,  the  Master  of  Life.  He  looks  not  at  our 
splendid  state,  or  our  many  pretensions,  nor  at  the  aids  and  appli- 
ances of  our  learning;  but  at  our  learning  itself.  He  puts  the 
poor  and  the  rich  upon  the  same  form ;  and  knows  no  difference 
between  them,  but  their  progress. 

If  from  prosperity  we  have  learned  moderation,  temperance, 
candor,  modesty,  gratitude  to  God,  and  generosity  to  man,  then  we 
are  entitled  to  be  honored  and  rewarded.  If  we  have  learned  self- 
ishness, self-indulgence,  wrong-doing,  and  vice,  to  forget  and 
overlook  our  less  fortunate  brother,  and  to  scoff  at  the  providence 
of  God,  then  we  are  unworthy  and  dishonored,  though  we  have 
been  nursed  in  affluence,  or  taken  our  degrees  from  the  lineage  of 
an  hundred  noble  descends  ;  as  truly  so,  in  the  eye  of  Heaven,  and  of 
all  right-thinking  men,  as  though  we  lay,  victims  of  beggary  and 
disease,  in  the  hospital,  by  the  hedge,  or  on  the  dung-hill.  The 
most  ordinary  human  equity  looks  not  at  the  school,  but  at  the 
scholar :  and  the  equity  of  Heaven  will  not  look  beneath  that 
mark. 

The  poor  man  also  is  at  school.     Let  him  take  care  that  he 


SUBLIME  ELECT  OF  THE  TWELVE.  *  183 

learn,  rather  than  complain.  Let  him  hold  to  his  integrity,  his 
candor,  and  his  kindness  of  heart.  Let  him  beware  of  envy,  and 
of  bondage,  and  keep  his  self-respect.  The  body's  toil  is  nothing. 
Let  him  beware  of  the  mind's  drudgery  and  degradation.  While 
he  betters  his  condition  if  he  can,  let  him  be  more  anxious  to  bet- 
ter his  soul.  Let  him  be  willing,  while  poor,  and  even  if  always 
poor,  to  learn  poverty's  great  lessons,  fortitude,  cheerfulness,  con- 
tentment, and  implicit  confidence  in  God's  Providence.  With 
these,  and  patience,  calmness,  self-command,  disinterestedness,  and 
affectionate  kindness,  the  humble  dwelling  may  be  hallowed,  and 
made  more  dear  and  noble  than  the  loftiest  palace.  Let  him, 
above  all  things,  see  that  he  lose  not  his  independence.  Let  him 
not  cast  himself,  a  creature  poorer  than  the  poor,  an  indolent,  help- 
less, despised  beggar,  on  the  kindness  of  others.  Every  man  should 
choose  to  have  God  for  his  Master,  rather  than  man ;  and  escape 
not  from  this  school,  either  by  dishonesty  or  alms-taking,  lest  he 
fall  into  that  state,  worse  than  disgrace,  where  he  can  have  no 
respect  for  himself. 

The  ties  of  Society  teach  us  to  love  one  another.  That  is  a  mis- 
erable society,  where  the  absence  of  affectionate  kindness  is  sought 
to  be  supplied  by  punctilious  decorum,  graceful  urbanity,  and  pol- 
ished insincerity ;  where  ambition,  jealousy,  and  distrust  rule,  in 
place  of  simplicity,  confidence,  and  kindness. 

So,  too,  the  social  state  teaches  modesty  and  gentleness ;  and 
from  neglect,  and  notice  unworthily  bestowed  on  others,  and  injus- 
tice, and  the  world's  failure  to  appreciate  us,  we  learn  patience  and 
quietness,  to  be  superior  to  society's  opinion,  not  cynical  and  bit- 
ter, but  gentle,  candid,  and  affectionate  still. 

Death  is  the  great  Teacher,  stern,  cold,  inexorable,  irresistible ; 
whom  the  collected  might  of  the  world  cannot  stay  or  ward  off. 
The  breath,  that  parting  from  the  lips  of  King  or  beggar,  scarcely 
stirs  the  hushed  air,  cannot  be  bought,  or  brought  back  for  a  mo- 
ment, with  the  wealth  of  Empires.  What  a  lesson  is  this,  teach- 
ing our  frailty  and  feebleness,  and  an  Infinite  Power  beyond  us ! 
It  is  a  fearful  lesson,  that  never  becomes  familiar.  It  walks  through 
the  earth  in  dread  mystery,  and  lays  its  hands  upon  all.  It  is  a 
universal  lesson,  that  is  read  everywhere  and  by  all  men.  Its  mes- 
sage comes  every  year  and  every  day.  The  past  years  are  crowded 
with  its  sad  and  solemn  mementoes;  and  death's  finger  traces  its 
handwriting  upon  the  walls  of  every  human  habitation. 


ig^  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

It  teaches  us  Duty ;  to  act  our  part  well ;  to  fulfill  the  work  as- 
signed us.  When  one  is  dying,  and  after  he  is  dead,  there  is  but 
one  question:  Has  he  lived  well?  There  is  no  evil  in  death  but 
that  which  life  makes. 

There  are  hard  lessons  in  the  school  of  God's  Providence ;  and 
yet  the  school  of  life  is  carefully  adjusted,  in  all  its  arrangements 
and  tasks,  to  man's  powers  and  passions.  There  is  no  extravagance 
in  its  teachings ;  nor  is  anything  done  for  the  sake  of  present 
effect.  The  whole  course  of  human  life  is  a  conflict  with  difficul- 
ties ;  and,  if  rightly  conducted,  a  progress  in  improvement.  It  is 
never  too  late  for  man  to  learn.  Not  part  only,  but  the  whole,  of 
life  is  a  school.  There  never  comes  a  time,  even  amidst  the  decays 
of  age,  when  it  is  fit  to  lay  aside  the  eagerness  of  acquisition,  or  the 
cheerfulness  of  endeavor.  Man  walks,  all  through  the  course  of 
life,  in  patience  and  strife,  and  sometimes  in  darkness ;  for,  from 
patience  is  to  come  perfection  ;  from  strife,  triumph  is  to  issue ; 
from  the  cloud  of  darkness  the  lightning  is  to  flash  that  shall  open 
the  way  to  eternity. 

Let  the  Mason  be  faithful  in  the  school  of  life,  and  to  all  its  les- 
sons !  Let  him  not  learn  nothing,  nor  care  not  whether  he  learns 
or  not.  Let  not  the  years  pass  over  him,  witnesses  of  only  his 
sloth  and  indifference ;  or  see  him  zealous  to  acquire  everything 
but  virtue.  Nor  let  him  labor  only  for  himself;  nor  forget  that 
the  humblest  man  that  lives  is  his  brother,  and  hath  a  claim  on  his 
sympathies  and  kind  offices ;  and  that  beneath  the  rough  garments 
which  labor  wears  may  beat  hearts  as  noble  as  throb  under  the 
stars  of  princes. 

God,  who  counts  by  souls,  not  stations, 

Loves  and  pities  you  and  me; 
For  to  Him  all  vain  distinctions 

Are  as  pebbles  on  the  sea. 

Nor  are  the  other  duties  inculcated  in  this  Degree  of  less  impor- 
tance. Truth,  a  Mason  is  early  told,  is  a  Divine  attribute  and  the 
foundation  of  every  virtue  ;  and  frankness,  reliability,  sincerity, 
straightforwardness,  plain-dealing,  are  but  different  modes  in 
which  Truth  develops  itself.  The  dead,  the  absent,  the  innocent, 
and  those  that  trust  him,  no  Mason  will  deceive  willingly.  To  all 
these  he  owes  a  nobler  justice,  in  that  they  are  the  most  certain 
trials  of  human  Equity.  Only  the  most  abandoned  of  men,  said 


SUBLIME  ELECT  OF  THE  TWELVE.  185 

Cicero,  will  deceive  him,  who  would  have  remained  uninjured  if 
he  had  not  trusted.  All  the  noble  deeds  that  have  beat  their 
marches  through  succeeding  ages  have  proceeded  from  men  of 
truth  and  genuine  courage.  The  man  who  is  always  true  is  both 
virtuous  and  wise;  and  thus  possesses  the  greatest  guards  of 
safety :  for  the  law  has  not  power  to  strike  the  virtuous ;  nor  can 
fortune  subvert  the  wise. 

The  bases  of  Masonry  being  morality  and  virtue,  it  is  by  study- 
ing one  and  practising  the  other,  that  the  conduct  of  a  Mason  be- 
comes irreproachable.  The  good  of  Humanity  being  its  principal 
object,  disinterestedness  is  one  of  the  first  virtues  that  it  requires 
of  its  members;  for  that  is  the  source  of  justice  and  benefi- 
cence. 

To  pity  the  misfortunes  of  others ;  to  be  humble,  but  without 
meanness;  to  be  proud,  but  without  arrogance;  to  abjure  every 
sentiment  of  hatred  and  revenge ;  to  show  himself  magnanimous 
and  liberal,  without  ostentation  and  without  profusion ;  to  be  the 
enemy  of  vice ;  to  pay  homage  to  wisdom  and  virtue ;  to  respect 
innocence ;  to  be  constant  and  patient  in  adversity,  and  modest  in 
prosperity ;  to  avoid  every  irregularity  that  stains  the  soul  and  dis- 
tempers the  body — it  is  by  following  these  precepts  that  a  Mason 
will  become  a  good  citizen,  a  faithful  husband,  a  tender  father,  an 
obedient  son,  and  a  true  brother ;  will  honor  friendship,  and  fulfill 
with  ardor  the  duties  which  virtue  and  the  social  relations  impose 
upon  him. 

It  is  because  Masonry  imposes  upon  us  these  duties  that  it  is 
properly  and  significantly  styled  zvork;  and  he  who  imagines  that 
he  becomes  a  Mason  by  merely  taking  the  first  two  or  three  De- 
grees, and  that  he  may,  having  leisurely  stepped  upon  that  small 
elevation,  thenceforward  worthily  wear  the  honors  of  Masonry, 
without  labor  or  exertion,  or  self-denial  or  sacrifice,  and  that  there 
is  nothing  to  be  done  in  Masonry,  is  strangely  deceived. 

Is  it  true  that  nothing  remains  to  be  clone  in  Masonry  ? 

Does  one  Brother  no  longer  proceed  by  law  against  another 
Brother  of  his  Lodge,  in  regard  to  matters  that  coulrl  be  easily  set- 
tled within  the  Masonic  family  circle? 

Has  the  duel,  that  hideous  heritage  of  barbarism,  interdicted 
among  Brethren  by  our  fundamental  laws,  and  denounced  by  the 
municipal  code,  yet  disappeared  from  the  soil  we  inhabit  ?  Do  Ma- 
sons of  high  rank  religiously  refrain  from  it ;  or  do  they  not,  bow- 
13 


186  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

ing  to  a  corrupt  public  opinion,  submit  to  its  arbitrament,  despite 
the  scandal  which  it  occasions  to  the  Order,  and  in  violation  of  the 
feeble  restraint  of  their  oath? 

Do  Masons  no  longer  form  uncharitable  opinions  of  their  Breth- 
ren, enter  harsh  judgments  against  them,  and  judge  themselves  by 
one  rule  and  their  Brethren  by  another  ? 

Has  Masonry  any  well-regulated  system  of  charity?  Has  it 
done  that  which  it  should  have  done  for  the  cause  of  education? 
Where  are  its  schools,  its  academies,  its  colleges,  its  hospitals,  and 
infirmaries  ? 

Are  political  controversies  now  conducted  with  no  violence  and 
bitterness  ? 

Do  Masons  refrain  from  defaming  and  denouncing  their  Breth- 
ren who  differ  with  them  in  religious  or  political  opinions  ? 

What  grand  social  problems  or  useful  projects  engage  our  atten- 
tion at  our  communications  ?  Where  in  our  Lodges  are  lectures  • 
habitually  delivered  for  the  real  instruction  of  the  Brethren?  Do 
not  our  sessions  pass  in  the  discussion  of  minor  matters  of  busi- 
ness, the  settlement  of  points  of  order  and  questions  of  mere 
administration,  and  the  admission  and  advancement  of  Can- 
didates, whom  after  their  admission  we  take  no  pains  to  in- 
struct ? 

In  what  Lodge  are  our  ceremonies  explained  and  elucidated ; 
corrupted  as  they  are  by  time,  until  their  true  features  can 
scarcely  be  distinguished ;  and  where  are  those  great  primi- 
tive truths  of  revelation  taught,  which  Masonry  has  preserved  to 
the  world  ? 

We  have  high  dignities  and  sounding  titles.  Do  their  possess- 
ors qualify  themselves  to  enlighten  the  world  in  respect  to  the 
aims  and  objects  of  Masonry?  Descendants  of  those  Initiates 
who  governed  empires,  does  your  influence  enter  into  practical  life 
and  operate  efficiently  in  behalf  of  well-regulated  and  constitu- 
tional liberty  ? 

Your  debates  should  be  but  friendly  conversations.  You  need 
concord,  union,  and  peace.  Why  then  do  you  retain  among  you 
men  who  excite  rivalries  and  jealousies;  why  permit  great  and 
violent  controversy  and  ambitious  pretensions?  How  do  your 
own  words  and  acts  agree?  If  your  Masonry  is  a  nullity,  how 
can  you  exercise  any  influence  on  others? 

Continually  you  praise  each  other,  and  utter  elaborate  and  high- 


SUBLIME  ELECT  Ol-    THE  TWELVE.  187 

wrought  eulogies  upon  the  Order.  Everywhere  you  assume  that 
you  are  what  you  should  be,  and  nowhere  do  you  look  upon  your- 
selves as  you  are.  Is  it  true  that  all  our  actions  are  so  many  acts 
of  homage  to  virtue  ?  Explore  the  recesses  of  your  hearts ;  let  us 
examine  ourselves  with  an  impartial  eye,  and  make  answer  to  our 
own  questioning!  Can  we  bear  to  ourselves  the  consoling  testi- 
mony that  we  always  rigidly  perform  our  duties ;  that  we  even  half 
perform  them? 

Let  us  away  with  this  odious  self-flattery !  Let  us  be  men,  if  we 
cannot  be  sages!  The  laws  of  Masonry,  above  others  excellent, 
cannot  wholly  change  men's  natures.  They  enlighten  them,  they 
point  out  the  true  way ;  but  they  can  lead  them  in  it,  only  by  re- 
pressing the  fire  of  their  passions,  and  subjugating  their  selfish- 
ness. Alas,  these  conquer,  and  Masonry  is  forgotten ! 

After  praising  each  other  all  our  lives,  there  are  always  excellent 
Brethren,  who,  over  our  coffins,  shower  unlimited  eulogies.  Every 
one  of  us  who  dies,  however  useless  his  life,  has  been  a  model  of 
all  the  virtues,  a  very  child  of  the  celestial  light.  In  Eg>pt, 
among  our  old  Masters,  where  Masonry  was  more  cultivated  than 
vanity,  no  one  could  gain  admittance  to  the  sacred  asylum  of  the 
tomb  until  he  had  passed  under  the  most  solemn  judgment.  A 
grave  tribunal  sat  in  judgment  upon  all,  even  the  kings.  They 
said  to  the  dead,  "Whoever  thou  art,  give  account  to  thy  country 
of  thy  actions!  What  hast  thou  done  with  thy  time  and  life? 
The  law  interrogates  thee,  thy  country  hears  thee,  Truth  sits  in 
judgment  on  thee!"  Princes  came  there  to  be  judged,  escorted 
only  by  their  virtues  and  their  vices.  A  public  accuser  recounted 
the  history  of  the  dead  man's  life,  and  threw  the  blaze  of  the  torch 
of  truth  on  all  his  actions.  If  it  were  adjudged  that  he  had  led 
an  evil  life,  his  memory  was  condemned  in  the  presence  of  the 
nation,  and  his  body  was  denied  the  honors  of  sepulture.  What  a 
lesson  the  old  Masonry  taught  to  the  sons  of  the  people ! 

Is 'it  true  that  Masonry  is  effete;  that  the  acacia,  withered, 
affords  no  shade  ;  that  Masonry  no  longer  marches  in  the  advance- 
guard  of  Truth?  No.  Is  freedom  yet  universal?  Have  igno- 
rance and  prejudice  disappeared  from  the  earth?  Are  there  no 
longer  enmities  among  men  ?  Do  cupidity  and  falsehood  no  longer 
exist?  Do  toleration  and  harmony  prevail  among  religious  and 
political  sects?  There  are  works  yet  left  for  Masonry  to  accom- 
plish, greater  than  the  twelve  labors  of  Hercules;  to  advance  ever 


1 88  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

resolutely  and  steadily;  to  enlighten  the  minds  of  the  people,  to 
reconstruct  society,  to  reform  the  laws,  and  to  improve  the  public 
morals.  The  eternity  in  front  of  it  is  as  infinite  as  the  one  be- 
hind. And  Masonry  cannot  cease  to  labor  in  the  cause  of  social 
progress,  without  ceasing  to  be  true  to  itself,  without  ceasing  to  be 
Masonry. 


1 


GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT. 

[Master  Architect.] 

THE  great  duties  that  are  inculcated  by  the  lessons  taught  by 
the  working-instruments  of  a  Grand  Master  Architect,  demanding 
so  much  of  us,  and  taking  for  granted  the  capacity  to  perform 
them  faithfully  and  fully,  bring  us  at  once  to  reflect  upon  the  dig- 
nity of  human  nature,  and  the  vast  powers  and  capacities  of  the 
human  soul ;  and  to  that  theme  we  invite  your  attention  in  this 
Degree.  Let  us  begin  to  rise  from  earth  toward  the  Stars. 

Evermore  the  human  soul  struggles  toward  the  light,  toward 
God,  and  the  Infinite.  It  is  especially  so  in  its  afflictions.  Words 
go  but  a  little  way  into  the  depths  of  sorrow.  The  thoughts  that 
writhe  there  in  silence,  that  go  into  the  stillness  of  Infinitude  and 
Eternity,  have  no  emblems.  Thoughts  enough  come  there,  such 
as  no  tongue  ever  uttered.  They  do  not  so  much  want  human 
sympathy,  as  higher  help.  There  is  a  loneliness  in  deep  sorrow 
which  the  Deity  alone  can  relieve.  Alone,  the  mind  wrestles  with 
the  great  problem  of  calamity,  and  seeks  the  solution  from  the 
Infinite  Providence  of  Heaven,  and  thus  is  led  directly  to  God. 

There  are  many  things  in  us  of  which  we  are  not  distinctly 
conscious.  To  waken  that  slumbering  consciousness  into  life,  and 
so  to  lead  the  soul  up  to  the  Light,  is  one  office  of  every  great 
ministration  to  human  nature,  whether  its  vehicle  be  the  pen,  the 
pencil,  or  the  tongue.  We  are  unconscious  of  the  intensity  and 
awfulness  of  the  life  within  us.  Health  and  sickness,  joy  and  sor- 
row, success  and  disappointment,  life  and  death,  love  and  loss,  are 

189 


igO  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

familiar  words  upon  our  lips ;  and  we  do  not  know  to  what  depths 
they  point  \vithin  us. 

We  seem  never  to  know  what  any  thing  means  or  is  worth  until 
we  have  lost  it.  Many  an  organ,  nerve,  and  fibre  in  our  bodily 
frame  performs  its  silent  part  for  years,  and  we  are  quite  uncon- 
scious of  !*s  value.  It  is  not  until  it  is  injured  that  we  discover 
that  value,  and  find  how'essential  it  was  to  our  happiness  and  com- 
fort. We  never  know  the  full  significance  of  'che  words,  "prop- 
erty," "ease,"  and  "health;"  the  wealth  of  meaning  in  the  fond 
epithets,  "parent,"  "child,"  "beloved,"  and  "friend,"  until  the 
thing  or  the  person  is  taken  away;  until,  in  place  of  the  bright, 
visible  being,  comes  the  awful  and  desolate  shadow,  where  nothing 
is :  where  we  stretch  out  our  hands  in  vain,  and  strain  our  eyes 
upon  dark  and  dismal  vacuity.  Yet,  in  that  vacuity,  we  do  not 
lose  the  object  that  we  loved.  It  becomes  only  the  more  real  to  us. 
Our  blessings  not  only  brighten  when  they  depart,  but  are  fixed 
in  enduring  reality ;  and  love  and  friendship  receive  their  everlast- 
ing seal  under  the  cold  impress  of  death. 

A  dim  consciousness  of  infinite  mystery  and  grandeur  lies  be- 
neath all  the  commonplace  of  life.  There  is  an  awfulness  and  a 
majesty  around  us,  in  all  our  little  worldliness.  The  rude  peasant 
from  the  Apennines,  asleep  at  the  foot  of  a  pillar  in  a  majestic 
Roman  church,  seems  not  to  hear  or  see,  but  to  dream  only  of  the 
herd  he  feeds  or  the  ground  he  tills  in  the  mountains.  But  the 
choral  symphonies  fall  softly  upon  his  ear,  and  the  gilded  arches 
are  dimly  seen  through  his  half-slumbering  eyelids. 

So  the  soul,  however  given  up  to  the  occupations  of  daily  life, 
cannot  quite  lose  the  sense  of  where  it  is,  and  of  what  is  above  it 
and  around  it.  The  scene  of  its  actual  engagements  may  be  small ; 
the  path  of  its  steps,  beaten  and  familiar;  the  objects  it  handles, 
easily  spanned,  and  quite  worn  out  with  daily  uses.  So  it  may  be, 
and  amidst  such  things  that  we  all  live.  So  we  live  our  little  life  : 
but  Heaven  is  above  us  and  all  around  and  close  to  us ;  and  Eter- 
nity is  before  us  and  behind  us :  and  suns  and  stars  are  silent  wit- 
nesses and  watchers  over  us.  We  are  enfolded  by  Infinity.  Infi- 
nite Powers  and  Infinite  spaces  lie  all  around  us.  The  dread  arch 
of  Mystery  spreads  over  us,  and  no  voice  ever  pierced  it.  Eternity 
is  enthroned  amid  Heaven's  myriad  starry  heights ;  and  no  utter- 
ance or  word  ever  came  from  those  far-off  and  silent  spaces. 
Above,  is  that  awful  majesty ;  around  us,  everywhere,  it  stretches 


GRAND   MASTER  ARCHITECT.  IQI 

off  into  infinity ;  and  beneath  it  is  this  little  struggle  of  life,  this 
poor  day's  conflict,  this  busy  ant-hill  of  Time. 

But  from  that  ant-hill,  not  only  the  talk  of  the  streets,  the 
sounds  of  music  and  revelling,  the  stir  and  tread  of  a  multitude, 
the  shout  of  joy  and  the  shriek  of  agony  go  up  into  the  silent  and 
all-surrounding  Infinitude ;  but  also,  amidst  the  stir  and  noise  of 
visible  life,  from  the  inmost  bosom  of  the  visible  man,  there  goes 
up  an  imploring  call,  a  beseeching  cry,  an  asking,  unuttered,  and 
unutterable,  for  revelation,  wailingly  and  in  almost  speechless 
agony  praying  the  dread  arch  of  mystery  to  break,  and  the 
stars  that  roll  above  the  waves  of  mortal  trouble,  to  speak ; 
the  enthroned  majesty  of  those  awful  heights  to  find  a  voice ; 
the  mysterious  and  reserved  heavens  to  come  near;  and  all  to 
tell  us  what  they  alone  know ;  to  give  us  information  of  the 
loved  and  lost ;  to  make  known  to  us  what  we  are,  and  whither  we 
are  going. 

Man  is  encompassed  with  a  dome  of  incomprehensible  wonders. 
In  him  and  about  him  is  that  which  should  fill  his  life  with  maj- 
esty and  sacredness.  Something  of  sublimity  and  sanctity  has 
thus  flashed  down  from  heaven  into  the  heart  of  every  one  that 
lives.  There  is  no  being  so  base  and  abandoned  but  hath  some 
traits  of  that  sacredness  left  upon  him ;  something,  so  much  per- 
haps in  discordance  with  his  general  repute,  that  he  hides  it  from 
all  around  him;  some  sanctuary  in  his  soul,  where  no  one  may 
enter;  some  sacred  inclosure,  where  the  memory  of  a  child  is,  or 
the  image  of  a  venerated  parent,  or  the  remembrance  of  a  pure 
love,  or  the  echo  of  some  word  of  kindness  once  spoken  to  him ; 
an  echo  that  will  never  die  away. 

Life  is  no  negative,  or  superficial  or  worldly  existence.  Our 
steps  are  evermore  haunted  with  thoughts,  far  beyond  their  own 
range,  which  some  have  regarded  as  the  reminiscences  of  a  pre- 
existent  state.  So  it  is  with  us  all,  in  the  beaten  and  worn  track 
of  this  wordlv  pilgrimage.  There  is  more  here,  than  the  world 
we  live  in.  It  is  not  all  of  life  to  live.  An  unseen  and  infinite 
presence  is  here ;  a  sense  of  something  greater  than  we  possess ;  a 
seeking,  through  all  the  void  wastes  of  life,  for  a  good  beyond  it ; 
a  crying  out  of  the  heart  for  interpretation ;  a  memory  of  the 
dead,  touching  continually  some  vibrating  thread  in  this  great  tis- 
sue of  mystery. 

We  all  not  only  have  better  intimations,  but  are  capable  of  bet- 


IQ2  .  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

ter  things  than  we  know.  The  pressure  of  some  great  emergency 
would  develop  in  us  powers,  beyond  the  worldly  bias  of  our  spir- 
its; and  Heaven  so  deals  with  us,  from  time  to  time,  as  to  call 
forth  those  better  things.  There  is  hardly  a  family  in  the  world 
so  selfish,  but  that,  if  one  in  it  were  doomed  to  die — one,  to  be 
selected  by  the  others, — it  would  be  utterly  impossible  for  its  mem- 
bers, parents  and  children,  to  choose  out  that  victim;  but  that 
each  would  say,  "I  will  die;  but  I  cannot  choose."  And  in  how 
many,  if  that  dire  extremity  had  come,  would  not  one  and  another 
step  forth,  freed  from  the  vile  meshes  of  ordinary  selfishness,  and 
say,  like  the  Roman  father  and  son,  "Let  the  blow  fall  on  me !" 
There  are  greater  and  better  things  in  us  all,  than  the  world  takes 
account  of,  or  than  we  take  note  of;  if  we  would  but  find  them 
out.  And  it  is  one  part  of  our  Masonic  culture  to  find  these  traits 
of  power  and  sublime  devotion,  to  revive  these  faded  impressions 
of  generosity  and  self-sacrifice,  the  almost  squandered  bequests  of 
God's  love  and  kindness  to  our  souls ;  and  to  induce  us  to  yield 
ourselves  to  their  guidance  and  control. 

Upon  all  conditions  of  men  presses  down  one  impartial  law.  To 
all  situations,  to  all  fortunes,  high  or  low,  the  mind  gives  their 
character.  They  are,  in  effect,  not  what  they  are  in  themselves, 
but  what  they  are  to  the  feeling  of  their  possessors.  The  King 
may  be  mean,  degraded,  miserable;  the  slave  of  ambition,  fear, 
voluptuousness,  and  every  low  passion.  The  Peasant  may  be  the 
real  Monarch,  the  moral  master  of  his  fate,  a  free  and  lofty  being, 
more  than  a  Prince  in  happiness,  more  than  a  King  in  honor. 

Man  is  no  bubble  upon  the  sea  of  his  fortunes,  helpless  and 
irresponsible  upon  the  tide  of  events.  Out  of  the  same  circum- 
stances, different  men  bring  totally  different  results.  The  same 
difficulty,  distress,  poverty,  or  misfortune,  that  breaks  down  one 
man,  builds  up  another  and  makes  him  strong.  It  is  the  very  attri- 
bute and  glory  of  a  man,  that  he  can  bend  the  circumstances  of 
his  condition  to  the  intellectual  and  moral  purposes  of  his  nature, 
and  it  is  the  power  and  mastery  of  his  will  that  chiefly  distinguish 
him  from  the  brute. 

The  faculty  of  moral  will,  developed  in  the  child,  is  a  new  ele- 
ment of  his  nature.  It  is  a  new  power  brought  upon  the  scene, 
and  a  ruling  power,  delegated  from  Heaven.  Never  was  a  human 
being  sunk  so  low  that  he  had  not,  by  God's  gift,  the  power  to  rise. 
Because  God  commands  him  to  rise,  it  is  certain  that  he  can  rise. 


GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT.  IQ3 

Every  man  has  the  pcnver,  and  should  use  it,  to  make  all  situations, 
trials,  and  temptations  instruments  to  promote  his  virtue  and  hap- 
piness ;  and  is  so  far  from  being  the  creature  of  circumstances, 
that  he  creates  and  controls  them,  making  them  to  be  all  that  they 
are,  of  evil  or  of  good,  to  him  as  a  moral  being. 

Life  is  what  we  make  it,  and  the  world  is  what  we  make  it.  The 
eyes  of  the  cheerful  and  of  the  melancholy  man  are  fixed  upon 
the  same  creation ;  but  very  different  are  the  aspects  which  it  bear' 
to  them.  To  the  one,  it  is  all  beauty  and  gladness ;  the  waves  <• 
ocean  roll  in  light,  and  the  mountains  are  covered  with  day.  Life, 
to  him,  flashes,  rejoicing,  upon  every  flower  and  every  tree  that 
trembles  in  the  breeze.  There  is  more  to  him,  everywhere,  than 
the  eye  sees ;  a  presence  of  profound  joy  on  hill  and  valley,  and 
bright,  dancing  water.  The  other  idly  or  mournfully  gazes  at  the 
same  scene,  and  everything  wears  a  dull,  dim,  and  sickly  aspect. 
The  murmuring  of  the  brooks  is  a  discord  to  him,  the  great  roar  of 
the  sea  has  an  angry  and  threatening  emphasis,  the  solemn  music 
of  the  pines  sings  the  requiem  of  his  departed  happiness,  the 
cheerful  light  shines  garishly  upon  his  eyes  and  offends  him.  The 
great  train  of  the  seasons  passes  before  him  like  a  funeral  proces- 
sion ;  and  he  sighs,  and  turns  impatiently  away.  The  eye  makes 
that  which  it  looks  upon ;  the  ear  makes  its  own  melodies  and 
discords ;  the  world  without  reflects  the  world  within. 

Let  the  Mason  never  forget  that  life  and  the  world  are  what  we 
make  them  by  our  social  character ;  by  our  adaptation,  or  want  of 
adaptation  to  the  social  conditions,  relationships,  and  pursuits  of 
the  world.  To  the  selfish,  the  cold,  and  the  insensible,  to  the 
haughty  and  presuming,  to  the  proud,  who  demand  more  than 
they  are  likely  to  receive,  to  the  jealous,  ever  afraid  they  shall  not 
receive  enough,  to  those  who  are  unreasonably  sensitive  about  the 
good  or  ill  opinions  of  others,  to  all  violators  of  the  social  laws, 
the  rude,  the  violent,  the  dishonest,  and  the  sensual, — to  all  these, 
the  social  condition,  from  its  very  nature,  will  present  annoyances, 
disappointments,  and  pains,  appropriate  to  their  several  charac- 
ters. The  benevolent  affections  will  not  revolve  around  selfish- 
ness ;  the  cold-hearted  must  expect  to  meet  coldness ;  the  proud, 
haughtiness ;  the  passionate,  anger ;  and  the  violent,  rudeness. 
Those  who  forget  the  rights  of  others,  must  not  be  surprised  if 
their  own  are  forgotten ;  and  those  who  stoop  to  the  lowest  em- 
braces of  sense  must  not  wonder,  if  others  are  not  concerned  to 


194  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

find  their  prostrate  honor,  and  lift  it  up  to  the  remembrance  and 
respect  of  the  world. 

To  the  gentle,  many  will  be  gentle;  to  the  kind,  many  will  be 
kind.  A  good  man  will  find  that  there  is  goodness  in  the  world ; 
an  honest  man  will  find  that  there  is  honesty  in  the  world ;  and  a 
man  of  principle  will  find  principle  and  integrity  in  the  minds  of 
others. 

There  are  no  blessings  which  the  mind  may  not  convert  into  the 
bitterest  of  evils ;  and  no  trials  which  it  may  not  transform  into 
the  noblest  and  divinest  blessings.  There  are  no  temptations  from 
which  assailed  virtue  may  not  gain  strength,  instead  of  falling  be- 
fore them,  vanquished  and  subdued.  It  is  true  that  temptations 
have  a  great  power,  and  virtue  often  falls ;  but  the  might  of  these 
temptations  lies  not  in  themselves,  but  in  the  feebleness  of  our 
own  virtue,  and  the  weakness  of  our  own  hearts.  We  rely  too 
much  on  the  strength  of  our  ramparts  and  bastions,  and  allow  the 
enemy  to  make  his  approaches,  by  trench  and  parallel,  at  his  lei- 
sure. The  offer  of  dishonest  gain  and  guilty  pleasure  makes  the 
honest  man  more  honest,  and  the  pure  man  more  pure.  They 
raise  his  virtue  to  the  height  of  towering  indignation.  The  fair 
occasion,  the  safe  opportunity,  the  tempting  chance  become  the 
defeat  and  disgrace  of  the  tempter.  The  honest  and  upright  man 
does  not  wait  until  temptation  has  made  its  approaches  and 
mounted  its  batteries  on  the  last  parallel. 

But  to  the  impure,  the  dishonest,  the  false-hearted,  the  corrupt, 
and  the  sensual,  occasions  come  every  day,  and  in  every  scene,  and 
through  every  avenue  of  thought  and  imagination.  He  is  pre- 
pared to  capitulate  before  the  first  approach  is  commenced ;  and 
sends  out  the  white  flag  when  the  enemy's  advance  comes  in  sight 
of  his  walls.  He  makes  occasions;  or,  if  opportunities  come  not. 
evil  thoughts  come,  and  he  throws  wide  open  the  gates  of  his  heart 
and  welcomes  those  bad  visitors,  and  entertains  them  with  a  lavish 
hospitality. 

The  business  of  the  world  absorbs,  corrupts,  and  degrades  one 
mind,  while  in  another  it  feeds  and  nurses  the  noblest  independ- 
ence, integrity,  and  generosity.  Pleasure  is  a  poison  to  some,  and 
a  healthful  refreshment  to  others.  To  one,  the  world  is  a  great 
harmony,  like  a  noble  strain  of  music  vvith  infinite  modulations  ; 
to  another,  it  is  a  huge  factory,  the  clash  and  clang  of  whose  ma- 
chinery jars'upon^his  ears  and  fref.s  him  to  madness.  Life  is  sub- 


GKAND  MASTER   ARCHITECT.  195 

stantially  the  same  thing  to  all  who  partake  of  its  lot.  Yet  some 
rise  to  virtue  and  glory ;  while  others,  undergoing  the  same  disci- 
pline, and  enjoying  the  same  privileges,  sink  to  shame  and  per- 
dition. 

Thorough,  faithful,  and  honest  endeavor  to  improve,  is  always 
successful,  and  the  highest  happiness.  To  sigh  sentimentally  over 
human  misfortune,  is  fit  only  for  the  mind's  childhood;  and  the 
mind's  misery  is  chiefly  its  own  fault ;  appointed,  under  the  good 
Providence  of  God,  as  the  punisher  and  corrector  of  its  fault.  In 
the  long  run,  the  mind  will  be  happy,  just  in  proportion  to  its 
fidelity  and  wisdom.  When  it  is  miserable,  it  has  planted  the 
thorns  in  its  own  path ;  it  grasps  them,  and  cries  out  in  loud  com- 
plaint ;  and  that  complaint  is  but  the  louder  confession  that  the 
thorns  which  grew  there,  it  planted. 

A  certain  kind  and  degree  of  spirituality  enter  into  the  largest 
part  of  even  the  most  ordinary  life.  You  can  carry  on  no  busi- 
ness, without  some  faith  in  man.  You  cannot  even  dig  in  the 
ground,  without  a  reliance  on  the  unseen  result.  You  cannot 
think  or  reason  or  even  step,  without  confiding  in  the  inward, 
spiritual  principles  of  your  nature.  All  the  affections  and  bonds, 
and  hopes  and  interests  of  life  centre  in  the  spiritual ;  and  you 
know  that  if  that  central  bond  were  broken,  the  world  would  rush 
to  chaos. 

Believe  that  there  is  a  God ;  that  He  is  our  father ;  that  He  has 
a  paternal  interest  in  our  welfare  and  improvement ;  that  He  has 
given  us  powers,  by  means  of  which  we  may  escape  from  sin  and 
ruin ;  that  He  has  destined  us  to  a  future  life  of  endless  progress 
toward  perfection  and  a  knowledge  of  Himself — believe  this,  as 
every  Mason  should,  and  you  can  live  calmly,  endure  patiently, 
labor  resolutely,  deny  yourselves  cheerfully,  hope  steadfastly,  and 
be  conquerors  in  the  great  struggle  of  life.  Take  away  any  one 
of  these  principles,  and  what  remains  for  us?  Say  that  there  is 
no  God ;  or  no  way  opened  for  hope  and  reformation  and  triumph, 
no  heaven  to  come,  no  rest  for  the  weary,  no  home  in  the  bosom 
of  God  for  the  afflicted  and  disconsolate  soul ;  or  that  God  is  but 
an  ugly  blind  Chance  that  stabs  in  the  dark;  or  a  somewhat  that 
is,  when  attempted  to  be  defined,  a  Jiowhat,  emotionless,  passion- 
less, the  Supreme  Apathy  to  which  all  things,  good  and  evil,  are 
alike  indifferent ;  or  a  jealous  God  who  revengefully  visits  the  sins 
of  the  fathers  on  the  children,  and  when  the  fathers  have  eaten 


196  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

sour  grapes,  sets  the  children's  teeth  on  edge;  an  arbitrary  su- 
preme Will,  that  has  made  it  right  to  be  virtuous,  and  wrong  to 
lie  and  steal,  because  IT  pleased  to  make  it  so  rather  than  other- 
wise, retaining  the  power  to  reverse  the  law ;  or  a  fickle,  vacillat- 
ing, inconstant  Deity,  or  a  cruel,  bloodthirsty,  savage  Hebrew  or 
Puritanic  one;  and  we  are  but  the  sport  of  chance  and  the  vic- 
tims of  despair;  hapless  wanderers  upon  the  face  of  a  desolate, 
forsaken,  or  accursed  and  hated  earth ;  surrounded  by  darkness, 
struggling  with  obstacles,  toiling  for  barren  results  and  empty  pur- 
ooses,  distracted  with  doubts,  and  misled  by  false  gleams  of  light ; 
wanderers  with  no  way,  no  prospect,  no  home ;  doomed  and  de- 
serted mariners  on  a  dark  and  stormy  sea,  without  compass  or 
course,  to  whom  no  stars  appear;  tossing  helmless  upon  the  wel- 
tering, angry  waves,  with  no  blessed  haven  in  the  distance  whose 
guiding-star  invites  us  to  its  welcome  rest. 

The  religious  faith  thus  taught  by  Masonry  is  indispensable  to 
the  attainment  of  the  great  ends  of  life ;  and  must  therefore  have 
been  designed  to  be  a  part  of  it.  We  are  made  for  this  faith ;  and 
there  must  be  something,  somewhere,  for  us  to  believe  in.  We 
cannot  grow  healthfully,  nor  live  happily,  without  it.  It  is  there- 
fore true.  If  we  could  cut  off  from  any  soul  all  the  principles 
taught  by  Masonry,  the  faith  in  a  God,  in  immortality,  in  virtue, 
in  essential  rectitude,  that  soul  would  sink  into  sin,  misery,  dark- 
ness, and  ruin.  If  we  could  cut  off  all  sense  of  these  truths,  the 
man  would  sink  at  once  to  the  grade  of  the  animal. 

No  man  can  suffer  and  be  patient,  can  struggle  and  conquer,  can 
improve  and  be  happy,  otherwise  than  as  the  swine  are,  without 
conscience,  without  hope,  without  a  reliance  on  a  just,  wise,  and 
beneficent  God.  We  must,  of  necessity,  embrace  the  great  truths 
taught  by  Masonry,  and  live  by  them,  to  live  happily.  "/  put  my 
trust  in  God,"  is  the  protest  of  Masonry  against  the  belief  in  a 
cruel,  angry,  and  revengeful  God,  to  be  feared  and  not  reverenced 
by  His  creatures. 

Society,  in  its  great  relations,  is  as  much  the  creation  of  Heaven 
as  is  the  system  of  the  Universe.  If  that  bond  of  gravitation 
that  holds  all  worlds  and  systems  together,  were  suddenly  severed, 
the  universe  would  fly  into  wild  and  boundless  chaos.  And  if  we 
were  to  sever  all  the  moral  bonds  that  hold  society  together;  if  we 
could  cut  off  from  it  every  conviction  of  Truth  and  Integrity,  of 
an  authority  above  it,  and  of  a  conscience  within  it,  it  would  im- 


GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT.  Ity/ 

mediately  rush  to  disorder  and  frightful  anarchy  and  ruin.  The 
religion  we  teach  is  therefore  as  really  a  principle  of  things,  and 
as  certain  and  true,  as  gravitation. 

Faith  in  moral  principles,  in  virtue,  and  in  God,  is  as  necessary 
for  the  guidance  of  a  man,  as  instinct  is  for  the  guidance  of  an  ani- 
mal. And  therefore  this  faith,  as  a  principle  of  man's  nature,  has 
a  mission  as  truly  authentic  in  God's  Providence,  as  the  principle 
of  instinct.  The  pleasures  of  the  soul,  too,  must  depend  on  cer- 
tain principles.  They  must  recognize  a  soul,  its  properties  and 
responsibilities,  a  conscience,  and  the  sense  of  an  authority  above 
us ;  and  these  are  the  principles  of  faith.  No  man  can  suffer  and 
be  patient,  can  struggle  and  conquer,  can  improve  and  be  happy, 
without  conscience,  without  hope,  without  a  reliance  on  a  just, 
wise,  and  beneficent  God.  We  must  of  necessity  embrace  the 
great  truths  taught  by  Masonry,  and  live  by  them,  to  live  happily. 
Everything  in  the  universe  has  fixed  and  certain  laws  and  prin- 
ciples for  its  action ; — the  star  in  its  orbit,  the  animal  in  its  activ- 
ity, the  physical  man  in  his  functions.  And  he  has  likewise  fixed 
and  certain  laws  and  principles  as  a  spiritual  being.  His  soul  does 
not  die  for  want  of  alimenj:  or  guidance.  For  the  rational  soul 
there  is  ample  provision.  From  the  lofty  pine,  rocked  in  the  dark- 
ening tempest,  the  cry  of  the  young  raven  is  heard ;  and  it  would 
be  most  strange  if  there  were  no  answer  for  the  cry  and  call  of  the 
soul,  tortured  by  want  and  sorrow  and  agony.  The  total  rejection 
of  all  moral  and  religious  belief  would  strike  out  a  principle  from 
human  nature,  as  essential  to  it  as  gravitation  to  the  stars,  in- 
stinct to  animal  life,  the  circulation  of  the  blood  to  the  human 
body. 

God  has  ordained  that  life  shall  be  a  social  state.  We  are  mem- 
bers of  a  civil  community.  The  life  of  that  community  depends 
upon  its  moral  condition.  Public  spirit,  intelligence,  uprightness, 
temperance,  kindness,  domestic  purity,  will  make  it  a  happy  com- 
munity, and  give  it  prosperity  and  continuance.  Wide-spread  self- 
ishness, dishonesty,  intemperance,  libertinism,  corruption,  and 
crime,  will  make  it  miserable,  and  bring  about  dissolution  and 
speedy  ruin.  A  whole  people  lives  one  life;  one  mighty  heart 
heaves  in  its  bosom ;  it  is  one  great  pulse  of  existence  that  throbs 
there.  One  stream  of  life  flows  there,  with  ten  thousand  inter- 
mingled branches  and  channels,  through  all  the  homes  of  human 
love.  One  sound  as  of  many  waters,  a  rapturous  jubilee  or  a 


198  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

mournful  sighing,  comes  up  from  the  congregated  dwellings  of  a 
whole  nation. 

The  Public  is  no  vague  abstraction;  nor  should  that  which  is 
done  against  that  Public,  against  public  interest,  law,  or  virtue, 
press  but  lightly  on  the  conscience.  It  is  but  a  vast  expansion  of 
individual  life;  an  ocean  of  tears,  an  atmosphere  of  sighs,  or  a 
great  whole  of  joy  and  gladness.  It  suffers  with  the  suffering  of 
millions;  it  rejoices  with  the  joy  of  millions.  What  a  vast  crime 
does  he  commit, — private  man  or  public  man,  agent  or  contractor, 
legislator  or  magistrate,  secretary  or  president, — who  dares,  with 
indignity  and  wrong,  to  strike  the  bosom  of  the  Public  Welfare,  to 
encourage  venality  and  corruption,  and  shameful  sale  of  the  elec- 
tive franchise,  or  of  office ;  to  sow  dissension,  and  to  weaken  the 
bonds  of  amity  that  bind  a  Nation  together!  What  a  huge  ini- 
quity, he  who,  with  vices  like  the  daggers  of  a  parricide,  dares  to 
pierce  that  mighty  heart,  in  which  the  ocean  of  existence  is  flow- 
ing! 

What  an  unequalled  interest  lies  in  the  virtue  of  every  one  whom 
we  love !  In  his  virtue,  nowhere  but  in  his  virtue,  is  garnered  up 
the  incomparable  treasure.  What  care  we  for  brother  or  friend, 
compared  with  what  we  care  for  his  honor,  his  fidelity,  his  reputa- 
tion, his  kindness?  How  venerable  is  the  rectitude  of  a  parent! 
How  sacred  his  reputation !  No  blight  that  can  fall  upon  a  child, 
is  like  a  parent's  dishonor.  Heathen  or  Christian,  every  parent 
would  have  his  child  do  well ;  and  pours  out  upon  him  all  the  full- 
ness of  parental  love,  in  the  one  desire  that  he  may  do  well ;  that 
he  may  be  worthy  of  his  cares,  and  his  freely  bestowed  pains  ;  that 
he  may  walk  in  the  way  of  honor  and  happiness.  In  that  way  he 
cannot  walk  one  step  without  virtue.  Such  is  life,  in  its  relation- 
ships. A  thousand  ties  embrace  it,  like  the  fine  nerves  of  a  deli- 
cate organization ;  like  the  strings  of  an  instrument  capable  of 
sweet  melodies,  but  easily  put  out  of  tune  or  broken,  by  rudeness, 
anger,  and  selfish  indulgence. 

If  life  could,  by  any  process,  be  made  insensible  to  pain  and 
pleasure ;  if  the  human  heart  were  hard  as  adamant,  then  avarice, 
ambition,  and  sensuality  might  channel  out  their  paths  in  it,  and 
make  it  their  beaten  way;  and  none  would  wonder  or  protest.  If 
we  could  be  patient  under  the  load  of  a  mere  worldly  life;  if  we 
could  bear  that  burden  as  the  beasts  bear  it;  then,  like  beasts,  we 
might  bend  all  our  thoughts  to  the  earth ;  and  no  call  from  the 


GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT.  199 

great  Heavens  above  us  would  startle  us  from  our  plodding  and 
earthly  course. 

But  we  are  not  insensible  brutes,  who  can  refuse  the  call  of  rea- 
son and  conscience.  The  soul  is  capable  of  remorse.  When  the 
great  dispensations  of  life  press  down  upon  us,  we  weep,  and  suffer 
and  sorrow.  And  sorrow  and  agony  desire  other  companionships 
than  worldliness  and  irreligion.  We  are  not  willing  to  bear  those 
burdens  of  the  heart,  fear,  anxiety,  disappointment,  and  trouble, 
without  any  object  or  use.  We  are  not  willing  to  suffer,  to  be  sick 
and  afflicted,  to  have  our  days  and  months  lost  to  comfort  and  joy, 
and  overshadowed  with  calamity  and  grief,  without  advantage  or 
compensation ;  to  barter  away  the  dearest  treasures,  the  very  suf- 
ferings, of  the  heart;  to  sell  the  life-blood  from  failing  frame  and 
fading  cheek,  our  tears  of  bitterness  and  groans  of  anguish,  for 
nothing.  Human  nature,  frail,  feeling,  sensitive,  and  sorrowing, 
cannot  bear  to  suffer  for  nought. 

Everywhere,  human  life  is  a  great  and  solemn  dispensation. 
Man,  suffering,  enjoying,  loving,  hating,  hoping,  and  fearing, 
chained  to  the  earth  and  yet  exploring  the  far  recesses  of  the  uni- 
verse, has  the  power  to  commune  with  God  and  His  angels. 
Around  this  great  action  of  existence  the  curtains  of  Time  are 
drawn ;  but  there  are  openings  through  them  which  give  us 
glimpses  of  eternity.  God  looks  down  upon  this  scene  of  human 
probation.  The  wise  and  the  good  in  all  ages  have  interposed  for 
it,  with  their  teachings  and  their  blood.  Everything  that  exists 
around  us,  every  movement  in  nature,  every  counsel  of  Provi- 
dence, every  interposition  of  God,  centres  upon  one  point — the 
fidelity  of  man.  And  even  if  the  ghosts  of  the  departed  and  re- 
membered could  come  at  midnight  through  the  barred  doors  of 
our  dwellings,  and  the  shrouded  dead  should  glide  through  the 
aisles  of  our  churches  and  sit  in  our  Masonic  Temples,  their  teach- 
ings would  be  no  more  eloquent  and  impressive  than  the  dread 
realities  of  life ;  than  those  memories  of  misspent  years,  those 
ghosts  of  departed  opportunities,  that,  pointing  to  our  conscience 
and  eternity;  cry  continually  in  our  ears,  "H7ork  while  the 
day  lasts!  for  the  night  of  death  cometh,  in  ivhich  no  man  can 
work." 

There  are  no  tokens  of  public  mourning  for  the  calamity  of  the 
soul.  Men  weep  when  the  body  dies ;  and  when  it  is  borne  to  its 
last  rest,  they  follow  it  with  sad  and  mournful  procession.  But 


2OO  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

for  the  dying  soul,  there  is  no  open  lamentation ;  for  the  lost  soul 
there  are  no  obsequies. 

And  yet  the  minJ  and  soul  of  man  have  a  value  which  nothing 
else  has.  They  are  worth  a  care  which  nothing  else  is  worth :  and 
to  the  single,  solitary  individual,  they  ought  to  possess  an  interest 
which  nothing  else  possesses.  The  stored  treasures  of  the  heart, 
the  unfathomable  mines  that  are  in  the  soul  to  be  wrought,  the 
broad  and  boundless  realms  of  Thought,  the  freighted  argosy  of 
man's  hopes  and  best  affections,  are  brighter  than  gold  and  dearer 
than  treasure. 

And  yet  the  mind  is  in  reality  little  known  or  considered.  It  is 
all  which  man  permanently  is,  his  inward  being,  his  divine  energy, 
his  immortal  thought,  his  boundless  capacity,  his  infinite  aspira- 
tion ;  and  nevertheless,  few  value  it  for  what  it  is  worth.,  Few  see 
a  brother-mind  in  others,  through  the  rags  with  which  poverty 
has  clothed  it.  beneath  the  crushing  burdens  of  life,  amidst  the 
close  pressure  of  worldly  troubles,  wants  and  sorrows.  Few 
acknowledge  and  cheer  it  in  that  humble  lot,  and  feel  that 
the  nobility  of  earth,  and  the  commencing  glory  of  Heaven  are 
there. 

Men  do  not  feel  the  worth  of  their  own  souls.  They  are  proud 
of  their  mental  powers ;  but  the  intrinsic,  inner,  infinite  worth  of 
their  own  minds  they  do  not  perceive.  The  poor  man,  admitted 
to  a  palace,  feels,  lofty  and  immortal  being  as  he  is,  like  a  mere 
ordinary  thing  amid  the  splendors  that  surround  him.  He  sees  the 
carriage  of  wealth  roll  by  him,  and  forgets  the  intrinsic  and  eterj 
nal  dignity  of  his  own  mind  in  a  poor  and  degrading  envy,  and 
feels  as  an  humbler  creature,  because  others  are  above  him,  not  in 
mind,  but  in  mensuration.  Men  respect  themselves,  according  as 
they  are  more  wealthy,  higher  in  rank  or  office,  loftier  in  the 
world's  opinion,  able  to  command  more  votes,  more  the  favorites 
of  the  people  or  of  Fewer. 

The  difference  among  men  is  not  so  much  in  their  nature  and 
intrinsic  power,  as  in  the  faculty  of  communication.  Some  have 
the  capacity  of  uttering  and  embodying  in  words  their  thoughts. 
All  men,  more  or  less,  fed  those  thoughts.  The  glory  of  genius 
and  the  rapture  of  virtue,  when  rightly  revealed,  are  diffused  and 
shared  among  unnumbered  minds.  When  eloquence  and  poetry 
speak ;  when  those  glorious  arts,  statuary,  painting,  and  music, 
take  audible  or  visible  shape ;  when  patriotism,  charity,  and  virtue 


GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT.  2O1 

speak  with  a  thrilling  potency,  the  hearts  of  thousands  glow  with 
a  kindred  joy  and  ecstasy.  If  it  were  not  so,  there  would  be  no 
eloquence ;  for  eloquence  is  that  to  which  other  hearts  respond ;  it 
is  the  faculty  and  power  of  making  other  hearts  respond.  No  one 
is  so  low  or  degraded,  as  not  sometimes  to  be  touched  with  the 
beauty  of  goodness.  No  heart  is  made  of  materials  so  common, 
or  even  base,  as  not  sometimes  to  respond,  through  every  chord  of 
it,  to  the  call  of  honor,  patriotism,  generosity,  and  virtue.  The 
poor  African  Slave  will  die  for  the  master  or  mistress,  or  in  de- 
fence of  the  children,  whom  he  loves.  The  poor,  lost,  scorned, 
abandoned,  outcast  woman  will,  without  expectation  of  reward, 
nurse  those  who  are  dying  on  every  hand,  utter  strangers  to  her, 
with  a  contagious  and  horrid  pestilence.  The  pickpocket  will 
scale  burning  walls  to  rescue  child  or  woman,  unknown  to  him, 
from  the  ravenous  flames. 

Most  glorious  is  this  capacity !  A  power  to  commune  with  God 
and  His  Angels ;  a  reflection  of  the  Uncreated  Light ;  a  mirror 
that  can  collect  and  concentrate  upon  itself  all  the  moral  splen- 
dors of  the  Universe.  It  is  the  soul  alone  that  gives  any  value  to 
the  things  of  this  world ;  and  it  is  only  by  raising  the  soul  to  its 
just  elevation  above  all  other  things,  that  we  can  look  rightly 
upon  the  purposes  of  this  earth.  No  sceptre  nor  throne,  nor  struc- 
ture of  ages,  nor  broad  empire,  can  compare  with  the  wonders  and 
grandeurs  of  a  single  thought.  That  alone,  of  all  things  that 
have  been  made,  comprehends  the  Maker  of  all.  That  alone  is 
the  key  which  unlocks  all  the  treasures  of  the  Universe ;  the 
power  that  reigns  over  Space,  Time,  and  Eternity.  That,  under 
God,  is  the  Sovereign  Dispenser  to  man  of  all  the  blessings  and 
glories  that  lie  within  the  compass  of  possession,  or  the  range  of 
possibility.  Virtue,  Heaven,  and  Immortality  exist  not,  nor  ever 
will  exist  for  us  except  as  they  exist  and  will  exist,  in  the  percep- 
tion, feeling,  and  thought  of  the  glorious  mind. 

My  Brother,  in  the  hope  that  you  have  listened  to  and  under- 
stood the  Instruction  and  Lecture  of  this  Degree,  and  that  you 
feel  the  dignity  of  your  own  nature  and  the  vast  capacities  of  your 
own  soul  for  good  or  evil,  I  proceed  briefly  to  communicate  to  you 
the  remaining  instruction  of  this  Degree. 

The  Hebrew  word,  in  the  old  Hebrew  and  Samaritan  character, 
suspended  in  the  East,  over  the  five  columns,  is  ADOXA'I.  one  of 
the  names  of  God,  usually  translated  Lord ;  and  which  the  He- 
14 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

brews,  in  reading,  always  substitute  for  the  True  Name,  which  is 
for  them  ineffable. 

The  five  columns,  in  the  five  different  orders  of  architecture,  are 
emblematical  to  us  of  the  five  principal  divisions  of  the  Ancient 
and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite  : 

i. — The  Tuscan,  of  the  three  blue  Degrees,  or  the  primitive 
Masonry. 

2. — The  Doric,  of  the  ineffable  Degrees,  from  the  fourth  to  the 
fourteenth,  inclusive. 

3. — The  Ionic,  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth,  or  second  temple 
Degrees. 

4. — The  Corinthian,  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  Degrees, 
or  those  of  the  new  law. 

5. — The  Composite,  of  the  philosophical  and  chivalric  Degrees 
intermingled,  from  the  nineteenth  to  the  thirty-second,  in- 
clusive. 

The  North  Star,  always  fixed  and  immutable  for  us,  represents 
the  point  in  the  centre  of  the  circle,  or  the  Deity  in  the  centre  of 
the  Universe.  It  is  the  especial  symbol  of  duty  and  of  faith.  To 
it,  and  the  seven  that  continually  revolve  around  it,  mystical 
meanings  are  attached,  which  you  will  learn  hereafter,  if  you 
should  be  permitted  to  advance,  when  you  are  made  acquainted 
with  the  philosophical  doctrines  of  the  Hebrews. 

The  Morning  Star,  rising  in  the  East,  Jupiter,  called  by  the 
Hebrews  Tsadoc  or  Tsydyk,  Just,  is  an  emblem  to  us  of  the  ever- 
approaching  dawn  of  perfection  and  Masonic  light. 

The  three  great  lights  of  the  Lodge  are  symbols  to  us  of  the 
Power,  Wisdom,  and  Beneficence  of  the  Deity.  They  are  also 
symbols  of  the  first  three  Sephiroth,  or  Emanations  of  the  Deity, 
according  to  the  Kabalah,  Kether,  the  omnipotent  divine  will; 
Chochmah,  the  divine  intellectual  power  to  generate  thought,  and 
Bmah,  the  divine  intellectual  capacity  to  produce  it — the  two  lat- 
ter, usually  translated  Wisdom  and  Understanding,  being  the 
active  and  the  passive,  the  positive  and  the  negative,  which  we  do 
not  yet  endeavor  to  explain  to  you.  They  are  the  columns  Jachin 
and  Boaz,  that  stand  at  the  entrance  to  the  Masonic  Temple. 

In  another  aspect  of  this  Degree,  the  Chief  of  the  Architects 
[C*j2  21,  Rab  Banaim,]  symbolizes  the  constitutional  executive 
head  and  chief  of  a  free  government ;  and  the  Degree  teaches  us 
that  no  free  government  can  long  endure,  when  the  people  cease 


GRAND  MASTER  ARCHITECT. 

to  select  for  their  magistrates  the  best  and  the  wisest  of  their 
statesmen ;  when,  passing  these  by,  they  permit  factions  or  sordid 
interests  to  select  for  them  the  small,  the  low,  the  ignoble,  and  the 
obscure,  and  into  such  hands  commit  the  country's  destinies. 
There  is,  after  all,  a  "divine  right"  to  govern ;  and  it  is  vested  tn 
the  ablest,  wisest,  best,  of  every  nation.  "Counsel  is  mine,  and 
sound  wisdom :  I  am  understanding :  I  am  power :  by  me  kings 
do  reign,  and  princes  decree  justice;  by  me  princes  rule,  and 
nobles,  even  all  the  magistrates  of  the  earth." 

For  the  present,  my  Brother,  let  this  suffice.  We  welcome  you 
among  us,  to  this  peaceful  retreat  of  virtue,  to  a  participation  in 
our  privileges,  to  a  share  in  our  joys  and  our  sorrows. 


XIII. 

ROYAL  ARCH  OF  SOLOMON. 

WHETHER  the  legend  and  history  of  this  Degree  are  historically 
true,  or  but  an  allegory,  containing  in  itself  a  deeper  truth  and  a 
profounder  meaning,  we  shall  not  now  debate.  If  it  be  but  a 
legendary  myth,  you  must  find  out  for  yourself  what  it  means.  It 
is  certain  that  the  word  which  the  Hebrews  are  not  now  permitted 
to  pronounce  was  in  common  use  by  Abraham,  Lot,  Isaac,  Jacob, 
Laban,  Rebecca,  and  even  among  tribes  foreign  to  the  Hebrews, 
before  the  time  of  Moses;  and  that  it  recurs  a  hundred  times  in 
the  lyrical  effusions  of  David  and  other  Hebrew  poets. 

We  know  that  for  many  centuries  the  Hebrews  have  been  for- 
bidden to  pronounce  the  Sacred  Name ;  that  \vherever  it  occurs, 
they  have  for  ages  read  the  word  Adona'i  instead;  and  that  under 
it,  when  the  masoretic  points,  which  represent  the  vowels,  came  to 
be  used,  they  placed  those  which  belonged  to  the  latter  word. 
The  possession  of  the  true  pronunciation  was  deemed  to  confer  on 
him  who  had  it  extraordinary  and  supernatural  powers ;  and  the 
Word  itself,  worn  upon  the  person,  was  regarded  as  an  amulet,  a 
protection  against  personal  danger,  sickness,  and  evil  spirits.  We 
know  that  all  this  was  a  vain  superstition,  natural  to  a  rude  peo- 
ple, necessarily  disappearing  as  the  intellect  of  man  became  en- 
lightened ;  and  wholly  unworthy  of  a  Mason. 

It  is  noticeable  that  this  notion  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Divine 
Name  or  Creative  Word  was  common  to  all  the  ancient  nations. 
The  Sacred  Word  HOM  was  supposed  by  the  ancient  Persians  (who 
were  among  the  earliest  emigrants  from  Northern  India)  to  be 

2O4 


ROYAL  ARCH  OF  SOLOMON.  2O5 

pregnant  w.ui  a  mysteiious  power;  and  they  taught  that  by  its 
utterance  the  world  was  created.  In  India  it  was  forbidden  to 
pronounce  the  word  AUM  or  OM,  the  Sacred  Name  of  the  One 
Deity,  manifested  as  Brahma,  Vishna,  and  Seeva. 

These  superstitious  notions  in  regard  to  the  efficacy  of  the  Word, 
and  the  prohibition  against  pronouncing  it,  could,  being  errors, 
have  formed  no  part  of  the  pure  primitive  religion,  or  of  the 
esoteric  doctrine  taught  by  Moses,  and  the  full  knowledge  of  which 
was  confined  to  the  Initiates ;  unless  the  whole  was  but  an  ingeni- 
ous invention  for  the  concealment  of  some  other  Name  or  truth, 
the  interpretation  and  meaning  whereof  was  made  known  only  to 
the  select  few.  If  so,  the  common  notions  in  regard  to  the- Word 
grew  up  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  like  other  errors  and  fables 
among  all  the  ancient  nations,  out  of  original  truths  and  symbols 
and  allegories  misunderstood.  So  it  has  always  been  that  allego- 
ries, intended  as  vehicles  of  truth,  to  be  understood  by  the  sages, 
have  become  or  bred  errors,  by  being  literally  accepted. 

It  is  true,  that  before  the  masoretic  points  were  invented  (which 
was  after  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era),  the  pronunciation 
of  a  word  in  the  Hebrew  language  could  not  be  known  from  the 
characters  in  which  it  was  written.  It  was,  therefore,  possible  for 
that  of  the  name  of  the  Deity  to  have  been  forgotten  and  lost.  It 
is  certain  that  its  true  pronunciation  is  not  that  represented  by  the 
word  Jehovah ;  and  therefore  that  that  is  not  the  true  name  of 
Deity,  nor  the  Ineffable  Word. 

The  ancient  symbols  and  allegories  always  had  more  than  one 
interpretation.  They  always  had  a  double  meaning,  and  sometimes 
more  than  two,  one  serving  as  the  envelope  of  the  other.  Thus 
the  pronunciation  of  the  word  was  a  symbol ;  and  that  pronuncia- 
tion and  the  word  itself  were  lost,  when  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
nature  and  attributes  of  God  faded  out  of  the  minds  of  the  Jewish 
people.  That  is  one  interpretation — true,  but  not  the  inner  and 
profoundest  one. 

Men  were  figuratively  said  to  forget  the  name  of  God,  when  they 
lost  that  knowledge,  and  worshipped  the  heathen  deities,  and 
burned  incense  to  them  on  the  high  places,  and  passed  their  chil- 
dren through  the  fire  to  Moloch. 

Thus  the  attempts  of  the  ancient  Israelites  and  of  the  Initiates 
to  ascertain  the  True  Name  of  the  Deity,  and  its  pronounciation. 
and  the  loss  of  the  True  Word,  are  an  allegory,  in  which  are  rep- 


2C»6  MORALS   AND  DOGMA.. 

resented  the  general  ignorance  of  the  true  nature  and  attributes 
of  God,  the  proneness  of  the  people  of  Judah  and  Israel  to  wor- 
ship other  deities,  and  their  low  -and  erroneous  and  dishonoring 
notions  of  the  Grand  Architect  of  the  Universe,  which  all  shared 
except  a  few  favored  persons ;  for  even  Solomon  built  altars  and 
sacrificed  to  Astarat,  the  goddess  of  the  Tsidunim,  and  Malcum, 
the  Aamunite  god,  and  built  high  places  for  Kamus,  the  Moabite 
deity,  and  Malec  the  god  of  the  Beni-Aamun.  The  true  nature  of 
God  was  unknown  to  them,  like  His  name ;  and  they  worshipped 
the  calves  of  Jeroboam,  as  in  the  desert  they  did  that  made  for 
them  by  Aarun. 

The  mass  of  the  Hebrews  did  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  one 
only  God  until  a  late  period  in  their  history.  Their  early  and 
popular  ideas  of  the  Deity  were  singularly  low  and  unworthy. 
Even  while  Moses  was  receiving  the  law  upon  Mount  Sinai,  they 
forced  Aarun  to  make  them  an  image  of  the  Egyptian  god  Apis, 
and  fell  down  and  adored  it.  They  were  ever  ready  to  return  to 
the  worship  of  the  gods  of  the  Mitzraim ;  and  soon  after  the  death 
of  Joshua  they  became  devout  worshippers  of  the  false  gods  of  all 
the  surrounding  nations.  "Ye  have  borne,"  Amos,  the  prophet, 
said  to  them,  speaking  of  their  forty  years'  journeying  in  the  des- 
ert, under  Moses,  "the  tabernacle  of  your  Malec  and  Kaiun  your 
idols,  the  star  of  your  god,  which  ye  made  to  yourselves." 

Among  them,  as  among  other  nations,  the  conceptions  of  God 
formed  by  individuals  varied  according  to  their  intellectual  and 
spiritual  capacities;  poor  and  imperfect,  and  investing  God  with 
the  commonest  and  coarsest  attributes  of  humanity,  among  the 
ignorant  and  coarse ;  pure  and  lofty  among  the  virtuous  and  richly 
gifted.  These  conceptions  gradually  improved  and  became  puri- 
fied and  ennobled,  as  the  nation  advanced  in  civilization — being 
lowest  in  the  historical  books,  amended  in  the  prophetic  writings, 
and  reaching  their  highest  elevation  among  the  poets. 

Among  all  the  ancient  nations  there  was  one  faith  and  one 
idea  of  Deity  for  the  enlightened,  intelligent,  and  educated,  and 
another  for  the  common  people.  To  this  rule  the  Hebrews  were  no 
exception.  Yehovah,  to  the  mass  of  the  people,  was  like  the  gods 
of  the  nations  around  them,  except  that  he  was  the  peculiar  God, 
first  of  the  family  of  Abraham,  of  that  of  Isaac,  and  of  that  of 
Jacob,  and  afterward  the  National  God;  and,  as  they  believed, 
more  powerful  than  the  other  god'e  of  the  same  nature  worshipped 


ROYAL  ARCH   OF   SOLOMON. 

by  their  neighbors — "Who  among  the  Baalim  is  like  unto  thee,  O 
Yehovah?" — expressed  their  whole  creed. 

The  Deity  of  the  early  Hebrews  talked  to  Adam  and  Eve  in  the 
garden  of  delight,  as  he  walked  in  it  in  the  cool  of  the  day ;  he 
conversed  with  Kayin ;  he  sat  and  ate  with  Abraham  in  his  tent ; 
that  patriarch  required  a  visible  token,  before  he  would  believe  in 
his  positive  promise ;  he  permitted  Abraham  to  expostulate  with 
him,  and  to  induce  him  to  change  his  first  determination  in  regard 
to  Sodom ;  he  wrestled  with  Jacob ;  he  showed  Moses  his  person, 
though  not  his  face ;  he  dictated  the  minutest  police  regulations 
and  the  dimensions  of  the  tabernacle  and  its  furniture,  to  the 
Israelites ;  he  insisted  on  and  delighted  in  sacrifices  and  burnt- 
offerings  ;  he  was  angry,  jealous,  and  revengeful,  as  well  as  waver- 
ing and  irresolute ;  he  allowed  Moses  to  reason  him  out  of  his 
fixed  resolution  utterly  to  destroy  his  people ;  he  commanded  the 
performance  of  the  most  shocking  and  hideous  acts  of  cruelty  and 
barbarity.  He  hardened  the  heart  of  Pharaoh ;  he  repented  of 
the  evil  that  he  had  said  he  would  do  unto  the  people  of  Nineveh ; 
and  he  did  it  not,  to  the  disgust  and  anger  of  Jonah. 

Such  were  the  popular  notions  of  the  Deity ;  and  either  the 
priests  had  none  better,  or  took  little  trouble  to  correct  these  no- 
tions ;  or  the  popular  intellect  was  not  enough  enlarged  to  enable 
them  to  entertain  any  higher  conceptions  of  the  Almighty. 

But  such  were  not  the  ideas  of  the  intellectual  and  enlightened 
few  among  the  Hebrews.  It  is  certain  that  they  possessed  a 
knowledge  of  the  true  nature  and  attributes  of  God ;  as  the  same 
class  of  men  did  among  the  other  nations — Zoroaster,  Menu,  Con- 
fucius, Socrates,  and  Plato.  But  their  doctrines  on  this  subject 
were  esoteric ;  they  did  not  communicate  them  to  the  people  at 
large,  but  only  to  a  favored  few ;  and  as  they  were  communicated 
in  Egypt  and  India,  in  Persia  and  Phoenicia,  in  Greece  and  Samo- 
thrace,  in  the  greater  mysteries,  to  the  Initiates. 

The  communication  of  this  knowledge  and  other  secrets,  some 
of  which  are  perhaps  lost,  constituted,  under  other  names,  what 
we  now  call  Masonry,  or  Free  or  Frank-Masonry.  That  knowl- 
edge was,  in  one  sense,  the  Lost  Word,  which  was  made  known  to 
the  Grand  Elect,  Perfect,  and  Sublime  Masons.  It  would  be  folly 
to  pretend  that  the  forms  of  Masonry  were  the  same  in  those  ages 
as  they  are  now.  The  present  name  of  the  Order,  and  its  titles, 
and  the  names  of  the  Degrees  now  in  use,  were  not  then  known. 


2O8  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

Even  Blue  Masonry  cannot  trace  back  its  authentic  history,  with 
its  present  Degrees,  further  than  the  year  1700,  if  so  far.  But,  by 
whatever  name  it  was  known  in  this  or  the  other  country,  Masonry 
existed  as  it  now  exists,  the  same  in  spirit  and  at  heart,  not  only 
when  Solomon  builded  the  temple,  but  centuries  before — before 
even  the  first  colonies  emigrated  into  Southern  India,  Persia,  and 
Egypt,  from  the  cradle  of  the  human,  race. 

The  Supreme,  Self-existent,  Eternal,  All-wise,  All-powerful,  In- 
finitely Good,  Pitying,  Beneficent,  and  Merciful  Creator  and  Pre- 
server of  the  Universe  was  the  same,  by  whatever  name  he  was 
called,  to  the  intellectual  and  enlightened  men  of  all  nations.  The 
name  was  nothing,  if  not  a  symbol  and  representative  hieroglyph 
of  his  nature  and  attributes.  The  name  AL  represented  his 
remoteness  above  men,  his  inaccessibility;  BAL  and  BALA,  his 
might;  ALOHIM,  his  various  potencies;  IHUH,  existence  and  the 
generation  of  things.  None  of  his  names,  among  the  Orientals, 
were  the  symbols  of  a  divinely  infinite  love  and  tenderness,  and 
all-embracing  mercy.  As  MOLOCH  or  MALEK  he  was  but  an 
omnipotent  monarch,  a  tremendous  and  irresponsible  Will;  as 
ADONAI,  only  an  arbitrary  LORD  and  Master;  as  AL  Shada'i, 
potent  and  a  DESTROYER. 

To  communicate  true  and  correct  ideas  in  respect  of  the  Deity 
was  one  chief  object  of  the  mysteries.  In  them,  Khurum  the 
King,  and  Khurum  the  Master,  obtained  their  knowledge  of  him 
and  his  attributes;  and  in  them  that  knowledge  was  taught  to 
Moses  and  Pythagoras. 

Wherefore  nothing  forbids  you  to  consider  the  whole  legend  of 
this  Degree,  like  that  of  the  Master's,  an  allegory,  representing  the 
perpetuation  of  the  knowledge  of  the  True  God  in  the  sanctuaries 
of  initiation.  By  the  subterranean  vaults  you  may  understand 
the  places  of  initiation,  which  in  the  ancient  ceremonies  were  gen- 
erally under  ground.  The  Temple  ef  Solomon  presented  a  sym- 
bolic image  of  the  Universe ;  and  resembled,  in  its  arrangements 
and  furniture,  all  the  temples  of  the  ancient  nations  that  practised 
the  mysteries.  The  system  of  numbers  was  intimately  connected 
with  their  religions  and  worship,  and  has  come  down  to  us  in  Ma- 
sonry ;  though  the  esoteric  meaning  with  which  the  numbers  used 
by  us  are  pregnant  is  unknown  to  the  vast  majority  of  those  who 
use  them.  Those  numbers  were  especially  employed  that  had  a 
reference  to  the  Deity,  represented  his  attributes,  or  figured  in  the 


ROYAL  ARCH  OF  SOLOMON.  2OO, 

frame-work  of  the  world,  in  time  and  space,  and  formed  more  or 
less  the  bases  of  that  frame-work.  These  were  universally  re- 
garded as  sacred,  being  the  expression  of  order  and  intelligence, 
the  utterances  of  Divinity  Himself. 

The  Holy  of  Holies  of  the  Temple  formed  a  cube ;  in  which, 
drawn  on  a  plane  surface,  there  are  4  +  3  +  2  =  9  lines  visible, 
and  three  sides  or  faces.  It  corresponded  with  the  number  four, 
by  which  the  ancients  presented  Nature,  it  being  the  number  of 
substances  or  corporeal  forms,  and  of  the  elements,  the  cardinal 
points  and  seasons,  and  the  secondary  colors.  The  number  three 
everywhere  represented  the  Supreme  Being.  Hence  the  name  of 
the  Deity,  engraven  upon  the  triangular  plate,  and  that  sunken 
into  the  cube  of  agate,  taught  the  ancient  Mason,  and  teaches  us, 
that  the  true  knowledge  of  God,  of  His  nature  and  His  attributes, 
is  written  by  Him  upon  the  leaves  of  the  great  Book  of  Universal 
Nature,  and  may  be  read  there  by  all  who  are  endowed  with  the 
requisite  amount  of  intellect  and  intelligence.  This  knowledge 
of  God,  so  written  there,  and  of  which  Masonry  has  in  all  ages 
been  the  interpreter,  is  the  Master  Mason  s  Word. 

Within  the  Temple,  all  the  arrangements  were  mystically  and 
symbolically  connected  with  the  same  system.  The  vault  or  ceil- 
ing, starred  like  the  firmament,  was  supported  by  twelve  columns, 
representing  the  twelve  months  of  the  year.  The  border  that  ran 
around  the  columns  represented  the  zodiac,  and  one  of  the  twelve 
celestial  signs  was  appropriated  to  each  column.  The  brazen  sea 
was  supported  by  twelve  oxen,  three  looking  to  each  cardinal  point 
of  the  compass. 

And  so  in  our  day  every  Masonic  Lodge  represents  the  Uni- 
verse. Each  extends,  we  are  told,  from  the  rising  to  the  setting 
sun,  from  the  South  to  the  North,  from  the  surface  of  the  Earth 
to  the  Heavens,  and  from  the  same  to  the  centre  of  the  globe.  In 
it  are  represented  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars ;  three  great  torches  in 
the  East,  West,  and  South,  forming  a  triangle,  give  it  light ;  and, 
like  the  Delta  or  Triangle  suspended  in  the  East,  and  inclosing  the 
Ineffable  Name,  indicate,  by  the  mathematical  equality  of  the 
angles  and  sides,  the  beautiful  and  harmonious  proportions  which 
govern  in  the  aggregate  and  details  of  the  Universe ;  while  those 
sides  and  angles  represent,  by  their  number,  three,  the  Trinity  of 
Power,  Wisdom,  and  Harmony,  which  presided  at  the  building  of 
this  marvellous  work.  These  three  great  lights  also  represent  the 


2IO  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

great  mystery  of  the  three  principles,  of  creation,  dissolution  or 
destruction,  and  reproduction  or  regeneration,  consecrated  by  all 
creeds  in  their  numerous  Trinities. 

The  luminous  pedestal,  lighted  by  the  perpetual  flame  within,  is 
a  symbol  of  that  light  of  Reason,  given  by  God  to  man,  by  which 
he  is  enabled  to  read  in  the  Bock  of  Nature  the  record  of  the 
thought,  the  revelation  of  the  attributes  of  the  Deity. 

The  three  Masters,  Adoniram,  Joabert,  and  Stolkin,  are  types 
of  the  True  Mason,  who  seeks  for  knowledge  from  pure  motives, 
and  that  he  may  be  the  better  enabled  to  serve  and  benefit  his  fel- 
low-men ;  while  the  discontented  and  presumptuous  Masters  who 
were  buried  in  the  ruins  of  the  arches  represent  those  who  strive 
to  acquire  it  for  unholy  purposes,  to  gain  power  over  their  fellows, 
to  gratify  their  pride,  their  vanity,  or  their  ambition. 

The  Lion  that  guarded  the  Ark  and  held  in  his  mouth  the  key 
wherewith  to  open  it,  figuratively  represents  Solomon,  the  Lion  of 
the  Tribe  of  Judah,  who  preserved  and  communicated  the  key  to 
the  true  knowledge  of  God,  of  His  laws,  and  of  the  profound  mys- 
teries of  the  moral  and  physical  Universe. 

ENOCH  ["pin,  Khanoc],  we  are  told,  walked  with  God  three 
hundred  years,  after  reaching  the  age  of  sixty-five — "walked  with 
God,  and  he  was  no  more,  for  God  had  taken  him."  His  name 
signified  in  the  Hebrew,  INITIATE  or  INITIATOR.  The  legend  of 
the  columns,  of  granite  and  brass  or  bronze,  erected  by  him,  is 
probably  symbolical.  That  of  bronze,  which  survived  the  flood,  is 
supposed  to  symbolize  the  mysteries,  of  which  Masonry  is  the  legit- 
imate successor — from  the  earliest  times  the  custodian  and  depos- 
itory of  the  great  philosophical  and  religious  truths,  unknown  to 
the  world  at  large,  and  handed  down  from  age  to  age  by  an  un- 
broken current  of  tradition,  embodied  in  symbols,  emblems,  and 
allegories. 

The  legend  of  this  Degree  is  thus,  partially,  interpreted.  It  is  of 
little  importance  whether  it  is  in  anywise  historical.  For  its  value 
consists  in  the  lessons  which  it  inculcates,  and  the  duties  which  it 
prescribes  to  those  who  receive  it.  The  parables  and  allegories  of 
the  Scriptures  are  not  less  valuable  than  history.  Nay,  they  are 
more  so,  because  ancient  history  is  little  instructive,  and  truths  are 
concealed  in  and  symbolized  by  the  legend  and  the  myth. 

There  are  profounder  meanings  concealed  in  fhe  symbols  of  this 
Degree,  connected  with  the  philosophical  s^stero  of  the  Hebrew 


ROYAL  ARCH   OF  SOLOMON.  211 

Kabalists,  which  you  will  learn  hereafter,  if  you  should  be  so 
fortunate  as  to  advance.  They  are  unfolded  in  the  higher  De- 
grees. The  lion  (/HS,  J7HN,  Arai,  Araiah,  which  also  means  the 
altar]  still  holds  in  his  mouth  the  key  of  the  enigma  of  the 
sphynx. 

But  there  is  one  application  of  this  Degree,  that  you  are  now 
entitled  to  know ;  and  which,  remembering  that  Khuriim,  the  Mas- 
ter, is  the  symbol  of  human  freedom,  you  would  probably  discover 
for  yourself. 

It  is  not  enough  for  a  people  to  gain  its  liberty.  It  must  secure 
it.  It  must  not  intrust  it  to  the  keeping,  or  hold  it  at  the  pleasure, 
of  any  one  man.  The  keystone  of  the  Royal  Arch  of  the  great 
Temple  of  Liberty  is  a  fundamental  law,  charter,  or  constitution ; 
the  expression  of  the  fixed  habits  of  thought  of  the  people,  em- 
bodied in  a  written  instrument,  or  the  result  of  the  slow  accre- 
tions and  the  consolidation  of  centuries ;  the  same  in  war  as  in 
peace ;  that  cannot  be  hastily  changed,  nor  be  violated  with  impu- 
nity, but  is  sacred,  like  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  of  God,  which 
none  could  touch  and  live. 

A  permanent  constitution,  rooted  in  the  affections,  expressing 
the  will  and  judgment,  and  built  upon  the  instincts  and  settled 
habits  of  thought  of  the  people,  with  an  independent  judiciary,  an 
elective  legislature  of  two  branches,  an  executive  responsible  to 
the  people,  and  the  right  of  trial  by  jury,  will  guarantee  the  liber- 
ties of  a  people,  if  it  be  virtuous  and  temperate,  without  luxury, 
and  without  the  lust  of  conquest  and  dominion,  and  the  follies  of 
visionary  theories  of  impossible  perfection. 

Masonry  teaches  its  Initiates  that  the  pursuits  and  occupations 
of  this  life,  its  activity,  care,  and  ingenuity,  the  predestined  devel- 
opments of  the  nature  given  us  by  God,  tend  to  promote  His  great 
design,  in  making  the  world ;  and  are  not  at  war  with  the  great 
purpose  of  life.  It  teaches  that  everything  is  beautiful  in  its 
time,  in  its  place,  in  its  appointed  office ;  that  everything  which 
man  is  put  to  do,  if  rightly  and  faithfully  done,  naturally  helps  to 
work  out  his  salvation ;  that  if  he  obeys  the  genuine  principles  of 
his  calling,  he  will  be  a  good  man :  and  that  it  is  only  by  neglect 
and  non-performance  of  the  task  set  for  him  by  Heaven,  by  wan- 
dering into  idle  dissipation,  or  by  violating  their  beneficent  and 
lofty  spirit,  that  he  becomes  a  bad  man.  The  appointed  action  of 
life  is  the  great  training  of  Providence;  and  if  man  yields  himself 


212  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

to  it,  he  will  need  neither  churches  nor  ordinances,  except  for  the 
expression  of  his  religious  homage  and  gratitude. 

For  there  is  a  religion  of  toil.  It  is  not  all  drudgery,  a  mere 
stretching  of  the  limbs  and  straining  of  the  sinews  to  tasks.  It 
has  a  meaning  and  an  intent.  A  living  heart  pours  life-blood  into 
the  toiling  arm ;  and  warm  affections  inspire  and  mingle  with 
man's  labors.  They  are  the  home  affections.  Labor  toils  a-field, 
or  plies  its  task  in  cities,  or  urges  the  keels  of  commerce  over  wide 
oceans ;  but  home  is  its  centre ;  and  thither  it  ever  goes  with  its 
earnings,  with  the  means  of  support  and  comfort  for  others ;  offer- 
ings sacred  to  the  thought  of  every  true  man,  as  a  sacrifice  at  a 
golden  shrine.  Many  faults  there  are  amidst  the  toils  of  life; 
many  harsh  and  hasty  words  are  uttered;  but  still  the  toils  go 
on,  weary  and  hard  and  exasperating  as  they  often  are.  For  in 
that  home  is  age  or  sickness,  or  helpless  infancy,  or  gentle  child- 
hood, or  feeble  woman,  that  must  not  want.  If  man  had  no  other 
than  mere  selfish  impulses,  the  scene  of  labor  which  we  behold 
around  us  would  not  exist. 

The  advocate  who  fairly  and  honestly  presents  his  case,  with  a 
feeling  of  true  self-respect,  honor,  and  conscience,  to  help  the  tri- 
bunal on  toward  the  right  conclusion,  with  a  conviction  that  God's 
justice  reigns  there,  is  acting  a  religious  part,  leading  that  day  a 
religious  life;  or  else  right  and  justice  are  no  part  of  religion. 
Whether,  during  all  that  day,  he  has  once  appealed,  in  form  or  in 
terms,  to  his  conscience,  or  not ;  whether  he  has  once  spoken  of 
religion  and  God,  or  not ;  if  there  has  been  the  inward  purpose, 
the  conscious  intent  and  desire,  that  sacred  justice  should  tri- 
umph, he  has  that  day  led  a  good  and  religions  life,  and  made  a 
most  essential  contribution  to  that  religion  of  life  and  of  society, 
the  cause  of  equity  between  man  and  man,  and  of  truth  and  right 
action  in  tht  world. 

Books,  to  be  of  religious  tendency  in  the  Masonic  sense,  need 
not  be  books  of  sermons,  of  pious  exercises,  or  of  prayers.  What- 
ever inculcates  pure,  noble,  and  patriotic  sentiments,  or  touches 
the  heart  with  the  beauty  of  virtue,  and  the  excellence  of  an  up- 
right life,  accords  with  the  religion  of  Masonry,  and  is  the  Gospel 
of  literature  and  art.  That  Gospel  is  preached  from  many  a  book 
and  painting,  from  many  a  poem  and  fiction,  and  review  and  news- 
paper ;  and  it  is  a  painful  error  and  miserable  narrowness,  not  to 
recognize  these  wide-spread  agencies  of  Heaven's  providing ;  not 


ROYAL  ARCH  OF  SOLOMON.  213 

to  see  and  welcome  these  many-handed  coadjutors,  to  the  great 
and  good  cause.  The  oracles  of  God  do  not  speak  from  the  pulpit 
alone. 

There  is  also  a  religion  of  society.  In  business,  there  is  much 
more  than  sale,  exchange,  price,  payment ;  for  there  is  the  sacred 
faith  of  man  in  man.  When  we  repose  perfect  confidence  in  the 
integrity  of  another ;  when  we  feel  that  he  will  not  swerve  from 
the  right,  frank,  straightforward,  conscientious  course,  for  any 
temptation;  his  integrity  and  conscientiousness  are  the  image  of 
God  to  us ;  and  when  we  believe  in  it,  it  is  as  great  and  generous 
an  act,  as  when  we  believe  in  the  rectitude  of  the  Deity. 

In  gay  assemblies  for  amusement,  the  good  affections  of  life  gush 
and  mingle.  If  they  did  not,  these  gathering-places  would  be  as 
dreary  and  repulsive  as  the  caves  and  dens  of  outlaws  and  robbers. 
When  friends  meet,  and  hands  are  warmly  pressed,  and  the  eye 
kindles  and  the  countenance  is  suffused  with  gladness,  there  is  a 
religion  between  their  hearts ;  and  each  loves  and  worships  the 
True  and  Good  that  is  in  the  other.  It  is  not  policy,  or  self-inter- 
est, or  selfishness  that  spreads  such  a  charm  around  that  meeting, 
but  the  halo  of  bright  and  beautiful  affection. 

The  same  splendor  of  kindly  liking,  and  affectionate  regard, 
shines  like  the  soft  overarching  sky,  over  all  the  world ;  over  all 
places  where  men  meet,  and  walk  or  toil  together ;  not  over  lovers' 
bowers  and  marriage-altars  alone,  not  over  the  homes  of  purity 
and  tenderness  alone ;  but  over  all  tilled  fields,  and  busy  work- 
shops, and  dusty  highways,  and  paved  streets.  There  is  not  a 
worn  stone  upon  the  sidewalks,  but  has  been  the  altar  of  such 
offerings  of  mutual  kindness ;  nor  a  wooden  pillar  or  iron  railing 
against  which  hearts  beating  with  affection  have  not  leaned.  How 
many  soever  other  elements  there  are  in  the  stream  of  life  flowing 
through  these  channels,  tJiat  is  surely  here  and  everywhere;  hon- 
est, heartfelt,  disinterested,  inexpressible  affection. 

Every  Masonic  Lodge  is  a  -temple  of  religion ;  and  its  teachings 
are  instruction  in  religion.  For  here  are  inculcated  disinterested- 
ness, affection,  toleration,  devotedness,  patriotism, truth, a  generous 
sympathy  with  those  who  suffer  and  mourn,  pity  for  the  fallen, 
mercy  for  the  erring,  relief  for  those  in  want.  Faith,  Hope,  and 
Charity.  Here  we  meet  as  brethren,  to  learn  to  know  and  love 
each  other.  Here  we  greet  each  other  gladly,  are  lenient  to  each 
other's  faults,  regardful  of  each  other's  feelings,  ready  to  relieve 


214 


MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 


each  other's  wants.  This  is  the  true  religion  revealed  to  the  an- 
cient patriarchs;  which  Masonry  has  taught  for  many  centuries, 
and  which  it  will  continue  to  teach  as  long  as  time  endures.  If 
unworthy  passions,  or  selfish,  bitter,  or  revengeful  feelings,  con- 
tempt, dislike,  hatred,  enter  here,  they  are  intruders  and  not  wel- 
come, strangers  uninvited,  and  not  guests. 

Certainly  there  are  many  evils  and  bad  passions,  and  much  hate 
and  contempt  and  unkindness  everywhere  in  the  world.  We  can- 
not refuse  to  see  the  evil  that  is  in  life.  But  all  is  not  evil.  We 
still  see  God  in  the  world.  There  is  good  amidst  the  evil.  The 
hand  of  mercy  leads  wealth  to  the  hovels  of  poverty  and  sorrow. 
Truth  and  simplicity  live  amid  many  wiles  and  sophistries.  There 
are  good  hearts  underneath  gay  robes,  and  under  tattered  gar- 
ments also. 

Love  clasps  the  hand  of  love,  amid  all  the  envyings  and  dis- 
tractions of  showy  competition;  fidelity,  pity,  and  sympathy  hold 
the  long  night-watch  by  the  bedside  of  the  suffering  neighbor, 
amidst  the  surrounding  poverty  and  squalid  misery.  Devoted 
men  go  from  city  to  city  to  nurse  those  smitten  down  by  the  terri- 
ble pestilence  that  renews  at  intervals  its  mysterious  marches. 
Women  well-born  and  delicately  nurtured  nursed  the  wounded 
soldiers  in  hospitals,  before  it  became  fashionable  to  do  so ;  and 
even  poor  lost  women,  whom  God  alone  loves  and  pities,  tend  the 
plague-stricken  with  a  patient  and  generous  heroism.  Masonry 
and  its  kindred  Orders  teach  men  to  love  each  other,  feed  the  hun- 
gry, clothe  the  naked,  comfort  the  sick,  and  bury  the  friendless 
dead.  Everywhere  God  finds  and  blesses  the  kindly  office,  the 
pitying  thought,  and  the  loving  heart. 

There  is  an  element  of  good  in  all  men's  lawful  pursuits  and  a 
divine  spirit  breathing  in  all  their  lawful  affections.  The  ground 
on  which  they  tread  is  holy  ground.  There  is  a  natural  religion 
of  life,  answering,  with  however  many  a  broken  tone,  to  the  reli- 
gion of  nature.  There  is  a  beauty  and  glory  in  Humanity,  in  man, 
answering,  with  however  many  a  mingling  shade,  to  the  loveliness 
of  soft  landscapes,  and  swelling  hills,  and  the  wondrous  glory  of 
the  starry  heavens. 

Men  may  be  virtuous,  self-improving,  and  religious  in  their  em- 
ployments. Precisely  for  that,  those  employments  were  made.  All 
their  social  relations,  friendship,  love,  the  ties  of  family,  were  made 
to  be  holy.  They  may  be  religious,  not  by  a  kind  of  protest  and 


ROYAL  ARCH  OF  SOLOMON. 

resistance  against  their  several  vocations;  but  by  conformity  to 
their  true  spirit.  Those  vocations  do  not  exclude  religion ;  but  de- 
mand it,  for  their  own  perfection.  They  may  be  religious  laborers, 
whether  in  field  or  factory;  religious  physicians,  lawyers,  sculp- 
tors, poets,  painters,  and  musicians.  They  may  be  religious  in  all 
the  toils  and  in  all  the  amusements  of  life.  Their  life  may  be  a 
religion;  the  broad  earth  its  altar;  its  incense  the  very  breath  of 
life ;  its  fires  ever  kindled  by  the  brightness  of  Heaven. 

Bound  up  with  our  poor,  frail  life,  is  the  mighty  thought  that 
spurns  the  narrow  span  of  all  visible  existence.  Ever  the  soul 
reaches  outward,  and  asks  for  freedom.  It  looks  forth  from  the 
narrow  and  grated  windows  of  sense,  upon  the  wide  immeasurable 
creation ;  it  knows  that  around  it  and  beyond  it  lie  outstretched 
the  infinite  and  everlasting  paths. 

Everything  within  us  and  without  us  ought  to  stir  our  minds  to 
admiration  and  wonder.  We  are  a  mystery  encompassed  with 
mysteries.  The  connection  of  mind  with  matter  is  a  mystery; 
the  wonderful  telegraphic  communication  between  the  brain  and 
every  part  of  the  body,  the  power  and  action  of  the  will.  Ev- 
ery familiar  step  is  more  than  a  story  in  a  land  of  enchantment. 
The  power  of  movement  is  as  mysterious  as  the  power  of  thought. 
Memory,  and  dreams  that  are  the  indistinct  echoes  of  dead  mem- 
ories are  alike  inexplicable.  Universal  harmony  springs  from  in- 
finite complication.  The  momentum  of  every  step  we  take  in  our 
dwelling  contributes  in  part  to  the  order  of  the  Universe.  We 
are  connected  by  ties  of  thought,  and  even  of  matter  and  its  forces, 
with  the  whole  boundless  Universe  and  all  the  past  and  coming 
generations  of  men. 

The  humblest  object  beneath  our  eye  as  completely  defies 
our  scrutiny  as  the  economy  of  the  most  distant  star.  Every 
leaf  and  every  blade  of  grass  holds  within  itself  secrets 
which  no  human  penetration  will  ever  fathom.  No  man  can 
tell  what  is  its  principle  of  life.  No  man  can  know  what  his  power 
of  secretion  is.  Both  are  inscrutable  mysteries.  Wherever  we 
place  our  hand  we  lay  it  upon  the  locked  bosom  of  mystery.  Step 
where  we  will,  we  tread  upon  wonders.  The  sea-sands,  the  clods 
of  the  field,  the  water-worn  pebbles  on  the  hills,  the  rude  masses 
cf  rock,  are  traced  over  and  over,  in  every  direction,  with  a  hand- 
writing older  and  more  significant  and  sublime  than  all  the  ancient 
ruins,  and  all  the  overthrown  and  buried  cities  that  past  genera- 


2l6  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

tions  have  left  upon  the  earth ;  for  it  is  the  handwriting  of  the 
Almighty. 

A  Mason's  great  business  with  life  is  to  read  the  book  of  its 
teaching;  to  find  that  life  is  not  the  doing  of  drudgeries,  but  the 
hearing  of  oracles.  The  old  mythology  is  but  a  leaf  in  that  book ; 
for  it  peopled  the  world  with  spiritual  natures ;  and  science, 
many-leaved,  still  spreads  before  us  the  same  tale  of  winder. 

We  shall  be  just  as  happy  hereafter,  as  we  are  pure  and  upright, 
and  no  more,  just  as  happy  as  our  character  prepares  us  to  be,  and 
no  more.  Our  moral,  like  our  mental  character,  is  not  formed  in 
a  moment ;  it  is  rhe  habit  of  our  minds ;  the  result  of  many 
thoughts  and  feelings  and  efforts,  bound  togther  by  many  natural 
and  strong  ties.  The  great  law  of  Retribution  is,  that  all  coming 
experience  is  to  be  affected  by  every  present  feeling;  every  future 
moment  of  being  must  answer  for  every  present  moment ;  one 
moment,  sacrificed  to  vice,  or  lost  to  improvement,  is  forever  sacri- 
ficed and  lost ;  an  hour's  delay  to  enter  the  right  path,  is  to  put  us 
back  so  far,  in  the  everlasting  pursuit  of  happiness ;  and  every 
sin,  even  of  the  best  men,  is  to  be  thus  answered  for,  if  not  accord- 
ing to  the  full  measure  of  its  ill-desert,  yet  according  to  a  rule  of 
unbending  rectitude  and  impartiality. 

The  law  of  retribution  presses  upon  every  man,  whether  he 
thinks  of  it  or  not.  It  pursues  him  through  all  the  courses  of 
life,  \vith  a  step  that  never  falters  nor  tires,  and  with  an  eye  that 
never  sleeps.  If  it  were  not  so,  God's  government  would  not  be 
impartial ;  there  would  be  no  discrimination  ;  no  moral  dominion  : 
no  light  shed  upon  the  mysteries  of  Providence. 

Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that,  and  not  something  else,  shall 
he  reap.  That  which  we  are  doing,  good  or  evil,  grave  or  gay ; 
that  which  we  do  to-day  and  shall  do  to-morrow  :  each  thought, 
each  feeling,  each  action,  each  event ;  every  passing  hour,  every 
breathing  moment ;  all  are  contributing  to  form  the  character, 
according  to  which  we  are  to  be  judged.  Every  particle  of  influ- 
ence that  goes  to  form  that  aggregate,— our  character, — will,  in 
that  future  scrutiny,  be  sifted  out  from  the  mass  ;  and,  particle  by 
particle,  with  ages  perhaps  intervening,  fall  a  distinct  contribu- 
tion to  the  sum  of  our  joys  or  woes.  Thus  every  idle  word  and 
idle  hour  will  give  answer  in  the  judgment. 

Let  us  take  care,  therefore,  what  we  sow.  An  evil  temptation 
comes  upon  us ;  the  opportunity  of  unrighteous  gain,  or  of  unhal- 


ROYAL  ARCH  OF  SOLOMON.  2IJ 

lowed  indulgence,  either  in  the  sphere  of  business  or  pleasure, 
of  society  or  solitude.  We  yield;  and  plant  a  seed  of  bitterness 
and  sorrow.  To-morrow  it  will  threaten  discovery.  Agitated  and 
alarmed,  we  cover  the  sin,  and  bury  it  deep  in  falsehood  and  hy- 
pocrisy. In  the  bosom  where  it  lies  concealed,  in  the  fertile  soil 
of  kindred  vices,  that  sin  dies  not,  but  thrives  and  grows ;  and 
other  and  still  other  germs  of  evil  gather  around  the  accursed 
root ;  until,  from  that  single  seed  of  corruption,  there  springs  up 
in  the  soul  all  that  is  horrible  in  habitual  lying,  knavery,  or  vice. 
Loathingly,  often,  we  take  each  downward  step ;  but  a  frightful 
power  urges  us  onward ;  and  the  hell  of  debt,  disease,  ignominy, 
or  remorse  gathers  its  shadows  around  our  steps  even  on  earth ; 
and  are  yet  but  the  beginnings  of  sorrows.  The  evil  deed  may  be 
done  in  a  single  moment ;  but  conscience  never  dies,  memory  never 
sleeps ;  guilt  never  can  become  innocence ;  and  remorse  can  never 
whisper  peace. 

Beware,  thou  who  art  tempted  to  evil !  Beware  what  thou 
layest  up  for  the  future !  Beware  what  thou  layest  up  in  the 
archives  of  eternity !  Wrong  not  thy  neighbor !  lest  the  thought 
of  him  thou  injurest,  and  who  suffers  by  thy  act,  be  to  thee  a  pang 
which  years  will  not  deprive  of  its  bitterness !  Break  not  into  the 
house  of  innocence,  to  rifle  it  of  its  treasure;  lest  when  many 
years  have  passed  over  thee,  the  moan  of  its  distress  may  not  have 
died  away  from  thine  ear !  Build  not  the  desolate  throne  of  ambi- 
tion in  thy  heart;  nor  be  busy  with  devices,  and  circumventings, 
and  selfish  schemings;  lest  desolation  and  loneliness  be  on  thy 
path,  as  it  stretches  into  the  long  futurity !  Live  not  a  useless, 
an  impious,  or  an  injurious  life !  for  bound  up  with  that  life  is  the 
immutable  principle  of  an  endless  retribution,  and  elements  of 
God's  creating,  which  will  never  spend  their  force,  but  continue 
ever  to  unfold  with  the  ages  of  eternity.  Be  not  deceived !  God 
has  formed  thy  nature,  thus  to  answer  to  the  future.  His  law 
can  never  be  abrogated,  nor  His  justice  eluded ;  and  forever  and 
ever  it  will  be  true,  that  "Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  also  he 
shall  reap." 

15 


XIV. 

GRAND  ELECT,  PERFECT,   AND  SUBLIME 

MASON. 

[Perfect  Elu.] 

IT  is  for  each  individual  Mason  to  discover  the  secret  of  Ma- 
sonry, by  reflection  upon  its  symbols  and  ;.  wise  consideration  and 
analysis  of  what  is  said  and  done  in  the  work.  Masonry  does  not 
inculcate  her  truths.  She  states  them,  once  and  briefly ;  or  hints 
them,  perhaps,  darkly ;  or  interposes  a  cloud  between  them  and 
eyes  that  would  be  dazzled  by  them.  "Seek,  and  ye  shall  find," 
knowledge  and  the  truth. 

The  practical  object  of  Masonry  is  the  physical  and  moral 
amelioration  and  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  improvement  of 
individuals  and  society.  Neither  can  be  effected,  except  by  the 
dissemination  of  truth.  It  is  falsehood  in  doctrines  and  fallacy 
in  principles,  to  which  most  of  the  miseries  of  men  and  the  mis- 
fortunes of  nations  are  owing.  Public  opinion  is  rarely  right  on 
any  point ;  and  there  are  and  always  will  be  important  truths  to 
be  substituted  in  that  opinion  in  the  place  of  many  errors  and 
absurd  and  injurious  prejudices.  There  are  few  truths  that  public 
opinion  has  not  at  some  time  hated  and  persecuted  as  heresies ; 
and  few  errors  that  have  not  at  some  time  seemed  to  it  truths  radi- 
ant from  the  immediate  presence  of  God.  There  are  moral  mala- 
dies, also,  of  man  and  society,  the  treatment  of  which  requires  not 
only  boldness,  but  also,  and  more,  prudence  and  discretion ;  since 
they  are  more  the  fruit  of  false  and  pernicious  doctrines,  moral, 
political,  and  religious,  than  of  vicious  inclinations. 

Much  of  the  Masonic  secret  manifests  itself,  without  speech 
218 


GRAND  ELECT,  PERFECT,  AND  SUBLIME  MASON. 

revealing  it,  to  him  who  even  partially  comprehends  all  the  De- 
grees in  proportion  as  he  receives  them ;  and  particularly  to  those 
who  advance  to  the  highest  Degrees  of  the  Ancient  and  Accepted 
Scottish  Rite.  That  Rite  raises  a  corner  of  the  veil,  even  in  the 
Degree  of  Apprentice ;  for  it  there  declares  that  Masonry  is  a 
worship. 

Masonry  labors  to  improve  the  social  order  by  enlightening 
men's  minds,  warming  their  hearts  with  the  love  of  the  good,  in- 
spiring them  with  the  great  principle  of  human  fraternity,  and 
requiring  of  its  disciples  that  their  language  and  actions  shall  con-  ' 
form  to  that  principle,  that  they  shall  enlighten  each  other,  con- 
trol their  passions,  abhor  vice,  and  pity  the  vicious  man  as  one 
afflicted  with  a  deplorable  malady. 

It  is  the  universal,  eternal,  immutable  religion,  such  as  God 
planted  it  in  the  heart  of  universal  humanity.  No  creed  has  ever 
been  long-lived  that  was  not  built  on  this  foundation.  It  is  the 
base,  and  they  are  the  superstructure.  "Pure  religion  and  unde- 
filed  before  God  and  the  Father  is  this,  to  visit  the  fatherless  and 
widows  in  their  affliction,  and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the 
world."  "Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  have  chosen?  to  loose  the 
bands  of  wickedness,  to  undo  the  heavy  burdens,  and  to  let  the 
oppressed  go  free,  and  that  ye  break  every  yoke?"  The  ministers 
of  this  religion  are  all  Masons  who  comprehend  it  and  are  devoted 
to  it;  its  sacrifices  to  God  are  good  works,  the  sacrifices  of  the 
base  and  disorderly  passions,  the  offering  up  of  self-interest  on  the 
altar  of  humanity,  and  perpetual  efforts  to  attain  to  all  the  moral 
perfection  of  which  man  is  capable. 

To  make  honor  and  duty  the  steady  beacon-lights  that  shall 
guide  your  life-vessel  over  the  stormy  seas  of  time;  to  do  that 
which  it  is  right  to  do,  not  because  it  will  insure  you  success,  or 
bring  with  it  a  reward,  or  gain  the  applause  of  men,  or  be  "the 
best  policy,"  more  prudent  or  more  advisable ;  but  because  it  is 
right,  and  therefore  ought  to  be  done;  to  war  incessantly  against 
error,  intolerance,  ignorance,  and  vice,  and  yet  to  pity  those  who 
err,  to  be  tolerant  even  of  intolerance,  to  teach  the  ignorant,  and 
to  labor  to  reclaim  the  vicious,  are  some  of  the  duties  of  a  Mason. 

A  good  Mason  is  one  that  can  look  upon  death,  and  see  its  face 
with  the  same  countenance  with  which  he  hears  its  story;  that 
can  endure  all  the  labors  of  his  life  with  his  soul  supporting  his 
body,  that  can  equally  despise  riches  when  he  hath  them  and 


220  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

when  he  hath  them  not ;  that  is  not  sadder  if  they  are  in  his  neigh- 
bor's exchequer,  nor  more  lifted  up  if  they  shine  around  about  his 
own  walls;  one  that  is  not  moved  with  good  fortune  coming  to 
him,  nor  going  from  him ;  that  can  look  upon  another  man's  lands 
with  equanimity  and  pleasure,  as  if  they  were  his  own ;  and  yet 
look  upon  his  own,  and  use  them  too,  just  as  if  they  were  another 
man's;  that  neither  srends  his  goods  prodigally  and  foolishly,  nor 
yet  keeps  them  avariciously  and  like  a  miser ;  that  weighs  not  ben- 
efits by  weight  and  number,  but  by  the  mind  and  circumstances 
of  him  who  confers  them ;  that  never  thinks  his  charity  expen- 
sive, if  a  worthy  person,  be  the  receiver;  that  does  nothing  for 
opinion's  sake,  but  everything  for  conscience,  being  as  careful  of 
his  thoughts  as  of  his  acting  in  markets  and  theatres,  and  in  as 
much  awe  of  himself  as  of  a  whole  assembly ;  that  is  bountiful 
and  cheerful  to  his  friends,  and  charitable  and  apt  to  forgive  his 
enemies ;  that  loves  his  country,  consults  its  honor,  and  obeys  its 
laws,  and  desires  and  endeavors  nothing  more  than  that  he  may 
do  his  duty  and  honor  God.  And  such  a  Mason  may  reckon  his 
life  to  be  the  life  of  a  man,  and  compute  his  months,  not  by 
the  course  of  the  sun,  but  by  the  zodiac  and  circle  of  his  vir- 
tues. 

The  whole  world  is  but  one  republic,  of  which  each  nation  is  a 
family,  and  every  individual  a  child.  Masonry,  not  in  anywise 
derogating  from  the  differing  duties  which  the  diversity  of  states 
requires,  tends  to  create  a  new  people,  which,  composed  of  men  of 
many  nations  and  tongues,  shall  all  be  bound  together  by  the 
bonds  of  science,  morality,  and  virtue. 

Essentially  philanthropic,  philosophical,  and  progressive,  it  has 
for  the  basis  of  its  dogma  a  firm  belief  in  the  existence  of  God 
and  his  providence,  and  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  for  its 
object,  the  dissemination  of  moral,  political,  philosophical,  and 
religious  truth,  and  the  practice  of  all  the  virtues.  In  every  age, 
its  device  has  been,  "Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity,"  with  constitu- 
tional government,  law,  order,  discipline,  and  subordination  to 
legitimate  authority — government  and  not  anarchy. 

Rut  it  is  neither  a  political  party  nor  a  religious  sect.  It  em- 
braces all  parties  and  all  sects,  to  form  from  among  them  all  a  vast 
fraternal  association.  It  recognizes  the  dignity  of  human  nature, 
and  man's  right  to  such  freedom  as  he  is  fitted  for;  and  it 
knows  nothing  that  should  place  one  man  below  another,  except 


GRAND   ELECT,   PERFECT,  AND  SUBLIME   MASON.  221 

ignorance,  debasement,  and  crime,  and  the  necessity  of  subordina- 
tion to  lawful  will  and  authority. 

It  is  philanthropic ;  for  it  recognizes  the  great  truth  that  all 
men  are  of  the  same  origin,  have  common  interests,  and  should 
co-operate  together  to  the  same  end. 

Therefore  it  teaches  its  members  to  love  one  another,  to  give  to 
each  other  mutual  assistance  and  support  in  all  the  circumstances 
of  life,  to  share  each  other's  pains  and  sorrows,  as  well  as  their  joys 
and  pleasures ;  to  guard  the  reputations,  respect  the  opinions,  and 
be  perfectly  tolerant  of  the  errors,  of  each  other,  in  matters  of 
faith  and  beliefs. 

It  is  philosophical,  because  it  teaches  the  great  Truths  concern- 
ing the  nature  and  existence  of  one  Supreme  Deity,  and  the  exist- 
ence and  immortality  of  the  soul.  It  revives  the  Academy  of 
Plato,  and  the  wise  teachings  of  Socrates.  It  reiterates  the  max- 
ims of  Pythagoras,  Confucius,  and  Zoroaster,  and  reverentially 
enforces  the  sublime  lessons  of  Him  who  died  upon  the  Cross. 

The  ancients  thought  that  universal  humanity  acted  under  the 
influence  of  two  opposing  Principles,  the  Good  and  the  Evil :  of 
which  the  Good  urged  men  toward  Truth,  Independence,  and  De- 
votedness ;  and  the  Evil  toward  Ealsehood,  Servility,  and  Selfish- 
ness. Masonry  represents  the  Good  Principle  and  constantly  wars 
against  the  evil  one.  It  is  the  Hercules,  the  Osiris,  the  Apollo,  the 
Mithras,  and  the  Ormuzd,  at  everlasting  and  deadly  feud  with  the 
demons  of  ignorance,  brutality,  baseness,  falsehood,  slavishness  of 
soul,  intolerance,  superstition,  tyranny,  meanness,  the  insolence  of 
wealth,  and  bigotry. 

When  despotism  and  superstition,  twin-powers  of  evil  and  dark- 
ness, reigned  everywhere  and  seemed  invincible  and  immortal,  it 
invented,  to  avoid  persecution,  the  mysteries,  that  is  to  say,  the 
allegory,  the  symbol,  and  the  emblem,  and  transmitted  its  doc- 
trines by  the  secret  mode  of  initiation.  Now,  retaining  its  ancient 
symbols,  and  in  part  its  ancient  ceremonies,  it  displays  in  every 
cr'vilized  country  its  banner,  on  which  in  letters  of  living  light  its 
great  principles  are  written  ;  and  it  smiles  at  the  puny  efforts  of 
kings  and  popes  to  crush  it  out  by  excommunication  and  inter- 
diction. 

Man's  views  in  regard  to  God,  will  contain  only  so  much  posi- 
tive truth  as  the  human  mind  is  capable  of  receiving;  whether 
that  truth  is  attained  by  the  exercise  of  reason,  or  communicated 


222  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

by  revelation.  It  must  necessarily  be  both  limited  and  alloyed,  to 
bring  it  within  the  competence  of  finite  human  intelligence.  Be- 
ing finite,  we  can  form  no  correct  or  adequate  idea  of  the  Infinite ; 
being  material,  we  can  form  no  clear  conception  of  the  Spiritual. 
We  do  believe  in  and  know  the  infinity  of  Space  and  Time,  and 
the  spirituality  of  the  Soul;  but  the  idea  of  that  infinity  and 
spirituality  eludes  us.  Even  Omnipotence  cannot  infuse  infinite 
conceptions  into  finite  minds ;  nor  can  God,  without  first  entirely 
changing  the  conditions  of  our  being,  pour  a  complete  and  full 
knowledge  of  His  own  nature  and  attributes  into  the  narrow  capa- 
city of  a  human  soul.  Human  intelligence  could  not  grasp  it, 
nor  human  language  express  it.  The  visible  is,  necessarily,  the 
measure  of  the  invisible. 

The  consciousness  of  the  individual  reveals  itself  alone.  His 
knowledge  cannot  pass  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  being.  His 
conceptions  of  other  things  and  other  beings  are  only  his  concep- 
tions. They  are  not  those  things  or  beings  themselves.  The  living 
principle  of  a  living  Universe  must  be  INFINITE;  while  all  our 
ideas  and  conceptions  are  finite,  and  applicable  only  to  finite  beings. 

The  Deity  is  thus  not  an  object  of  knowledge,  but  of  faith;  not 
to  be  approached  by  the  understanding,  but  by  the  moral  sense; 
not  to  be  conceived,  but  to  be  felt.  All  attempts  to  embrace  the 
Infinite  in  the  conception  of  the  Finite  are,  and  must  be  only  ac- 
commodations to  the  frailty  of  man.  Shrouded  from  human  com- 
prehension in  an  obscurity  from  which  a  chastened  imagination  is 
awed  back,  and  Thought  retreats  in  conscious  weakness, the  Divine 
Nature  is  a  theme  on  which  man  is  little  entitled  to  dogmatize. 
Here  the  philosophic  Intellect  becomes  most  painfully  aware  of  its 
own  insufficiency. 

And  yet  it  is  here  that  man  most  dogmatizes,  classifies  and  de- 
scribes God's  attributes,  makes  out  his  map  of  God's  nature,  and 
his  inventory  of  God's  qualities,  feelings,  impulses,  and  passions ; 
and  then  hangs  and  burns  his  brother,  who,  as  dogmatically  as  he, 
makes  out  a  different  map  and  inventory.  The  common  under- 
standing has  no  humility.  Its  God  is  an  incarnate  Divinity.  Im- 
perfection imposes  its  own  limitations  on  the  Illimitable,  and 
clothes  the  Inconceivable  Spirit  of  the  Universe  in  forms  that 
come  within  the  grasp  of  the  senses  and  the  intellect,  and  are 
derived  from  that  infinite  and  imperfect  nature  which  is  but  God's 
creation. 


GRAND  ELECT,   PERFECT,   AND  SUDLIME  MASON.  22J 

We  are  all  of  us,  though  not  all  equally,  mistaken.  The  cher- 
ished dogmas  of  each  of  us  are  not,  as  we  fondly  suppose,  the  pure 
truth  of  God ;  but  simply  our  own  special  form  of  error,  our 
guesses  at  truth,  the  refracted  and  fragmentary  rays  of  light  that 
have  fallen  upon  our  own  minds.  Our  little  systems  have  their 
day,  and  cease  to  be ;  they  are  but  broken  lights  of  God ;  and  He 
is  more  than  they.  Perfect  truth  is  not  attainable  anywhere.  We 
style  this  Degree  that  of  Perfection ;  and  yet  what  it  teaches  is 
imperfect  and  defective.  Yet  we  are  not  to  relax  in  the  pursuit 
of  truth,  nor  contentedly  acquiesce  in  error.  It  is  our  duty  always, 
to  press  forward  in  the  search ;  for  though  absolute  truth  is  unat- 
tainable, yet  the  amount  of  error  in  our  views  is  capable  of  pro- 
gressive and  perpetual  diminution;  and  thus  Masonry  is  a  con- 
tinual struggle  toward  the  light. 

All  errors  are  not  equally  innocuous.  That  which  is  most  inju- 
rious is  to  entertain  unworthy  conceptions  of  the  nature  and 
attributes  of  God ;  and  it  is  this  that  Masonry  symbolizes  by  igno- 
rance of  the  True  Word.  The  true  word  of  a  Mason  is,  not  the 
entire,  perfect,  absolute  truth  in  regard  to  God;  but  the  highest 
and  noblest  conception  of  Him  that  our  minds  are  capable  of  form- 
ing; and  this  word  is  Ineffable,  because  one  man  cannot  commu- 
nicate to  another  his  own  conception  of  Deity ;  since  every  man's 
conception  of  God  must  be  proportioned  to  his  mental  cultivation, 
and  intellectual  powers,  and  moral  excellence.  God  is,  as  man 
conceives  Him,  the  reflected  image  of  man  himself. 

For  every  man's  conception  of  God  must  vary  with  his  mental 
cultivation  and  mental  powers.  If  any  one  contents  himself  with 
any  lozver  image  than  his  intellect  is  capable  of  grasping,  then  he 
contents  himself  with  that  which  is  false  to  him,  as  well  as  false  in 
fact.  If  lower  than  he  can  reach,  he  must  needs  feel  it  to  be  false. 
And  if  we,  of  the  nineteenth  century  after  Christ,  adopt  the  con- 
ceptions of  the  nineteenth  century  before  Him ;  if  our  conceptions 
of  God  are  those  of  the  ignorant,  narrow-minded,  and  vindictive 
Israelite ;  then  we  think  worse  of  God,  and  have  a  lower,  meaner, 
and  more  limited  view  of  His  nature,  than  the  faculties  which  He 
has  bestowed  are  capable  of  grasping.  The  highest  view  we  can 
form  is  nearest  to  the  truth.  If  we  acquiesce  in  any  lower  one. 
we  acquiesce  in  an  untruth.  We  feel  that  it  is  an  affront  and  an 
indignity  to  Him,  to  conceive  of  Him  as  cruel,  short-sighted,  ca- 
pricious, and  unjust;  as  a  jealous,  an  angry,  a  vindictive  Being. 


224  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

When  we  examine  our  conceptions  of  His  character,  if  we  can 
conceive  of  a  loftier,  nobler,  higher,  more  beneficent,  glorious,  and 
magnificent  character,  then  this  latter  is  to  us  the  true  conception 
of  Deity ;  for  nothing  can  be  imagined  more  excellent  than  Pie. 

Religion,  to  obtain  currency  and  influence  with  the  great  mass 
of  mankind,  must  needs  be  alloyed  with  such  an  amount  of  error 
as  to  place  it  far  below  the  standard  attainable  by  the  higher  hu- 
man capacities.  A  religion  as  pure  as  the  loftiest  and  most  culti- 
vated human  reason  could  discern,  would  not  be  comprehended 
by,  or  effective  over,  the  less  educated  portion  of  mankind.  What 
is  Truth  to  the  philosopher,  would  not  be  Truth,  nor  have  the 
effect  of  Truth,  to  the  peasant.  The  religion  of  the  many  must 
necessarily  be  more  incorrect  than  that  of  the  refined  and  reflective 
few,  not  so  much  in  its  essence  as  in  its  forms,  not  so  much  in  the 
spiritual  idea  which  lies  latent  at  the  bottom  of  it,  as  in  the  sym- 
bols and  dogmas  in  which  that  idea  is  embodied.  The  truest 
religion  would,  in  many  points,  not  be  comprehended  by  the  igno- 
rant, nor  consolatory  to  them,  nor  guiding  and  supporting  for 
them.  The  doctrines  of  the  Bible  are  often  not  clothed  in  the 
language  of  strict  truth,  but  in  that  which  was  fittest  to  convey 
to  a  rude  and  ignorant  people  the  practical  essentials  of  the  doc- 
trine. A  perfectly  pure  faith,  free  from  all  extraneous  admixtures, 
a  system  of  noble  theism  and  lofty  morality,  would  find  too  little 
preparation  for  it  in  the  common  mind  and  heart,  to  admit  of 
prompt  reception  by  the  masses  of  mankind ;  and  Truth  might 
not  have  reached  us,  if  it  had  not  borrowed  the  wings  of  Error. 

The  Mason  regards  God  as  a  Moral  Governor,  as  well  as  an 
Original  Creator ;  as  a  God  at  hand,  and  not  merely  one  afar  off 
in  the  distance  of  infinite  space,  and  in  the  remoteness  of  Past 
or  Future  Eternity.  He  conceives  of  Him  as  taking  a  watchful 
and  presiding  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  world,  and  as  influenc- 
ing the  hearts  and  actions  of  men. 

To  him,  God  is  the  great  Source  of  the  World  of  Life  and  Mat- 
ter; and  man,  with  his  wonderful  corporeal  and  mental  frame, 
His  direct  work.  He  believes  that  God  has  made  men  with  differ- 
ent intellectual  capacities  ;  and  enabled  some,  by  superior  intellect- 
ual power,  to  see  and  originate  truths  which  are  hidden  from  the 
mass  of  men.  He  believes  that  when  it  is  His  will  that  mankind 
should  make  some  great  step  forward,  or  achieve  some  pregnant 
discovery,  He  calls  into  being  some  intellect  of  more  than  ordi- 


GRAND  ELECT,  PERFECT,  AND  SUBLIME  MASON.  225 

nary  magnitude  and  power,  to  give  birth  to  new  ideas,  and  grander 
conceptions  of  the  Truths  vital  to  Humanity. 

We  hold  that  God  has  so  ordered  matters  in  this  beautiful  and 
harmonious,  but  mysteriously-governed  Universe,  that  one  great 
mind  after  another  will  arise,  from  time  to  time,  as  such  are 
needed,  to  reveal  to  men  the  truths  that  are  wanted,  and  the 
amount  of  truth  that  can  be  borne.  He  so  arranges,  that  nature 
and  the  course  of  events  shall  send  men  into  the  world,  endowed 
with  that  higher  mental  and  moral  organization,  in  which  grand 
truths,  and  sublime  gleams  of  spiritual  light  will  spontaneously 
and  inevitably  arise.  These  speak  to  men  by  inspiration. 

Whatever  Hiram  really  was,  he  is  the  type,  perhaps  an  imag- 
inary type,  to  us,  of  humanity  in  its  highest  phase ;  an  exemplar 
of  what  man  may  and  should  become,  in  the  course  of  ages,  in  his 
progress  toward  the  realization  of  his  destiny ;  an  individual  gifted 
with  a  glorious  intellect,  a  noble  soul,  a  fine  organization,  and  a 
perfectly  balanced  moral  being ;  an  earnest  of  what  humanity  may 
be,  and  what  we  believe  it  will  hereafter  be  in  God's  good  time ;  the 
possibility  of  the  race  made  real. 

The  Mason  believes  that  God  has  arranged  this  glorious  but  per- 
plexing world  with  a  purpose,  and  on  a  plan.  He  holds  that  every 
man  sent  upon  this  earth,  and  especially  every  man  of  superior 
capacity,  has  a  duty  to  perform,  a  mission  to  fulfill,  a  baptism  to 
be  baptized  with ;  that  every  great  and  good  man  possesses  some 
portion  of  God's  truth,  which  he  must  proclaim  to  the  world,  and 
which  must  bear  fruit  in  his  own  bosom.  In  a  true  and  simple 
sense,  he  believes  all  the  pure,  wise,  and  intellectual  to  be  inspired, 
and  to  be  so  for  the  instruction,  advancement,  and  elevation  of 
mankind.  That  kind  of  inspiration,  like  God's  omnipresence,  is 
not  limited  to  the  few  writers  claimed  by  Jews,  Christians,  or 
Moslems,  but  is  co-extensive  with  the  race.  It  is  the  consequence 
of  a  faithful  use  of  our  faculties.  Each  man  is  its  subject,  God  is 
its  source,  and  Truth  its  only  test.  It  differs  in  degrees,  as  the 
intellectual  endowments,  the  moral  wealth  of  the  soul,  and  the  de- 
gree of  cultivation  of  those  endowments  and  faculties  differ.  It  is 
limited  to  no  sect,  age,  or  nation.  It  is  wide  as  the  world  and 
common  as  God.  It  was  not  given  to  a  few  men.  in  the  infancy 
of  mankind,  to  monopolize  inspiration,  and  bar  God  out  of  the 
soul.  We  are  not  born  in  the  dotage  and  decay  of  the  world.  The 
stars  are  beautiful  as  in  their  prime ;  the  most  ancient  Heavens 


226  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

are  fresh  and  strong.  God  is  still  everywhere  in  nature.  Wher- 
ever a  heart  beats  with  love,  wherever  Faith  and  Reason  utter 
their  oracles,  there  is  God,  as  formerly  in  the  hearts  of  seers  and 
prophets.  No  soil  on  earth  is  so  holy  as  the  good  man's  heart ; 
nothing  is  so  full  of  God.  This  inspiration  is  not  given  to  the 
learned  alone,  not  alone  to  the  great  and  wise,  but  to  every  faithful 
child  of  God.  Certain  as  the  open  eye  drinks  in  the  light,  do  the 
pure  in  heart  see  God ;  and  he  who  lives  truly,  feels  Him  as  a  pres- 
ence within  the  soul.  The  conscience  is  the  very  voice  of  Deity. 

Masonry,  arOund  whose  altars  the  Christian,  the  Hebrew,  the 
Moslem,  the  Brahmin,  the  followers  of  Confucius  and  Zoroaster, 
can  assemble  as  brethren  and  unite  in  prayer  to  the  one  God  who 
is  above  all  the  Baalim,  must  needs  leave  it  to  each  of  its  Initiates 
to  look  for  the  foundation  of  his  faith  and  hope  to  the  written 
scriptures  of  his  own  religion.  For  itself  it  finds  those  truths 
definite  enough,  which  are  written  by  the  finger  of  God  upon  the 
heart  of  man  and  on  the  pages  of  the  book  of  nature.  Views  of 
religion  and  duty,  wrought  out  by  the  meditations  of  the  studious, 
confirmed  by  the  allegiance  of  the  good  and  wise,  stamped  as  ster- 
ling by  the  response  they  find  in  every  uncorrupted  mind,  com- 
mend themselves  to  Masons  of  every  creed,  and  may  well  be  ac- 
cepted by  all. 

The  Mason  does  not  pretend  to  dogmatic  certainty,  nor  vainly 
imagine  such  certainty  attainable.  He  considers  that  if  there 
were  no  written  revelation,  he  could  safely  rest  the  hopes  that  ani- 
mate him  and  the  principles  that  guide  him,  on  the  deductions  of 
reason  and  the  convictions  of  instinct  and  consciousness.  He  can 
find  a  sure  foundation  for  his  religious  belief,  in  these  deductions 
of  the  intellect  and  convictions  of  the  heart.  For  reason  proves 
to  him  the  existence  and  attributes  of  God ;  and  those  spiritual 
instincts  which  he  feels  are  the  voice  of  God  in  his  soul,  infuse 
into  his  mind  a  sense  of  his  relation  to  God,  a  conviction  of  the 
beneficence  of  his  Creator  and  Preserver,  and  a  hope  of  future  ex- 
istence ;  and  his  reason  and  conscience  alike  unerringly  point  to 
virtue  as  the  highest  good,  and  the  destined  aim  and  purpose  of 
man's  life. 

He  studies  the  wonders  of  the  Heavens,  the  frame-work  and 
revolutions  of  the  Earth,  the  mysterious  beauties  and  adaptations 
of  animal  existence,  the  moral  and  material  constitution  of  the 
human  creature,  so  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made ;  and  is  satis- 


GRAND  ELECT,  PERFECT,  AND  SUBLIME  MASON.  22/ 

fied  that  God  IS ;  and  that  a  Wise  and  Good  Being  is  the  author 
of  the  starry  Heavens  above  him,  and  of  the  moral  world  within 
him ;  and  his  mind  finds  an  adequate  foundation  for  its  hopes,  its 
worship,  its  principles  of  action,  in  the  far-stretching  Universe,  in 
the  glorious  firmament,  in  the  deep,  full  soul,  bursting  with  unut- 
terable thoughts. 

These  are  truths  which  every  reflecting  mind  will  unhesitatingly 
receive,  as  not  to  be  surpassed,  nor  capable  of  improvement ;  and 
fitted,  if  obeyed,  to  make  earth  indeed  a  Paradise,  and  man  only  a 
little  lower  than  the  angels.  The  worthlessness  of  ceremonial 
observances,  and  the  necessity  of  active  virtue ;  the  enforcement 
of  purity  of  heart  as  the  security  for  purity  of  life,  and  of  the 
government  of  the  thoughts,  as  the  originators  and  forerunners  of 
action ;  universal  philanthropy,  requiring  us  to  love  all  men,  and 
to  do  unto  others  that  and  that  only  which  we  should  think  it 
right,  just,  and  generous  for  them  to  do  unto  us;  forgiveness  of 
injuries ;  the  necessity  of  self-sacrifice  in  the  discharge  of  duty ; 
humility ;  genuine  sincerity,  and  being  that  which  we  seem  to  be ; 
all  these  sublime  precepts  need  no  miracle,  no  voice  from  the 
clouds,  to  recommend  them  to  our  allegiance,  or  to  assure  us  of 
their  divine  origin.  They  command  obedience  by  virtue  of  their 
inherent  rectitude  and  beauty ;  and  have  been,  and  are,  and  will 
be  the  law  in  every  age  and  every  country  of  the  world.  God 
revealed  them  to  man  in  the  beginning. 

To  the  Mason,  God  is  our  Father  in  Heaven,  to  be  Whose  especial 
children  is  the  sufficient  reward  of  the  peacemakers,  to  see  Whose 
face  the  highest  hope  of  the  pure  in  heart ;  Who  is  ever  at  hand  to 
strengthen  His  true  worshippers  ;  to  Whom  our  most  fervent  love  is 
due,  our  most  humble  and  patient  submission  ;  Whose  most  accept- 
able worship  is  a  pure  and  pitying  heart  and  a  beneficent  life ;  in 
Whose  constant  presence  we  live  and  act,  to  Wrhose  merciful  dispo- 
sal we  are  resigned  by  that  death  which,  we  hope  and  believe,  is 
but  the  entrance  to  a  better  life ;  and  Whose  wise  decrees  forbid  a 
man  to  lap  his  soul  in  an  elyseum  of  mere  indolent  content. 

As  to  our  feelings  toward  Him  and  our  conduct  toward  man, 
Masonry  teaches  little  about  which  men  can  differ,  and  little  from 
which  they  can  dissent.  He  is  our  Father ;  and  we  are  all  breth- 
ren. This  much  lies  open  to  the  most  ignorant  and  busy,  as  fully 
as  to  those  who  have  most  leisure  and  are  most  learned.  This 
needs  no  Priest  to  teach  it,  and  no  authority  to  indorse  it :  and  if 


228  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

every  man  did  that  only  which  is  consistent  with  it,  it  would  exile 
barbarity,  cruelty,  intolerance,  uncharitableness,  perfidy,  treachery, 
revenge,  selfishness,  and  all  their  kindred  vices  and  bad  passions 
beyond  the  confines  of  the  world. 

The  true  Mason,  sincerely  holding  that  a  Supreme  God  created 
and  governs  this  world,  believes  also  that  He  governs  it  by  laws, 
which,  though  wise,  just,  and  beneficent,  are  yet  steady,  unwaver- 
ing, inexorable.  He  believes  that  his  agonies  and  sorrows  are  or- 
dained for  his  chastening,  his  strengthening,  his  elaboration  and 
development ;  because  they  are  the  necessary  results  of  the  opera- 
tion of  laws,  the  best  that  could  be  devised  for  the  happiness  and 
purification  of  the  species,  and  to  give  occasion  and  opportunity 
for  the  practice  of  all  the  virtues,  from  the  homeliest  and  most 
common,  to  the  noblest  and  most  sublime ;  or  perhaps  not  even 
that,  but  the  best  adapted  to  work  out  the  vast,  awful,  glorious, 
eternal  designs  of  the  Great  Spirit  of  the  Universe.  He  believes 
that  the  ordained  operations  of  nature,  which  have  brought  misery 
to  him,  have,  from  the  very  unswerving  tranquillity  of  their  ca- 
reer, showered  blessings  and  sunshine  upon  many  another  path  ; 
that  the  unrelenting  chariot  of  Time,  which  has  crushed  or  maimed 
him  in  its  allotted  course,  is  pressing  onward  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  those  serene  and  mighty  purposes,  to  have  contributed  to 
which,  even  as  a  victim,  is  an  honor  and  a  recompense.  He  takes 
this  view  of  Time  and  Nature  and  God,  and  yet  bears  his  lot  with- 
out murmur  or  distrust;  because  it  is  a  portion  of  a  system,  the 
best  possible,  because  ordained  by  God.  He  does  not  believe  that 
God  loses  sight  of  him,  while  superintending  the  march  of  the 
great  harmonies  of  the  Universe ;  nor  that  it  was  not  foreseen, 
when  the  Universe  was  created,  its  laws  enacted,  and  the  long  suc- 
cession of  its  operations  pre-ordained,  that  in  the  great  march  of 
those  events,  he  would  suffer  pain  and  undergo  calamity.  He  be- 
lieves that  his  individual  good  entered  into  God's  consideration,  as 
well  as  the  great  cardinal  results  to  which  the  course  of  all  things 
is  tending. 

Thus  believing,  he  has  attained  an  eminence  in  virtue,  the  high- 
est, amid  passive  excellence,  which  humanity  can  reach.  He  finds 
his  reward  and  his  support  in  the  reflection  that  he  is  an  unreluc- 
tant  and  self-sacrificing  co-operator  with  the  Creator  of  the  Uni- 
verse ;  and  in  the  noble  consciousness  of  being  worthy  and  capable 
of  so  sublime  a  conception,  yet  so  sad  a  destiny.  He  is  then  truly 


GRAND  ELECT,   PERFECT,   AND  SUBLIME   MASON.  229 

entitled  to  be  called  a  Grand  Elect,  Perfect,  and  Sublime  Mason. 
He  is  content  to  fall  early  in  the  battle,  if  his  body  may  but  form 
a  stepping-stone  for  the  future  conquests  of  humanity. 

It  cannot  be  that  God,  Who,  we  are  certain,  is  perfectly  good,  can 
choose  us  to  suffer  pain,  unless  either  we  are  ourselves  to  receive 
from  it  an  antidote  to  what  is  evil  in  ourselves,  or  else  as  such  pain 
is  a  necessary  part  in  the  scheme  of  the  Universe,  which  as  a  whole 
is  good.  In  either  case,  the  Mason  receives  it  with  submission. 
He  would  not  suffer  unless  it  was  ordered  so.  Whatever  his  creed, 
if  he  believes  that  God  is,  and  that  He  cares  for  His  creatures,  he 
cannot  doubt  that;  nor  that  it  would  not  have  been  so  ordered, 
unless  it  was  either  better  for  himself,  or  for  some  other  persons, 
or  for  some  things.  To  complain  and  lament  is  to  murmur  against 
God's  will,  and  worse  than  unbelief. 

The  Mason,  whose  mind  is  cast  in  a  nobler  mould  than  those  of 
the  ignorant  and  unreflecting,  and  is  instinct  with  a  diviner  life, — 
who  loves  truth  more  than  rest,  and  the  peace  of  Heaven  rather 
than  the  peace  of  Eden, — to  whom  a  loftier  being  brings  severer 
cares, — who  knows  that  man  does  not  live  by  pleasure  or  content 
alone,  but  by  the  presence  of  the  power  of  God, — must  cast  be- 
hind him  the  hope  of  any  other  repose  or  tranquillity,  than  that 
which  is  the  last  reward  of  long  agonies  of  thought ;  he  must  re- 
linquish all  prospect  of  any  Heaven  save  that  of  which  trouble  is 
the  avenue  and  portal ;  he  must  gird  up  his  loins,  and  trim  his 
lamp,  for  a  work  that  must  be  done,  and  must  not  be  negligently 
done.  If  he  does  not  like  to  live  in  the  furnished  lodgings  of  tra- 
dition, he  must  build  his  own  house,  his  own  system  of  faith  and 
thought,  for  himself. 

The  hope  of  success,  and  not  the  hope  of  reward,  should  be  our 
stimulating  and  sustaining  power.  Our  object,  and  not  ourselves, 
should  be  our  inspiring  thought.  Selfishness  is  a  sin,  when  tem- 
porary, and  for  time.  Spun  out  to  eternity,  it  does  not  become 
celestial  prudence.  We  should  toil  and  die,  not  for  Heaven  or 
Bliss,  but  for  Duty. 

In  the  more  frequent  cases,  where  we  have  to  join  our  efforts  to 
those  of  thousands  of  others,  to  contribute  to  the  carrying  forward 
of  a  great  cause ;  merely  to  till  the  ground  or  sow  the  seed  for  a 
very  distant  harvest,  or  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  future  advent 
of  some  great  amendment;  the  amount  which  each  one  contrib- 
utes to  the  achievement  of  ultimate  success,  the  portion  of  the 


230  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

price  which  justice  should  assign  to  each  as  his  especial  produc- 
tion, can  never  be  accurately  ascertained.  Perhaps  few  of  those 
who  have  ever  labored,  in  the  patience  of  secrecy  and  silence,  to 
bring  about  some  political  or  social  change,  which  they  felt  con- 
vinced would  ultimately  prove  of  vast  service  to  humanity,  lived 
to  see  the  change  effected,  or  the  anticipated  good  flow  from  it. 
Fewer  still  of  them  were  able  to  pronounce  what  appreciable 
weight  their  several  efforts  contributed  to  the  achievement  of  the 
change  desired.  Many  will  doubt,  whether,  in  truth,  these  exer- 
tions have  any  influence  whatever;  and,  discouraged,  cease  all 
active  effort. 

Not  to  be  thus  discouraged,  the  Mason  must  labor  to  elevate 
and  purify  his  motives,  as  well  as  sedulously  cherish  the  convic- 
tion, assuredly  a  true  one,  that  m  this  world  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  effort  thrown  away;  that  in  all  labor  there  is  profit;  that  all 
sincere  exertion,  in  a  righteous  and  unselfish  cause,  is  necessarily 
followed,  in  spite  of  all  appearance  to  the  contrary,  by  an  appro- 
priate and  proportionate  success ;  that  no  bread  cast  upon  the 
waters  can  be  wholly  lost ;  that  no  seed  planted  in  the  ground  can 
fail  to  quicken  in  due  time  and  measure ;  and  that,  however  we 
may,  in  moments  of  despondency,  be  apt  to  doubt,  not  only 
whether  our  cause  will  triumph,  but  whether,  if  it  does,  we  shall 
have  contributed  to  its  triumph, — there  is  One,  Who  has  not 
only  seen  every  exertion  we  have  made,  but  Who  can  assign 
the  exact  degree  in  which  each  soldier  has  assisted  to  gain  the 
great  victory  over  social  evil.  No  good  work  is  done  wholly  in 
vain. 

The  Grand  Elect,  Perfect,  and  Sublime  Mason  will  in  nowise 
deserve  that  honorable  title,  if  he  has.  not  that  strength,  that  will, 
that  self-sustaining  energy ;  that  Faith,  that  feeds  upon  no  earthly 
hope,  nor  ever  thinks  of  victory,  but,  content  in  its  own  consum- 
mation, combats  because  it  ought  to  combat,  rejoicing  fights,  and 
still  rejoicing  falls. 

The  Augean  Stables  of  the  World,  the  accumulated  uncleanness 
and  misery  of  centuries,  require  a  mighty  river  to  cleanse  them 
thoroughly  away ;  every  drop  we  contribute  aids  to  swell  that 
river  and  augment  its  force,  in  a  degree  appreciable  by  God, 
though  not  by  man ;  and  he  whose  zeal  is  deep  and  earnest,  will 
not  be  over-anxious  that  his  individual  drops  should  be  distin- 
guishable amid  the  mighty  mass  of  cleansing  and  fertilizing  wa- 


GRAND  ELECT,   PERFECT,  AND  SUBLIME   MASON.  231 

ters;  far  less  that,  for  the  sake  of  distinction,  it  should  flow  in 
ineffective  singleness  away. 

The  true  Mason  will  not  be  careful  that  his  name  should  be 
inscribed  upon  the  mite  which  he  casts  into  the  treasury  of  God. 
It  suffices  him  to  know  that  if  he  has  labored,  with  purity  of  pur- 
pose, in  any  good  cause,  he  must  have  contributed  to  its  success; 
that  the  degree  in  which  he  has  contributed  is  a  matter  of  infi- 
nitely small  concern ;  and  still  more,  that  the  consciousness  of 
having  so  contributed,  however  obscurely  and  unnoticed,  is  h: , 
sufficient,  even  if  it  be  his  sole,  reward.  Let  every  Grand  Elect, 
Perfect,  and  Sublime  Mason  cherish  this  faith.  It  is  a  duty.  It 
is  the  brilliant  and  never-dying  light  that  shines  within  and 
through  the  symbolic  pedestal  of  alabaster,  on  which  reposes  the 
perfect  cube  of  agate,  symbol  of  duty,  inscribed  with  the  divine 
name  of  God.  He  who  industriously  sows  and  reaps  is  a  good 
laborer,  and  worthy  of  his  hire.  But  he  who  sows  that  which 
shall  be  reaped  by  others,  by  those  who  will  know  not  of  and  care 
not  for  the  sower,  is  a  laborer  of  a  nobler  order,  and  worthy  of  a 
more  excellent  reward. 

The  Mason  does  not  exhort  others  to  an  ascetic  undervaluing 
of  this  life,  as  an  insignificant  and  unworthy  portion  of  existence; 
for  that  demands  feelings  which  are  unnatural,  and  which,  there- 
fore, if  attained,  must  be  morbid,  and  if  merely  professed,  insin- 
cere; and  teaches  us  to  look  rather  to  a  future  life  for  the  com- 
pensation of  social  evils,  than  to  this  life  for  their  cure ;  and  so 
does  injury  to  the  cause  of  virtue  and  to  that  of  social  progress. 
Life  is  real,  and  is  earnest,  and  it  is  full  of  duties  to  be  performed. 
It  is  the  beginning  of  our  immortality.  Those  only  who  feel  a 
deep  interest  and  affection  for  this  world  will  work  resolutely  for 
its  amelioration  ;  those  whose  affections  are  transferred  to  Heaven, 
easily  acquiesce  in  the  miseries  of  earth,  deeming  them  hopeless, 
befitting,  and  ordained ;  and  console  themselves  with  the  idea  of 
the  amends  which  are  one  day  to  be  theirs.  It  is  a  sad  truth,  that 
those  most  decidedly  given  to  spiritual  contemplation,  and  to 
making  religion  rule  in  their  hearts,  are  often  most  apathetic  tow- 
ard all  improvement  of  this  world's  systems,  and  in  many  cases 
virtual  conservatives  of  evil,  and  hostile  to  political  and  social  re- 
form, as  diverting  men's  energies  from  eternity. 

The  Mason  does  not  war  with  his  own  instincts,  macerate  the 
body  into  weakness  and  disorder,  and  disparage  what  he  sees  to  be 


232 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


beautiful,  knows  to  be  wonderful,  and  feels  to  be  unspeakably 
dear  and  fascinating.  He  does  not  put  aside  the  nature  which 
God  has  given  him,  to  struggle  after  one  which  He  has  not  be- 
stowed. He  knows  that  man  is  sent  into  the  world,  not  a  spir- 
itual, but  a  composite  being,  made  up  of  body  and  mind,  the  body 
having,  as  is  fit  and  needful  in  a  material  world,  its  full,  rightful, 
and  allotted  share.  His  life  is  guided  by  a  full  recognition  of  this 
fact.  He  does  not  deny  it  in  bold  words,  and  admit  it  in  weak- 
nesses and  inevitable  failings.  He  believes  that  his  spirituality 
will  come  in  the  next  stage  of  his  being,  when  he  puts  on  the  spir- 
itual body ;  that  his  body  will  be  dropped  at  death ;  and  that,  until 
then,  God  meant  it  to  be  commanded  and  controlled,  but  not  neg- 
lected, despised,  or  ignored  by  the  soul,  under  pain  of  heavy  con- 
sequences. 

Yet  the  Mason  is  not  indifferent  as  to  the  fate  of  the  soul,  after 
its  present  life,  as  to  its  continued  and  eternal  being,  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  scenes  in  which  that  being  will  be  fully  developed. 
These  are  to  him  topics  of  the  profoundest  interest,  and  the  most 
ennobling  and  refining  contemplation.  They  occupy  much  of  his 
leisure ;  and  as  he  becomes  familiar  \vith  the  sorrows  and  calami- 
ties of  this  life,  as  his  hopes  are  disappointed  and  his  visions  of 
happiness  here  fade  away ;  when  life  has  wearied  him  in  its 
race  of  hours;  when  he  is  harassed  and  toil-worn,  and  the  bur- 
den of  his  years  weighs  heavy  on  him,  the  balance  of  attraction 
gradually  inclines  in  favor  of  another  life;  and  he  clings  to  his 
lofty  speculations  with  a  tenacity  of  interest  which  needs  no  in- 
junction, and  will  listen  to  no  prohibition.  They  are  the  consol- 
ing privilege  of  the  aspiring,  the  wayworn,  the  weary,  and  the  be- 
reaved. 

To  him  the  contemplation  of  the  Future  lets  in  light  upon  the 
Present,  and  develops  the  higher  portions  of  his  nature.  He  en- 
deavors rightly  to  adjust  the  respective  claims  of  Heaven  and  earth 
upon  his  time  and  thought,  so  as  to  give  the  proper  proportions 
thereof  to  performing  the  duties  and  entering  into  the  interests 
of  this  world,  and  to  preparation  for  a  better ;  to  the  cultivation 
and  purification  of  his  own  character,  and  to  the  public  service  of 
his  fellow-men. 

The  Mason  does  not  dogmatize,  but  entertaining  and  uttering 
his  own  convictions,  he  leaves  every  one  else  free  to  do  the  same ; 
and  only  hopes  that  the  time  will  come,  even  if  after  the  lapse  of 


GRAND  ELECT,  PERFECT,  AND  SUBLIME  MASON.  233 

ages,  when  all  men  shall  form  one  great  family  of  brethren,  and 
one  law  alone,  the  law  of  love,  shall  govern  God's  whole  Uni- 
verse. 

Believe  as  you  may,  my  brother;  if  the  Universe  is  not,  to  you, 
without  a  God,  and  if  man  is  not  like  the  beast  that  perishes,  but 
hath  an  immortal  soul,  we  welcome  you  among  us,  to  wear,  as  we 
wear,  with  humility,  and  conscious  of  your  demerits  and  short- 
comings, the  title  of  Grand  Elect,  Perfect,  and  Sublime  Mason. 

It  was  not  without  a  secret  meaning,  that  twelve  was  the  num- 
ber of  the  Apostles  of  Christ, and  scvcnty-tivo  that  of  his  Disciples  : 
that  John  addressed  his  rebukes  and  menaces  to  the  Seven 
churches,  the  number  of  the  Archangels  and  the  Planets.  At 
Babylon  were  the  Seven  Stages  of  Bersippa,  a  pyramid  of  Seven 
stories,  and  at  Ecbatana  Seven  concentric  inclosures,  each  of  a 
different  color.  Thebes  also  had  Seven  gates,  and  the  same  number 
is  repeated  again  and  again  in  the  account  of  the  flood.  The 
Sephiroth,  or  Emanations,  ten  in  number,  three  in  one  class,  and 
seven  in  the  other,  repeat  the  mystic  numbers  of  Pythagoras. 
Seven  Amschaspands  or  planetary  spirits  were  invoked  with 
Ormuzd :  Seven  inferior  Rishis  of  Hindustan  were  saved  with  the 
head  of  their  family  in  an  ark:  and  Seven  ancient  personages 
alone  returned  with  the  British  just  man,  Hu,  from  the  dale  of 
the  grievous  waters.  There  were  Seven  Heliadse,  whose  father 
Helias,  or  the  Sun,  once  crossed  the  sea  in  a  golden  cup ;  Seven 
Titans,  children  of  the  older  Titan,  Kronos  or  Saturn ;  Seven 
Corybantes ;  and  Seven  Cabiri,  sons  of  Sydyk ;  Seven  primeval 
Celestial  spirits  of  the  Japanese,  and  Seven  Karfesters  who 
escaped  from  the  deluge  and  began  to  be  the  parents  of  a  new 
race,  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Albordi.  Seven  Cyclopes,  also, 
built  the  walls  of  Tiryus. 

Celsus,  as  quoted  by  Origen,  tells  us  that  the  Persians  repre- 
sented by  symbols  the  two-fold  motion  of  the  stars,  fixed  and 
planetary,  and  the  passage  of  the  Soul  through  their  successive 
spheres.  They  erected  in  their  holy  caves,  in  which  the  mystic 
rites  of  the  Mithriac  Initiations  were  practised,  what  he  denom- 
inates a  high  ladder,  on  the  Seven  steps  of  which  were  Seven 
gates  or  portals,  according  to  the  number  of  the  Seven  principal 
heavenly  bodies.  Through  these  the  aspirants  passed,  until  they 
reached  the  summit  of  the  whole :  and  this  passage  was  styled  a 
transmigration  through  the  spheres. 
16 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Jacob  saw  in  his  dream  a  ladder  planted  or  set  on  the  earth, 
and  its  top  reaching  to  Heaven,  and  the  Malaki  Alohim  ascending 
and  descending-  on  it,  and  above  it  stood  IHUH,  declaring  Himself 
to  be  Ihuh-Alhi  Abraham.  The  word  translated  ladder,  is  C-^D 
Salam,  from  ^>D,  Salal,  raised,  elevated,  reared  up,  exalted,  piled 
up  into  a  heap,  Aggeravit.  nbbn  Salalah,  means  a  heap,  rampart, 
or  other  accumulation  of  earth  or  stone,  artificially  made;  and 
]jbn,  Salaa  or  Sato,  is  a  rock  or  cliff  or  boulder,  and  the  name  of 
the  city  of  Petra.  There  is  no  ancient  Hebrew  word  to  designate 
a  pyramid. 

The  symbolic  mountain  Meru  was  ascended  by  Seven  steps  or 
stages ;  and  all  the  pyramids  and  artificial  tumuli  and  hillocks 
thrown  up  in  flat  countries  were  imitations  of  this  fabulous  and 
mystic  mountain,  for  purposes  of  worship.  These  were  the  "High 
Places"  so  often  mentioned  in  the  Hebrew  books,  on  which  the 
idolaters  sacrificed  to  foreign  gods. 

The  pyramids  were  sometimes  square,  and  sometimes  round. 
The  sacred  Babylonian  tower  [^13D,  Magdol],  dedicated  to  the 
great  Father  Bal,  was  an  artificial  hill,  of  pyramidal  shape,  and 
Seven  stages,  built  of  brick,  and  each  stage  of  a  different  color, 
representing  the  Seven  planetary  spheres  by  the  appropriate  color 
of  each  planet.  Meru  itself  was  said  to  be  a  single  mountain,  ter- 
minating in  three  peaks,  and  thus  a  symbol  of  the  Trimurti.  The 
great  Pagoda  at  Tan j ore  was  of  six  stories,  surmounted  by  a  tem- 
ple as  the  seventh,  and  on  this  three  spires  or  towers.  An  ancient 
pagoda  at  Deogur  was  surmounted  by  a  tower,  sustaining  the 
mystic  egg  and  a  trident.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  Temple  of 
Bal  at  Babylon  was  a  tower  composed  of  Seven  towers,  resting  on 
an  eighth  that  served  as  basis,  and  successively  diminishing  in 
size  from  the  bottom  to  the  top ;  and  Strabo  tells  us  it  was  a  pyr- 
amid. 

Faber  thinks  that  the  Mithriac  ladder  was  really  a  pyramid  with 
Seven  stages,  each  provided  with  a  narrow  door  or  aperture, 
through  each  of  which  doors  the  aspirant  passed,  to  reach  the 
summit,  and  then  descended  through  similar  doors  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  pyramid ;  the  ascent  and  descent  of  the  Soul  being 
thus  represented. 

Each  Mithriac  cave  and  all  the  most  ancient  temples  we're  in- 
tended to  symbolize  the  Universe,  which  itself  was  habitually 
called  the  Temple  and  habitation  of  Deity.  Every  temple  was 


GRAND  ELECT,  PERFECT,  AND  SUBLIME  MASON.  235 

the  world  in  miniature ;  and  so  the  whole  world  was  one  grand 
temple.  The  most  ancient  temples  were  roofless ;  and  therefore 
the  Persians,  Celts,  and  Scythians  strongly  disliked  artificial  cov- 
ered edifices.  Cicero  says  that  Xerxes  burned  the  Grecian  tem- 
ples, on  the  express  ground  that  the  whole  world  was  the  Magnifi- 
cent Temple  and  Habitation  of  the  Supreme  Deity.  Macrobius 
says  that  the  entire  Universe  was  judiciously  deemed  by  many  the 
Temple  of  God.  Plato  pronounced  the  real  Temple  of  the  Deity 
to  be  the  world ;  and  Heraclitus  declared  that  the  Universe,  varie- 
gated with  animals  and  plants  and  stars  was  the  only  genuine 
Temple  of  the  Divinity. 

How  completely  the  Temple  of  Solomon  was  symbolic,  is 
manifest,  not  only  from  the  continual  reproduction  in  it  of 
the  sacred  numbers  and  of  astrological  symbols  in  the  histor- 
ical descriptions  of  it;  but  also,  and  yet  more,  from  the  de- 
tails of  the  imaginary  reconstructed  edifice,  seen  by  Ezechiel 
in  his  vision.  The  Apocalypse  completes  the  demonstration, 
and  shows  the  kabalistic  meanings  of  the  whole.  The  Sym- 
bola  Architectonica  are  found  on  the  most  ancient  edifices ; 
and  these  mathematical  figures  and  instruments,  adopted  by 
the  Templars,  and  identical  with  those  on  the  gnostic  seals  and 
abraxae,  connect  their  dogma  with  the  Chaldaic,  Syriac,  and 
Egyptian  Oriental  philosophy.  The  secret  Pythagorean  doc- 
trines of  numbers  were  preserved  by  the  monks  of  Thibet,  by 
the  Hierophants  of  Egypt  and  Eleusis,  at  Jerusalem,  and  in 
the  circular  Chapters  of  the  Druids ;  and  they  are  especially 
consecrated  in  that  mysterious  book,  the  Apocalypse  of  Saint 
John. 

All  temples  were  surrounded  by  pillars,  recording  the  number 
of  the  constellations,  the  signs  of  the  zodiac,  or  the  cycles  of  the 
planets ;  and  each  was  a  microcosm  or  symbol  of  the  Universe, 
having  for  roof  or  ceiling  the  starred  vault  of  Heaven. 

All  temples  were  originally  open  at  the  top,  having  for  roof  the 
sky.  Twelve  pillars  described  the  belt  of  the  zodiac.  Whatever 
the  number  of  the  pillars,  they  were  mystical  everywhere.  At 
Abury,  the  Druidic  temple  reproduced  all  the  cycles  by  its  col- 
umns. Around  the  temples  of  Chilminar  in  Persia,  of  Raalbec, 
and  of  Tukhti  Schlomoh  in  Tartary,  on  the  frontier  of  China, 
stood  forty  pillars.  On  each  side  of  the  temple  at  Psestum  were 
fourteen,  recording  the  Egyptian  cycle  of  the  dark  and  light  sides 


-'36 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


of  the  moon,  as  described  by  Plutarch;  the  whole  thirty-eight 
that  surrounded  them  recording  the  two  meteoric  cycles  so  often 
found  in  the  Druidic  temples. 

The  theatre  built  by  Scaurus,  in  Greece,  was  surrounded  by 
360  columns ;  the  Temple  at  Mecca,  and  that  at  lona  in  Scotland, 
by  360  stones. 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER  OF  ROSE  CROIX. 


XV. 

KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  OR  OF  THE 
SWORD. 

[Knight  of  the  East,  of  the  Sword,  or  of  the  Eagle.] 

THIS  Degree,  like  all  others  in  Masonry,  is  symbolical.  Based 
upon  historical  truth  and  authentic  tradition,  it  is  still  an  alle- 
gory. The  leading  lesson  of  this  Degree  is  Fidelity  to  obligation, 
and  Constancy  and  Perseverance  under  difficulties  and  discour- 
agement. 

Masonry  is  engaged  in  her  crusade, — against  ignorance,  intoler- 
ance, fanaticism,  superstition,  uncharitableness,  and  error.  She 
does  not  sail  with  the  trade-winds,  upon  a  smooth  sea,  with  a 
steady  free  breeze,  fair  for  a  welcoming  harbor ;  but  meets  and 
must  overcome  many  opposing  currents,  baffling  winds,  and  dead 
calms. 

The  chief  obstacles  to  her  success  are  the  apathy  and  faithless- 
ness of  her  own  selfish  children,  and  the  supine  indifference  of 
the  world.  Tn  the  roar  and  crush  and  hurry  of  life  and  business, 
and  the  tumult  and  uproar  of  politics,  the  quiet  voice  of  Masonry 
is  unheard  and  unheeded.  The  first  lesson  which  one  learns,  who 
engages  in  any  great  work  of  reform  or  beneficence,  is,  that  men 
are  essentially  careless,  lukewarm,  and  indifferent  as  to  every- 
thing that  does  not  concern  their  own  personal  and  immediate 

23? 


238  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

welfare.  It  is  to  single  men,  and  not  to  the  united  efforts  of 
many,  that  all  the  great  works  of  man,  struggling  toward  perfec- 
tion, are  owing.  The  enthusiast,  who  imagines  that  he  can  in- 
spire with  his  own  enthusiasm  the  multitude  that  eddies  around 
'him,  or  even  the  few  who  have  associated  themselves  with  him  as 
co-workers,  is  grievously  mistaken ;  and  most  often  the  conviction 
of  his  own  mistake  is  followed  by  discouragement  and  disgust. 
To  do  all,  to  pay  all,  and  to  suffer  all,  and  then,  when  despite  all 
obstacles  and  hindrances,  success  is  accomplished,  and  a  great 
work  done,  to  see  those  who  opposed  or  looked  coldly  on  it,  claim 
and  reap  all  the  praise  and  reward,  is  the  common  and  almost  uni- 
versal lot  of  the  benefactor  of  his  kind. 

He  who  endeavors  to  serve,  to  benefit,  and  improve  the  world, 
is  like  a  swimmer,  who  struggles  against  a  rapid  current,  in  a  river 
lashed  into  angry  waves  by  the  winds.  Often  they  roar  over  his 
head,  often  they  beat  him  back  and  baffle  him.  Most  men  yield 
to  the  stress  of  the  current,  and  float  with  it  to  the  shore,  or  are 
swept  over  the  rapids ;  and  only  here  and  there  the  stout,  strong 
heart  and  vigorous  arms  struggle  on  toward  ultimate  success. 

It  is  the  motionless  and  stationary  that  most  frets  and  impedes 
the  current  of  progress ;  the  solid  rock  or  stupid  dead  tree,  rested 
firmly  on  the  bottom,  and  around  which  the  river  whirls  and 
eddies :  the  Masons  that  doubt  and  hesitate  and  are  discouraged ; 
that  disbelieve  in  the  capability  of  man  to  improve;  that  are  not 
disposed  to  toil  and  labor  for  the  interest  and  well-being  of  gen- 
eral humanity ;  that  expect  others  to  do  all,  even  of  that  which 
they  do  not  oppose  or  ridicule;  while  they  sit,  applauding  and 
doing  nothing,  or  perhaps  prognosticating  failure. 

There  were  many  such  at  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple.  There 
were  prophets  of  evil  and  misfortune — the  lukewarm  and  the  in- 
different and  the  apathetic ;  those  who  stood  by  and.  sneered ;  and 
those  who  thought  they  did  God  service  enough  if  they  now  and 
then  faintly  applauded.  There  were  ravens  croaking  ill  omen, 
and  murmurers  who  preached  the  folly  and  futility  of  the  attempt. 
The  world  is  made  up  of  such;  and  they  were  as  abundant  then 
as  they  are  now. 

But  gloomy  and  discouraging  as  was  the  prospect,  with  luke- 
warmness  within  and  bitter  opposition  without,  our  ancient  breth- 
ren persevered.  Let  us  leave  them  engaged  in  the  good  work, 
and  whenever  to  us,  as  to  them,  success  is  uncertain,  remote,  and 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  OR  OF  THE  SWORD.  239 

contingent,  let  us  still  remember  that  the  only  question  for  us  to 
ask,  as  true  men  and  Masons,  is,  what  does  duty  require ;  and  not 
what  will  be  the  result  and  our  reward  if  we  do  our  duty.  Work 
on,  with  the  Sword  in  one  hand,  and  the  Trowel  in  the  other ! 

Masonry  teaches  that  God  is  a  Paternal  Being,  and  has  an  in- 
terest in  his  creatures,  such  as  is  expressed  in  the  title  Father;  an 
interest  unknown  to  all  the  systems  of  Paganism,  untaught  in  all 
the  theories  of  philosophy ;  an  interest  not  only  in  the  glorious 
beings  of  other  spheres,  the  Sons  of  Light,  the  dwellers  in  Heav- 
enly worlds,  but  in  us,  poor,  ignorant,  and  unworthy;  that  He 
has  pity  for  the  erring,  pardon  for  the  guilty,  love  for  the  pure, 
knowledge  for  the  humble,  and  promises  of  immortal  life  for 
those  who  trust  in  and  obey  Him. 

Without  a  belief  in  Him,  life  is  miserable,  the  world  is  dark,  the 
Universe  disrobed  of  its  splendors,  the  intellectual  tie  to  nature 
broken,  the  charm  of  existence  dissolved,  the  great  hope  of  being 
lost;  and  the  mind,  like  a  star  struck  from  its  sphere,  wanders 
through  the  infinite  desert  of  its  conceptions,  without  attraction, 
tendency,  destiny,  or  end. 

Masonry  teaches,  that,  of  all  the  events  and  actions,  that  take 
place  in  the  universe  of  worlds  and  the  eternal  succession  of  ages, 
there  is  not  one,  even  the  minutest,  which  God  did  not  forever 
foresee,  with  all  the  distinctness  of  immediate  vision,  combining 
all,  so  that  man's  free  will  should  be  His  instrument,  like  all  the 
other  forces  of  nature. 

It  teaches  that  the  soul  of  man  is  formed  by  Him  for  a  pur- 
pose ;  that,  built  up  in  its  proportions,  and  fashioned  in  every 
part,  by  infinite  skill,  an  emanation  from  His  spirit,  its  nature, 
necessity,  and  design  are  virtue.  It  is  so  formed,  so  moulded,  so 
fashioned,  so  exactly  balanced,  so  exquisitely  proportioned  in  every 
part,  that  sin  introduced  into  it  is  misery ;  that  vicious  thoughts 
fall  upon  it  like  drops  of  poison ;  and  guilty  desires,  breathing  on 
its  delicate  fibres,  make  plague-spots  there,  deadly  as  those  of  pes- 
tilence upon  the  body.  It  is  made  for  virtue,  and  not  for  vice ; 
for  purity,  as  its  end,  rest,  and  happiness.  Not  more  vainly  would 
we  attempt  to  make  the  mountain  sink  to  the  level  of  the  valley, 
the  waves  of  the  angry  sea  turn  back  from  its  shores  and  cease  to 
thunder  upon  the  beach,  the  stars  to  halt  in  their  swift  courses, 
than  to  change  any  one  law  of  our  own  nature.  And  one  of  those 
laws,  uttered  by  God's  voice,  and  speaking  through  every  nerve 


240  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  fibre,  every  force  and  element,  of  the  moral  constitution  He 
has  given  us,  is  that  we  must  be  upright  and  virtuous ;  that  if 
tempted  we  must  resist ;  that  we  must  govern  our  unruly  pas- 
sions, and  hold  in  hand  our  sensual  appetites.  And  this  is  hot  the 
dictate  of  an  arbitrary  will,  nor  of  some  stern  and  impracticable 
law;  but  it  is  part  of  the  great  firm  law  of  harmony  that  binds 
the  Universe  together :  not  the  mere  enactment  of  arbitrary  will ; 
but  the  dictate  of  Infinite  Wisdom. 

We  know  that  God  is  good,  and  that  what  He  does  is  right. 
This  known,  the  works  of  creation,  the  changes  of  life,  the  desti- 
nies of  eternity,  are  all  spread  before  us.  as  the  dispensations  and 
counsels  of  infinite  love.  This  known,  we  then  know  that  the 
love  of  God  is  working  to  issues,  like  itself,  beyond  all  thought 
and  imagination  good  and  glorious ;  and  that  the  only  reason 
why  we  do  not  understand  it,  is  that  it  is  too  glorious  for  us  to  un- 
derstand. God's  love  takes  care  for  all,  and  nothing  is  neglected. 
It  watches  over  all,  provides  for  all,  makes  wise  adaptations  for 
all ;  for  age,  for  infancy,  for  maturity,  for  childhood ;  in  every 
scene  of  this  or  another  world ;  for  want,  weakness,  joy,  sorrow, 
and  even  for  sin.  All  is  good  and  well  and  right ;  and  shall  be  so 
forever.  Through  the  eternal  ages  the  light  of  God's  beneficence 
shall  shine  hereafter,  disclosing  all,  consummating  all,  rewarding 
all  that  deserve  reward.  Then  we  shall  see,  what  now  we  can  only 
believe.  The  cloud  will  be  lifted  up,  the  gate  of  mystery  be 
passed,  and  the  full  light  shine  forever ;  the  light  of  which  that 
of  the  Lodge  is  a  symbol.  Then  that  which  caused  us  trial  shall 
yield  us  triumph ;  and  that  which  made  our  heart  ache  shall  fill 
us  with  gladness;  and  we  shall  then  feel  that  there,  as  here,  the 
only  true  happiness  is  to  learn,  to  advance,  and  to  improve ;  which 
could  not  happen  unless  we  had  commenced  with  error,  ignorance, 
and  imperfection.  WTe  must  pass  through  the  darkness,  to  reach 
the  light. 


XVI. 
PRINCE  OF  JERUSALEM. 

WE  no  longer  expect  to  rebuild  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  To 
us  it  has  become  but  a  symbol.  To  us  the  whole  world  is  God's 
Temple,  as  is  every  upright  heart.  To  establish  all  over  the  world 
the  New  Law  and  Reign  of  Love,  Peace,  Charity,  and  Toleration, 
is  to  build  that  Temple,  most  acceptable  to  God,  in  erecting  which 
Masonry  is  now  engaged.  No  longer  needing  to  repair  to  Jerusa- 
lem to  worship,  nor  to  offer  up  sacrifices  and  shed  blood  to  prop* 
tiate  the  Deity,  man  may  make  the  woods  and  mountains  his 
Churches  and  Temples,  and  worship  God  with  a  devout  gratitude, 
and  with  works  of  charity  and  beneficence  to  his  fellow-mer.  Wher- 
ever the  humble  and  contrite  heart  silently  offers  up  its  adoration, 
under  the  overarching  trees,  in  the  open,  level  meadows,  on  the 
hill-side,  in  the  glen,  or  in  the  city's  swarming  streets ;  there  is 
God's  House  and  the  New  Jerusalem. 

The  Princes  of  Jerusalem  no  longer  sit  as  magistrates  to  judge 
between  the  people ;  nor  is  their  number  limited  to  five.  But 
their  duties  still  remain  substantially  the  same,  and  their  insignia 
and  symbols  retain  their  old  significance.  Justice  and  Equity 
are  still  their  characteristics.  To  reconcile  disputes  and  heal  dis- 
sensions, to  restore  amity  and  peace,  to  soothe  dislikes  and  soften 
prejudices,  are  their  peculiar  duties ;  and  they  know  that  the 
peacemakers  are  blessed. 

Their  emblems  have  been  already  explained.  They  are  part  of 
the  language  of  Masonry ;  the  same  now  as  it  was  when  Moses 
learned  it  from  the  Egyptian  Hierophants. 

Still  we  observe  the  spirit  of  the  Divine  law,  as  thus  enunciated 
to  our  ancient  brethren,  when  the  Temple  was  rebuilt,  and  the 
book  of  the  law  again  opened : 

"Execute  true  judgment;  and  show  mercy  and  compassion 
every  man  to  his  brother.  Oppress  not  the  widow  nor  the  father- 
less, the  stranger  nor  the  poor ;  and  let  none  of  you  imagine  evil 
against  his  brother  in  his  heart.  Speak  ye  every  man  the  truth 

241 


242  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

to  his  neighbor;  execute  the  judgment  of  Truth  and  Peace  in 
your  gates ;  and  love  no  false  oath ;  for  all  these  I  hate,  saith  the 
Lord. 

"Let  those  who  have  power  rule  in  righteousness,  and  Princes 
in  judgment.  And  let  him  that  is  a  judge  be  as  an  hiding-place 
from  the  wind,  and  a  covert  from  the  tempest ;  as  rivers  of  water 
in  a  dry  place ;  as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 
Then  the  vile  person  shall  no  more  be  called  liberal;  nor  the 
churl  bountiful;  and  the  work  ~>f  justice  shall  be  peace;  and  the 
effect  of  justice,  quiet  and  security;  and  wisdom  and  knowledge 
shall  be  the  stability  of  the  times.  Walk  ye  righteously  and  speak 
uprightly ;  despise  the  gains  of  oppression,  shake  from  your  hands 
the  contamination  of  bribes ;  stop  not  your  ears  against  the  cries 
of  the  oppressed,  nor  shut  your  eyes  that  you  may  not  see  the 
crimes  of  the  great ;  and  you  shall  dwell  on  high,  and  your  place 
of  defence  be  like  munitions  of  rocks." 

Forget  not  these  precepts  of  the  old  Law ;  and  especially  do 
not  forget,  as  you  advance,  that  every  Mason,  however  humble,  is 
your  brother,  and  the  laboring  man  your  peer !  Remember  always 
that  all  Masonry  is  work,  and  that  the  trowel  is  an  emblem  of  the 
Degrees  in  this  Council.  Labor,  when  rightly  understood,  is  both 
noble  and  ennobling,  and  intended  to  develop  man's  mo'a!  and 
spiritual  nature,  and  not  to  be  deemed  a  disgrace  or  a  misiortune. 

Everything  around  us  is,  in  its  bearings  and  influences,  moral. 
The  serene  and  bright  morning,  when  we  recover  our  conscious 
existence  from  the  embraces  of  sleep;  when,  from  that  image  of 
Death  God  calls  us  to  a  new  life,  and  again  gives  us  existence,  and 
His  mercies  visit  us  in  every  bright  ray  and  glad  thought,  and 
call  for  gratitude  and  content ;  the  silence  of  that  early  dawn,  the 
hushed  silence,  as  it  were,  of  expectation;  the  holy  eventide,  its 
cooling  breeze,  its  lengthening  shadows,  its  falling  shades,  its  still 
and  sober  hour ;  the  sultry  noontide  and  the  stern  and  solemn 
midnight ;  and  Spring-time,  and  chastening  Autumn ;  and  Sum- 
mer, that  unbars  our  gates,  and  carries  us  forth  amidst  the  ever- 
renewed  wonders  of  the  world  ;  and  Winter,  that  gathers  us  around 
the  evening  hearth : — all  these,  as  they  pass,  touch  by  turns  the 
springi;  of  the  spiritual  life  in  us,  and  are  conducting  that  life  to 
good  or  evil.  The  idle  watch-hand  cften  points  to  something 
within  us ;  and  the  shadow7  of  the  gnomon  on  the  dial  often  falls 
upon  the  conscience. 


PRINCE  OF  JERUSALEM.  £43 

A  life  of  labor  is  not  a  state  of  inferiority  or  degradation.  The 
Almighty  has  not  cast  man's  lot  beneath  the  quiet  shades,  and 
amid  glad  groves  and  lovely  hills,  with  no  task  to  perform ;  with 
nothing  to  do  but  to  rise  up  and  eat,  and  to  lie  down  and  rest. 
He  has  ordained  that  Work  shall  be  done,  in  all  the  dwellings  of 
life,  in  every  productive  field,  in'  every  busy  city,  and  on  every 
wave  of  every  ocean.  And  this  He  has  done,  because  it  has 
pleased  Him  to  give  man  a  nature  destined  to  higher  ends  than 
indolent  repose  and  irresponsible  profitless  indulgence ;  and  be- 
cause, for  developing  the  energies  of  such  a  nature,  work  was  the 
necessary  and  proper  element.  We  might  as  well  ask  why  He 
could  not  make  two  and  two  be  six,  as  why  He  could  not  develop 
these  energies  without  the  instrumentality  of  work.  They  are 
equally  impossibilities. 

This,  Masonry  teaches,  as  a  great  Truth ;  a  great  moral  land- 
mark, that  ought  to  guide  the  course  of  all  mankind.  It  teaches 
its  toiling  children  that  the  scene  of  their  daily  life  is  all  spiritual, 
that  the  very  implements  of  their  toil,  the  fabrics  they  weave,  the 
merchandise  they  barter,  are  designed  for  spiritual  ends ;  that  so 
believing,  their  daily  lot  may  be  to  them  a  sphere  for  the  noblest 
improvement.  That  which  we  do  in  our  intervals  of  relaxation, 
our  church-going,  and  our  book-reading,  are  especially  designed  to 
prepare  our  minds  for  the  action  of  Life.  We  are  to  hear  and  read 
and  meditate,  that  we  may  act  well ;  and  the  action  of  Life  is  itself 
the  great  field  for  spiritual  improvement.  There  is  no  task  of  in- 
dustry or  business,  in  field  or  forest,  on  the  wharf  or  the  ship's 
deck,  in  the  office  or  the  exchange,  but  has  spiritual  ends.  There 
is  no  care  or  cross  of  our  daily  labor,  but  was  especially  ordained 
to  nurture  in  us  patience,  calmness,  resolution,  perseverance,  gen- 
tleness, disinterestedness,  magnanimity.  Nor  is  there  any  tool  or 
implement  of  toil,  but  is  a  part  of  the  great  spiritual  instrumen- 
tality. 

All  the  relations  of  life,  those  of  parent,  child,  brother,  sister, 
friend,  associate,  lover  and  beloved,  husband,  wife,  are  moral, 
throughout  every  living  tie  and  thrilling  nerve  that  bind  them 
together.  They  cannot  subsist  a  day  nor  an  hour  without  putting 
the  mind  to  a  trial  of  its  truth,  fidelity,  forbearance,  and  disinter- 
estedness. 

A  great  city  is  one  extended  scene  of  moral  action.  There  is 
no  blow  struck  in  it  but  has  a  purpose,  ultimately  good  or  bad, 


244  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  therefore  moral.  There  is  no  action  performed,  but  has  a 
motive;  and  motives  are  the  special  jurisdiction  of  morality. 
Equipages,  houses,  and  furniture  are  symbols  of  what  is  moral, 
and  they  in  a  thousand  ways  minister  to  right  or  wrong  feeling. 
Everything  that  belongs  to  us,  ministering  to  our  comfort  or  lux- 
ury, awakens  in  us  emotions  oT  pride  or  gratitude,  of  selfishness 
or  vanity;  thoughts  of  self-indulgence,  or  merciful  remembrances 
of  the  needy  and  the  destitute. 

Everything  acts  upon  and  influences  us.  God's  great  law  of 
sympathy  and  harmony  is  potent  and  inflexible  as  His  law  of 
gravitation.  A  sentence  embodying  a  noble  thought  stirs  our 
blood ;  a  noise  made  by  a  child  frets  and  exasperates  us,  and  influ- 
ences our  actions. 

A  world  of  spiritual  objects,  influences,  and  relations  lies  around 
us  all.  We  all  vaguely  deem  it  to  be  so ;  but  he  only  lives  a 
charmed  life,  like  that  of  genius  and  poetic  inspiration,  who  com- 
munes with  the  spiritual  scene  around  him,  hears  the  voice  of  the 
spirit  in  every  sound,  sees  its  signs  in  every  passing  form  of  things, 
and  feels  its  impulse  in  all  action,  passion,  and  being.  Very  near 
to  us  lie  the  mines  of  wisdom ;  unsuspected  they  lie  all  around  us. 
There  is  a  secret  in  the  simplest  things,  a  wonder  in  the  plainest, 
a  charm  in  the  dullest. 

We  are  all  naturally  seekers  of  wonders.  We  travel  far  to  see 
the  majesty  of  old  ruins,  the  venerable  forms  of  the  hoary  moun- 
tains, great  water-falls,  and  galleries  of  art.  And  yet  the  world- 
wonder  is  all  around  us ;  the  wonder  of  setting  suns,  and  evening 
stars,  of  the  magic  spring-time,  the  blossoming  of  the  trees,  the 
strange  transformations  of  the  moth ;  the  wonder  of  the  Infinite 
Divinity  and  of -His  boundless  revelation.  There  is  no  splendor 
beyond  that  which  sets  its  morning  throne  in  the  golden  East ;  no 
dome  sublime  as  that  of  Heaven ;  no  beauty  so  fair  as  that  of  the 
verdant,  blossoming  earth  ;  no  place,  however  invested  with  the 
sanctities  of  old  time,  like  that  home  which  is  hushed  and  folded 
within  the  embrace  of  the  humblest  wall  and  roof. 

And  all  these  are  but  the  symbols  of  things  far  greater  and 
higher.  All  is  but  the  clothing  of  the  spirit.  In  this  vesture  of 
time  is  wrapped  the  immortal  nature :  in  this  show  of  circum- 
stance and  form  stands  revealed  the  stupendous  reality.  Let  man 
but  be,  as  he  is,  a  living  soul,  communing  with  himself  and  with 


PRINCE  OF   JERUSALEM.  245 

God,  and  his  vision  becomes  eternity  ;  his  abode,  infinity ;  his 
home,  the  bosom  of  all-embracing  love. 

The  great  problem  of  Humanity  is  wrought  out  in  the  humblest 
abodes ;  no  more  than  this  is  done  in  the  highest.  A  human  heart 
throbs  beneath  the  beggar's  gabardine ;  and  that  and  no  more  stirs 
with  its  beating  the  Prince's  mantle.  The  beauty  of  Love,  the 
charm  of  Friendship,  the  sacredness  of  Sorrow,  the  heroism  of 
Patience,  the  noble  Self-sacrifice,  these  and  their  like,  alone,  make 
life  to  be  life  indeed,  and  are  its  grandeur  and  its  power.  They 
are  the  priceless  treasures  and  glory  of  humanity ;  and  they  are 
not  things  of  condition.  All  places  and  all  scenes  are  alike  clothed 
with  the  grandeur  and  charm  of  virtues  such  as  these. 

The  million  occasions  will  come  to  us  all,  in  the  ordinary  paths 
of  our  life,  in  our  homes,  and  by  our  firesides,  wherein  we  may 
act  as  nobly,  as  if,  all  our  life  long,  we  led  armies,  sat  in  senates, 
or  visited  beds  of  sickness  and  pain.  Varying  every  hour,  the 
million  occasions  will  come  in  which  we  may  restrain  our  pas- 
sions, subdue  our  hearts  to  gentleness  and  patience,  resign  our 
own  interest  for  another's  advantage,  speak  words  of  kindness  and 
wisdom,  raise  the  fallen,  cheer  the  fainting  and  sick  in  spirit,  and 
soften  and  assuage  the  weariness  and  bitterness  of  their  mortal  lot. 
To  every  Mason  there  will  be  opportunity  enough  for  these.  They 
cannot  be  written  on  his  tomb ;  but  they  will  be  written  deep  in 
the  hearts  of  men,  of  friends,  of  children,  of  kindred  all  around 
him,  in  the  book  of  the  great  account,  and,  in  their  eternal  influ- 
ences, on  the  great  pages  of  the  Universe. 

To  such  a  destiny,  at  least,  my  Brethren,  let  us  all  aspire !  These 
laws  of  Masonry  let  us  all  strive  to  obey !  And  so  may  our  hearts 
become  true  temples  of  the  Living  God !  And  may  He  encourage 
our  zeal,  sustain  our  hopes,  and  assure  us  of  success  ! 


XVII. 
KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST. 

THIS  is  the  first  of  the  Philosophical  Degrees  of  the  Ancient 
and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite ;  and  the  beginning  of  a  course  of  in- 
struction which  will  fully  unveil  to  you  the  heart  and  inner  mys- 
teries of  Masonry.  Do  not  despair  because  you  have  often  seemed 
on  the  point  of  attaining  the  inmost  light,  and  have  as  often  been 
disappointed.  In  all  time,  truth  has  been  hidden  under  symbols, 
and  often  under  a  succession  of  allegories :  where  veil  after  veil 
had  to  be  penetrated  before  the  true  Light  was  reached,  and  the 
essential  truth  stood  revealed.  The  Human  Light  is  but  an  im- 
perfect reflection  of  a  ray  of  the  Infinite  and  Divine. 

We  are  about  to  approach  those  ancient  Religions  which  once 
246 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  247 

ruled  the  minds  of  men,  and  whose  ruins  encumber  the  plains  of 
the  great  Past,  as  the  broken  columns  of  Palmyra  and  Tadmor  lie 
bleaching  on  the  sands  of  the  desert.  They  rise  before  us,  those 
old,  strange,  mysterious  creeds  and  faiths,  shrouded  in  the  mists 
01  antiquity,  and  stalk  dimly  and  undefined  along  the  line  which 
divides  Time  from  Eternity ;  and  forms  of  strange,  wild,  startling 
beauty  mingle  in  the  vast  throng  of  figures  with  shaoes  monstrous, 
grotesque,  and  hideous. 

The  religion  taught  by  Moses,  which,  like  the  laws  of  Egypt, 
enunciated  the  principle  of  exclusion,  borrowed,  at  every  period 
of  its  existence,  from  all  the  creeds  with  which  it  came  in  contact. 
While,  by  the  studies  of  the  learned  and  wise,  it  enriched  itself 
with  the  most  admirable  principles  of  the  religions  of  Egypt  and 
Asia,  it  was  changed,  in  the  wanderings  of  the  People,  by  every- 
thing that  was  most  impure  or  seductive  in  the  pagan  manners 
r.nd  superstitions.  It  was  one  thing  in  the  times  of  Moses  and 
Aaron,  another  in  those  of  David  and  Solomon,  and  still  another 
in  those  of  Daniel  and  Philo. 

At  the  time  when  John  the  Baptist  made  his  appearance  in  the 
desert,  near  the  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea,  all  the  old  philosophical 
::nd  religious  systems  were  approximating  toward  each  other.    A 
general  lassitude  inclined  the  minds  of  all  toward  the  quietude  of 
that  amalgamation  of  doctrines  for  which  the  expeditions  of  Alex- 
ander and  the  more  peaceful  occurrences  that  followed,  with  the 
establishment  in  Asia  and  Africa  of  many  Grecian  dynasties  and 
a  great  number  of  Grecian  colonies,  had  prepared  the  way.  After 
the  intermingling  of  different  nations,  which  resulted  from  the 
wars  of  Alexander  in  three-quarters  of  the  globe,  the  doctrines  of 
Greece,  of  Egypt,  of  Persia,  and  of  India,  met  and  intermingled 
everywhere.    All  the  barriers  that  had  formerly  kept  the  nations 
apart,  were  thrown  down ;  and  while   the    People   of   the   West 
readily  connected  their  faith  with  those  of  the  East,  those  of  the 
Orient  hastened  to  learn  the  traditions  of  Rome  and  the  legends 
of  Athens.   While  the  Philosophers  of  Greece,  all  (except  the  dis- 
ciples of  Epicurus)  more  or  less  Platonists,  seized  eagerly  upon  the 
beliefs  and  doctrines  of  the  East, — the  Jews  and  Egyptians,  be- 
fore then  the  most  exclusive  of  all  peoples,  yielded  to  that  eclecti- 
cism which  prevailed  among  their  masters,  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
Under  the  same  influences  of  toleration,  even  those  who  em- 
braced Christianity,  mingled  together  the  old  and  the  new,  Chris- 
17 


248  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

tianity  and  Philosophy,  the  Apostolic  teachings  and  the  traditions 
of  Mythology.  The  man  of  intellect,  devotee  of  one  system, 
rarely  displaces  it  with  another  in  all  its  purity.  The  people  take 
such  a  creed  as  is  offered  them.  Accordingly,  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  esoteric  and  the  exoteric  doctrine,  immemorial  in  other 
creeds,  easily  gained  a  foothold  among  many  of  the  Christians ; 
and  it  was  held  by  a  vast  number,  even  during  the  preaching  of 
Paul,  that  the  writings  of  the  Apostles  were  incomplete ;  that  they 
contained  only  the  germs  of  another  doctrine,  which  must  receive 
from  the  hands  of  philosophy,  not  only  the  systematic  arrangement 
wh'ich  was  wanting,  but  all  the  development  which  lay  concealed 
therein.  The  writings  of  the  Apostles,  they  said,  in  addressing 
themselves  to  mankind  in  general,  enunciated  only  the  articles  cf 
the  vulgar  faith;  but  transmitted  the  mysteries  of  knowledge  to 
superior  minds,  to  the  Elect, — mysteries  handed  down  from  gen- 
eration to  generation  in  esoteric  traditions ;  and  to  this  science  of 
the  mysteries  they  gave  the  name  of  FVcocn.?  [Gnosis]. 

The  Gnostics  derived  their  leading  doctrines  and  ideas  from 
Plato  and  Philo,  the  Zend-avesta  and  the  Kabalah,  and  the  Sacred 
books  of  India  and  Egypt ;  and  thus  introduced  into  the  bosom 
of  Christianity  the  cosmological  and  theosophical  speculations, 
which  had  formed  the  larger  portion  of  the  ancient  religions  of  the 
Orient,  joined  to  those  of  the  Egyptian,  Greek,  and  Jewish  doc- 
trines, which  the  Neo-Platonists  had  equally  adopted  in  the  Occi- 
dent. 

Emanation  from  the  Deity  of  all  spiritual  beings,  progressive 
degeneration  of  these  beings  from  emanation  to  emanation,  re- 
demption and  return  of  all  to  the  purity  of  the  Creator ;  and, 
after  the  re-establishment  of  the  primitive  harmony  of  all,  a  for- 
tunate and  truly  divine  condition  of  all,  in  the  bosom  of  God ; 
such  were  the  fundamental  teachings  of  Gnosticism.  The  genius 
of  the  Orient,  with  its  contemplations,  irradiations,  and  intuitions, 
dictated  its  doctrines.  Its  language  corresponded  to  its  origin. 
Full  of  imagery,  it  had  all  the  magnificence,  the  inconsistencies, 
and  the  mobility  of  the  figurative  style. 

Behold,  it  said,  the  light,  which  emanates  from  an  immense 
centre  of  Light,  that  spreads  everywhere  its  benevolent  rays ;  so 
do  the  spirits  of  Light  emanate  from  the  Divine  Light.  Behold, 
all  the  springs  which  nourish,  embellish,  fertilize,  and  purify  the 
Earth ;  they  emanate  from  one  and  the  same  ocean ;  so  from  the 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  249 

bosom  of  the  Divinity  emanate  so  many  streams,  which  form  and 
fill  the  universe  of  intelligences.  Behold  numbers,  which  all 
emanate  from  one  primitive  number,  all  resemble  it,  all  are  com- 
posed of  its  essence,  and  still  vary  infinitely ;  and  utterances,  de- 
composable into  so  many  syllables  and  elements,  all  contained  in 
the  primitive  Word,  and  still  infinitely  various ;  so  the  world  of 
Intelligences  emanated  from  a  Primary  Intelligence,  and  they  all 
resemble  it,  and  yet  display  an  infinite  variety  of  existences. 

It  revived  and  combined  the  old  doctrines  of  the  Orient  and  the 
Occident;  and  it  found  in  many  passages  of  the  Gospels  and  the 
Pastoral  letters,  a  warrant  for  doing  so.  Christ  himself  spoke  in 
parables  and  allegories,  John  borrowed  the  enigmatical  language 
of  the  Platonists,  and  Paul  often  indulged  in  incomprehensible 
rhapsodies,  the  meaning  of  which  could  have  been  clear  to  the  Ini- 
tiates alone. 

It  is  admitted  that  the  cradle  of  Gnosticism  is  probably  to  be 
looked  for  in  Syria,  and  even  in  Palestine.  Most  of  its  expounders 
wrote  in  that  corrupted  form  of  the  Greek  used  by  the  Hellenistic 
Jews,  and  in  the  Septuagint  and  the  New  Testament ;  and  there 
was  a  striking  analogy  between  their  doctrines  and  those  of  the 
Judaeo-Egyptian  Philo,  of  Alexandria ;  itself  the  seat  of  three 
schools,  at  once  philosophic  and  religious — the  Greek,  the  Egyp- 
tian, and  the  Jewish. 

Pythagoras  and  Plato,  the  most  mystical  of  the  Grecian  Philos- 
ophers (the  latter  heir  to  the  doctrines  of  the  former),  and  who 
had  travelled,  the  latter  in  Egypt,  and  the  former  in  Phoenicia, 
India,  and  Persia,  also  taught  the  esoteric  doctrine  and  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  initiated  and  the  profane.  The  dominant  doc- 
trines of  Platonism  were  found  in  Gnosticism.  Emanation  of 
Intelligences  from  the  bosom  of  the  Deity;  the  going  astray  in 
error  and  the  sufferings  of  spirits,  so  long  as  they  are  remote  from 
God,  and  imprisoned  in  matter;  vain  and  long-continued  efforts 
to  arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  the  Truth,  and  re-enter  into  their 
primitive  union  with  the  Supreme  Being;  alliance  of  a  pure  and 
divine  soul  with  an  irrational  soul,  the  seat  of  evil  desires ;  angels 
or  demons  who  dwell  in  and  govern  the"  planets,  having  but  an 
imperfect  knowledge  of  the  ideas  that  presided  at  the  creation ; 
regeneration  of  all  beings  by  their  return  to  the  xofftwz  vor/rnz, 
[kosmos  noetos],  the  world  of  Intelligences,  and  its  Chief,  the 
Supreme  Being;  sole  possible  mode  of  re-establishing  that  primi- 


250  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

live  harmony  of  the  creation,  of  which  the  music  of  the  spheres 
of  Pythagoras  was  the  image ;  these  were  the  analogies  of  the  two 
systems ;  and  we  discover  in  them  some  of  the  ideas  that  form  a 
part  of  Masonry ;  in  which,  in  the  present  mutilated  condition  of 
the  symbolic  Degrees,  they  are  disguised  and  overlaid  with  fiction 
and  absurdity,  or  present  themselves  as  casual  hints  that  are  passed 
by  wholly  unnoticed. 

The  distinction  between  the  esoteric  and  exoteric  doctrines  (a 
distinction  purely  Masonic),  was  always  and  from  the  very  earliest 
times  preserved  among  the  Greeks.  It  remounted  to  the  fabulous 
times  of  Orpheus ;  and  the  mysteries  of  Theosophy  were  found  in 
all  their  traditions  and  myth?.  And  after  the  time  of  Alexander, 
they  resorted  for  instruction,  dogma^,  and  mvsteries,  to  all  the 
schools,  to  those  of  Egypt  and  Asia,  as  well  as  those  of  Ancient 
Thrace,  Sicily,  Etruria,  and  Attica. 

The  Jewish-Greek  School  of  Alexandria  is  known  only  by  two 
of  its  Chiefs,  Anstobulus  and  Philo,  both  Jews  of  Alexandria  in 
Egypt.  Belonging  to  Asia  by  its  origin,  to  Egypt  by  its  residence, 
to  Greece  by  its  language  and  studies,  it  strove  to  show  that  all 
truths  embedded  in  the  philosophies  of  other  countries  were  trans- 
planted thither  from  Palestine.  Aristobulus  declared  that  all  the 
facts  and  details  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  were  so  many  allegories, 
concealing  the  most  profound  meanings,  and  that  Plato  had  bor- 
rowed from  them  all  his  finest  ideas.  Philo,  who  lived  a  century 
after  him,  following  the  same  theory,  endeavored  to  show  that  the 
Hebrew  writings,  by  their  system  of  allegcries,  were  the  true 
source  of  all  religious  and  philosophical  doctrines.  According  to 
him,  the  literal  meaning  is  for  the  vulgar  alone.  Whoever  has 
meditated  on  philosophy,  purified  himself  by  virtue,  and  raised 
himself  by  contemplation,  to  God  and  the  intellectual  world,  and 
received  their  inspiration,  pierces  the  gross  envelope  of  the  letter, 
discovers  a  wholly  different  order  of  things,  and  is  initiated  into 
mysteries,  of  which  the  elementary  or  literal  instruction  offers  but 
an  imperfect  image.  A  historical  fact,  a  figure,  a  word,  a  letter,  a 
number,  a  rite,  a  custom,  the  parable  or  vision  of  a  prophet,  veils 
the  most  profound  truths ;  and  he  who  has  the  key  of  science  will 
interpret  all  according  to  the  light  he  possesses. 

Again  we  see  the  symbolism  of  Masonry,  and  the  search  of  the 
Candidate  for  light.  "Let  men  of  narrow  minds  withdraw,"  he 
says,  "with  closed  ears.  We  transmit  the  divine  mysteries  to 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST   ANP  '.VEST.  25! 

those  who  have  received  the  sacred  initiation,  to  those  who  prac- 
tise true  piety,  and  who  are  not  enslaved  by  the  empty  trappings 
of  words  or  the  preconceived  opinions  of  the  pagans." 

To  Philo,  the  Supreme  Being  was  the  Primitive  Light,  or  the 
Archetype  of  Light,  Source  whence  the  rays  emanate  that  illu- 
minate Souls.  He  was  also  the  Soul  of  the  Universe,  and  as  such 
acted  in  all  its  parts.  He  Himself  fills  and  limits  His  whole  Being. 
His  Powers  and  Virtues  fill  and  penetrate  all.  These  Powers 
[Awa/uets,  dunameis]  are  Spirits  distinct  from  God,  the  "Ideas"  of 
Plato  personified.  He  is  without  beginning,  and  lives  in  the  pro- 
totype of  Time  [cutov,  aion]. 

His  image  is  THE  WORD  [Aoyos],  a  form  more  brilliant  thar 
fire;  that  not  being  the  pure  light.  This  LOGOS  dwells  in  God; 
for  the  Supreme  Being  makes  to  Himself  within  His  Intelligence 
the  types  or  ideas  of  everything  that  is  to  become  reality  in  this 
World.  The  LOGOS  is  the  vehicle  by  which  God  acts  on  the  Uni- 
verse, and  may  be  compared  to  the  speech  of  man. 

The  LOGOS  being  the  World  of  Ideas  [KO<TJUO«  vorpn/sj,  by  means 
whereof  God  has  created  visible  things,  He  is  the  most  ancient 
God,  in  comparison  with  the  World,  which  is  the  youngest  pro- 
duction. The  LOGOS,  Chief  of  Intelligence,  of  which  He  is  the 
general  representative,  is  named  Archangel,  type  and  representa- 
tive of  all  spirits,  even  those  of  mortals.  He  is  also  styled  the 
man-type  and  primitive  man,  Adam  Kadmon. 

God  only  is  Wise.  The  wisdom  of  man  is  but  the  reflection  and 
image  of  that  of  God.  He  is  the  Father,  and  His  WISDOM  the 
mother  of  creation:  for  He  united  Himself  with  WISDOM  [lotfta, 
Sophia],  and  communicated  to  it  the  germ  of  creation,  and  it 
brought  forth  the  material  world.  He  created  the  ideal  world 
only,  and  caused  the  material  world  to  b^  made  real  after  its  type, 
by  His  LOGOS,  which  is  His  speech,  and  at  the  same  time  the  Idea 
of  Ideas,  the  Intellectual  World.  The  Intellectual  City  was  but 
the  Thought  of  the  Architect,  who  meditated  the  creation,  accord- 
ing to  that  plan  of  the  Material  City. 

The  Word  is  not  only  the  Creator,  but  occupies  the  place  of  the 
Supreme  Being.  Through  Him  all  the  Powers  and  Attributes  of 
God  act.  On  the  other  side,  as  first  representative  of  the  Human 
Family,  He  is  the  Protector  of  men  and  their  Shepherd. 

God  gives  to  man  the  Soul  or  Intelligence,  which  exists  before 
the  body  and  which  he  unites  with  the  body.  The  reasoning 


252  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Principle  comes  from  God  through  the  Word,  and  communes  with 
God  and  with  the  Word;  but  there  is  also  in  man  an  irrational 
Principle,  that  of  the  inclinations  and  passions  which  produce 
disorder,  emanating  from  inferior  spirits  who  fill  the  air  as 
ministers  of  God.  The  body,  taken  from  the  Earth,  and  the 
irrational  Principle  that  animates  it  concurrently  with  the  ra- 
tional Principle,  are  hated  by  God,  while  the  rational  soul  which 
He  has  given  it.  is,  as  it  were,  captive  in  this  prison,  this  coffin, 
that  encompasses  it.  The  present  condition  of  man  is  not  his 
primitive  condition,  when  he  was  the  image  of  the  Logos.  He 
has  fallen  from  his  first  estate.  But  he  may  raise  himself  again, 
by  following  the  directions  of  WISDOM  [.To^a]  and  of  the. Angels 
which  God  has  commissioned  to  aid  him  in  freeing  himself  from 
the  bonds  of  the  body,  and  combating  Evil,  the  existence  whereof 
God  has  permitted,  to  furnish  him  the  means  of  exercising  his 
liberty.  The  souls  that  are  purified,  not  by  the  Law  but  by  light, 
rise  to  the  Heavenly  regions,  to  enjoy  there  a  perfect  felicity. 
Those  that  persevere  in  evil  go  from  body  to  body,  the  seats  of 
passions  and  evil  desires.  The  familiar  lineaments  of  these  doc- 
trines will  be  recognized  by  all  who  read  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 
who  wrote  after  Philo,  the  latter  living  till  the  reign  of  Caligula, 
and  being  the  contemporary  of  Christ. 

And  the  Mason  is  familiar  with  these  doctrines  of  Philo :  that 
the  Supreme  Being  is  a  centre  of  Light  whose  rays  or  emanations 
pervade  the  L'niverse ;  for  that  is  the  Light  for  which  all  Masonic 
journeys  are  a  search,  and  of  which  the  sun  and  moon  in  our 
Lodges  are  only  emblems :  that  Light  and  Darkness,  chief  enemies 
from  the  beginning  of  Time,  dispute  with  each  other  the  empire 
of  the  world ;  which  we  symbolize  by  the  candidate  wandering  in 
darkness  and  being  brought  to  light :  that  the  world  was  created, 
not  by  the  Supreme  Being,  but  by  a  secondary  agent,  who  is  but 
His  \VoRD  [the  Aoyos],  and  by  types  which  are  but  his  ideas, 
aided  by  an  INTELLIGENCE,  or  WISDOM  [2o<fta],  which  gives  one  of 
His  Attributes  ;  in  which  we  see  the  occult  meaning  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  recovering  "the  WORD"  ;  and  of  our  two  columns  of 
STRENGTH  and  WISDOM,  which  are  also  the  two  parallel  lines  that 
bound  the  circle  representing  the  Universe :  that  the  visible  world 
is  the  image  of  the  invisible  world ;  that  the  essence  of  the  Human 
Soul  is  the  image  of  God,  and  it  existed  before  the  body ;  that  the 
object  of  its  terrestrial  life  is  to  disengage  itself  of  its  body  or  its 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST. 

sepulchre ;  and  that  it  will  ascend  to  the  Heavenly  regions  when- 
ever it  shall  be  purified ;  in  which  we  see  the  meaning,  now  almost 
forgotten  in  our  Lodges,  of  the  mode  of  preparation  of  the  candi- 
date for  apprenticeship,  and  his  tests  and  purifications  in  the  first 
Degree,  according  to  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite. 

Philo  incorporated  in  his  eclecticism  neither  Egyptian  nor  Orien- 
tal elements.  But  there  were  other  Jewish  Teachers  in  Alexandria 
who  did  both.  The  Jews  of  Egypt  were  slightly  jealous  of,  and  a 
little  hostile  to,  those  of  Palestine,  particularly  after  the  erection 
of  the  sanctuary  at  Leontopolis  by  the  High-Priest  Onias ;  and 
therefore  they  admired  and  magnified  those  sages,  who,  like  Jere- 
miah, had  resided  in  Egypt.  "The  wisdom  of  Solomon"  was 
written  at  Alexandria,  and,  in  the  time  of  St.  Jerome,  was  attrib- 
uted to  Philo;  but  it  contains  principles  at  variance  with  his. 
It  personifies  Wisdom,  and  draws  between  its  children  and  the 
Profane,  the  same  line  of  demarcation  that  Egypt  had  long  before 
taught  to  the  Jews.  That  distinction  existed  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Mosaic  creed.  Moshah  himself  was  an  Initiate  in  the  mysteries 
of  Egypt,  as  he  was  compelled  to  be,  as  the  adopted  son  of  the 
daughter  of  Pharaoh,  Thouoris,  daughter  of  Sesostris-Ramses; 
who,  as  her  tomb  and  monuments  show,  was,  in  the  right  of  her 
infant  husband,  Regent  of  Lower  Egypt  or  the  Delta  at  the  time 
of  the  Hebrew  Prophet's  birth,  reigning  at  Heliopolis.  She  was 
also,  as  the  reliefs  on  her  tomb  show,  a  Priestess  of  HATHOR  and 
NEITH,  the  two  great  primeval  goddesses.  As  her  adopted  son, 
living  in  her  Palace  and  presence  forty  years,  and  during  that 
time  scarcely  acquainted  with  his  brethren  the  Jews,  the  law  of 
Egypt  compelled  his  initiation :  and  we  find  in  many  of  his  enact- 
ments the  intention  of  preserving,  between  the  common  people 
and  the  Initiates,  the  line  of  separation  which  he  found  in  Egypt. 
Moshah  and  Aharun  his  brother,  the  whole  series  of  High-Priests. 
the  Council  of  the  70  Elders,  Salomoh  and  the  entire  succession 
of  Prophets,  were  in  possession  of  a  higher  science ;  and  of  that 
science  Masonry  is,  at  least,  the  lineal  descendant.  It  was  famili- 
arly known  as  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  WORD. 

AMUN,  at  first  the  God  of  Lower  Egypt  only,  where  Moshah  was 
reared  [a  word  that  in  Hebrew  means  Truth],  was  the  Supreme 
God.  He  was  styled  "the  Celestial  Lord,  ivho  sheds  Light  on 
hidden  things."  He  was  the  source  of  that  divine  life,  of  which 
the  crux  ansata  is  the  symbol ;  and  the  source  of  all  power.  He 


254  "TORALS  AND  DOGM/ 

united  all  the  attributes  that  the  Ancient  Oriental  Theosophy 
assigned  to  the  Supreme  Being.  He  was  the  xtepa)/jia  (Pleroma), 
or  "Fullness  of  things"  for  He  comprehended  in  Himself  every- 
thing; and  the  LIGHT;  for  he  was  the  Sun-God.  He  was  un- 
changeable in  the  midst  of  everything  phenomenal  in  his  worlds. 
He  created  nothing;  but  everything  emanated  from  Him;  and  of 
Him  all  the  other  Gods  were  but  manifestations. 

The  Ram  was  His  living  symbol ;  which  you  see  reproduced  in 
this  Degree,  lying  on  the  book  with  seven  seals  on  the  tracing- 
board.  He  caused  the  creation  of  the  world  by  the  Primitive 
Thought  [Ewota,  Ennoia] ,  or  Spirit  [Hvcv/wt,  Pneuma] ,  that  issued 
from  him  by  means  of  his  Voice  or  the  WORD  ;  and  which  Thought 
or  Spirit  was  personified  as  the  Goddess  NEITH.  She,  too,  was  a 
divinity  of  Light,  and  mother  of  the  Sun;  and  the  Feast  of 
Lamps  was  celebrated  in  her  honor  at  Sais.  The  Creative  Power, 
another  manifestation  of  Deity,  proceeding  to  the  creation  con- 
ceived of  in  her,  the  Divine  Intelligence,  produced  with  its  Word 
the  Universe,  symbolized  by  an  egg  issuing  from  the  mouth  of 
KNEPH  ;  from  which  egg  came  PHTHA,  image  of  the  Supreme 
Intelligence  as  realized  in  the  world,  and  the  type  of  that  mani- 
fested in  man ;  the  principal  agent,  also,  of  Nature,  or  the  creative 
and  productive  Fire.  PHRE  or  RE,  the  Sun,  or  Celestial  Light, 
whose  symbol  was  O,  the  point  within  a  circle,  was  the  son  of 
PHTHA  ;  and  TIPHE,  his  wife,  or  the  celestial  firmament,  w7ith  the 
seven  celestial  bodies,  animated  by  spirits  of  genii  that  govern 
them,  was  represented  on  many  of  the  monuments,  clad  in  blue 
or  yellow,  her  garments  sprinkled  with  stars,  and  accompanied  by 
the  sun,  moon,  and  five  planets ;  and  she  was  the  type  of  Wisdom, 
and  they  of  the  Seven  Planetary  Spirits  of  the  Gnostics,  that  with 
her  presided  over  and  governed  the  sublunary  world. 

In  this  Degree,  unknown  for  a  hundred  years  to  those  who  have 
practised  it,  these  emblems  reproduced  refer  to  these  old  doctrines. 
The  lamb,  the  yellow  hangings  strewed  with  stars,  the  seven 
columns,  candlesticks,  and  seals  all  recall  them  to  us. 

The  Lion  was  the  symbol  of  ATHOM-RE,  the  Great  God  of  Up- 
per Egypt ;  the  Hawk,  of  RA  or  PHRE  ;  the  Eagle,  of  MENDES  ; 
the  Bull,  of  APIS;  and  three  of  these  are  seen  under  the  platform 
on  which  our  altar  stands. 

The  first  HERMES  was  the  INTELLIGENCE  or  WORD  of  God. 
Moved  with  compassion  for  a  race  living  without  law,  and  wishing 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  255 

to  teach  them  that  they  sprang  from  His  bosom,  and  to  point  out 
to  them  the  way  that  they  should  go  [the  books  which  the  first 
Hermes,  the  same  with  Enoch,  had  written  on  the  mysteries  of 
divine  science,  in  the  sacred  characters,  being  unknown  to  those 
who  lived  after  the  flood],  God  sent  to  man  OSIRIS  and  Isis,  ac- 
companied by  THOTH,  the  incarnation  or  terrestrial  repetition  of 
the  first  HERMES;  who  taught  men  the  arts,  science,  and  the  cer- 
emonies of  religion ;  and  then  ascended  to  Heaven  or  the  Moon. 
OSIRIS  was  the  Principle  of  Good.  TYPHON,  like  AHRIMAN,  wa.> 
the  principle  and  source  of  all  that  is  evil  in  the  moral  and  phys- 
ical order.  Like  the  Satan  of  Gnosticism,  he  was  confounded 
with  Matter. 

From  Egypt  or  Persia  the  new  Platonists  borrowed  the  idea,  and 
the  Gnostics  received  it  from  them,  that  man,  in  his  terrestrial 
career,  is  successively  under  the  influence  of  the  Moon,  of  Mer- 
cury, of  Venus,  of  the  Sun,  of  Mars,  of  Jupiter,  and  of  Saturn, 
until  he  finally  reaches  the  Elysian  Fields ;  an  idea  again  symbol- 
ized in  the  Seven  Seals. 

The  Jews  of  Syria  and  Judea  were  the  direct  precursors  of  Gnos- 
ticism ;  and  in  their  doctrines  were  ample  oriental  elements. 
These  Jews  had  had  with  the  Orient,  at  two  different  periods,  inti- 
mate relations,  familiarizing  them  with  the  doctrines  of  Asia,  and 
especially  of  Chaldea  and  Persia ; — their  forced  residence  in  Cen- 
tral Asia  under  the  Assyrians  and  Persians ;  and  their  voluntary 
dispersion  over  the  whole  East,  when  subjects  of  the  Seleucidse 
and  the  Romans.  Living  near  two-thirds  of  a  century,  and  many 
of  them  long  afterward,  in  Mesopotamia,  the  cradle  of  their  race ; 
speaking  the  same  language,  and  their  children  reared  with  those 
of  the  Chaldeans,  Assyrians,  Medes,  and  Persians,  and  receiving 
from  them  their  names  (as  the  case  of  Danayal,  who  was  called 
Baeltasatsar,  proves),  they  necessarily  adopted  many  of  the  doc- 
trines of  their  conquerors.  Their  descendants,  as  Azra  and  Na- 
hamaiah  show  us,  hardly  desired  to  leave  Persia,  when  they  were 
allowed  to  do  so.  They  had  a  special  jurisdiction,  and  governors 
and  judges  taken  from  their  own  people ;  many  of  them  held  high 
office,  and  their  children  were  educated  with  those  of  the  highest 
nobles.  Danayal  was  the  friend  and  minister  of  the  King,  and 
the  Chief  of  the  College  of  the  Magi  at  Babylon ;  if  we  may  be- 
lieve the  book  which  bears  his  name,  and  trust  to  the  incidents 
related  in  its  highly  figurative  and  imaginative  style.  Mordecai, 


256  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

too,  occupied  a  high  station,  no  less  than  that  of  Prime  Minister, 
and  Esther  or  Astar,  his  cousin,  was  the  Monarch's  wife. 

The  Magi  of  Babylon  were  expounders  of  figurative  writings, 
interpreters  of  nature,  and  of  dreams, — astronomers  and  divines ; 
and  from  their  influences  arose  among  the  Jews,  after  their  rescue 
from  captivity,  a  number  of  sects,  and  a  new  exposition,  the  mys- 
tical interpretation,  with  all  its  wild  fancies  and  infinite  caprices. 
The  Aions  of  the  Gnostics,  the  Ideas  of  Plato,  the  Angels  of  the 
Jews,  and  the  Demons  of  the  Greeks,  all  correspond  to  the 
Ferouers  of  Zoroaster. 

A  great  number  of  Jewish  families  remained  permanently  in 
their  new  country ;  and  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  their  schools 
was  at  Babylon.  They  were  soon  familiarized  with  the  doctrine 
of  Zoroaster,  which  itself  was  more  ancient  than  Kuros.  From 
the  system  of  the  Zend-Avesta  they  borrowed,  and  subsequently 
gave  large  development  to,  everything  that  could  be  reconciled 
with  their  own  faith ;  and  these  additions  to  the  old  doctrine  were 
soon  spread,  by  the  constant  intercourse  of  commerce,  into  Syria 
and  Palestine. 

In  the  Zend-Avesta,  God  is  Illimitable  Time.  No  origin  can  be 
assigned  to  Him :  He  is  so  entirely  enveloped  in  His  glory,  His 
nature  and  attributes  are  so  inaccessible  to  human  Intelligence, 
that  He  can  be  only  the  object  of  a  silent  Veneration.  Creation 
took  place  by  emanation  from  Him.  The  first  emanation  was  the 
primitive  Light,  and  from  that  the  King  of  Light,  ORMUZD.  By 
the  "WORD/"  Ormuzd  created  the  world  pure.  He  is  its  pre- 
server and  judge;  a  Being  Holy  and  Heavenly;  Intelligence  and 
Knowledge ;  the  First-born  of  Time  without  limits ;  and  invested 
with  all  the  Powers  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

Still  he  is,  strictly  speaking,  the  Fourth  Being.  He  had  a 
Ferouer,  a  pre-existing  Soul  [in  the  language  of  Plato,  a  type  or 
ideal]  ;  and  it  is  said  of  Him,  that  He  existed  from  the  beginning, 
in  the  primitive  Light.  But,  that  Light  being  but  an  element, 
and  His  Ferouer  a  type,  he  is,  in  ordinary  language,  the  First-born 
of  ZEROUANE-AKHERENE.  Behold,  again,  "THE  WORD" 
of  Masonry ;  the  Man,  on  the  Tracing-Board  of  this  Degree ;  the 
LIGHT  toward  which  all  Masons  travel. 

He  created  after  his  own  image,  six  Genii  called  Amshaspands, 
who  surround  his  Throne,  are  his  organs  of  communication  with 
inferior  spirits  and  men,  transmit  to  Him  their  prayers,  solicit  for 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  25/ 

them  His  favors,  and  serve  them  as  models  of  purity  and  perfec- 
tion. Thus  we  have  the  Demiourgos  of  Gnosticism,  and  the  six 
Genii  that  assist  him.  These  are  the  Hebrew  Archangels  of  the 
Planets. 

The  names  of  these  Amshaspands  are  Bahman,  Ardibehest, 
Schariver,  Sapandomad,  Khordad,  and  Amerdad. 

The  fourth,  the  Holy  SAPANDOMAD,  created  the  first  man  and 
woman. 

Then  ORMUZD  created  28  Izeds,  of  whom  MITHRAS  is  the  chief. 
They  watch,  with  Ormuzd  and  the  Amshaspands,  over  the  happi- 
ness, purity,  and  preservation  of  the  world,  which  is  under  their 
government;  and  they  are  also  models  for  mankind  and  interpre- 
ters of  men's  prayers.  With  Mithras  and  Ormuzd,  they  make  a 
pleroma  [or  complete  number]  of  30,  corresponding  to  the  thirty 
Aions  of  the  Gnostics,  and  to  the  ogdoade,  dodecade,  and  decade  of 
the  Egyptians.  Mithras  was  the  Sun-God,  invoked  with,  and 
soon  confounded  with  him,  becoming  the  object  of  a  special  wor- 
ship, and  eclipsing  Ormuzd  himself. 

The  third  order  of  pure  spirits  is  more  numerous.  They  are 
the  Ferouers,  the  THOUGHTS  of  Ormuzd,  or  the  IDEAS  which  he 
conceived  before  proceeding  to  the  creation  of  things.  They  too 
are  superior  to  men.  They  protect  them  during  their  life  on 
earth ;  they  will  purify  them  from  evil  at  their  resurrection.  They 
are  their  tutelary  genii,  from  the  fall  to  the  complete  regeneration. 

AHRIMAN,  second-born  of  the  Primitive  Light,  emanated  from 
it,  pure  like  ORMUZD;  but,  proud  and  ambitious,  yielded  to  jeal- 
ousy of  the  First-born.  For  his  hatred  and  pride,  the  Eternal 
condemned  him  to  dw^ell,  for  12,000  years,  in  that  part  of  space 
where  no  ray  of  light  reaches ;  the  black  empire  of  darkness.  In 
that  period  the  struggle  between  Light  and  Darkness,  Good  and 
Evil,  will  be  terminated. 

AHRIMAN  scorned  to  submit,  and  took  the  field  against  OR- 
MUZD. To  the  good  spirits  created  by  his  Brother,  he  opposed  an 
innumerable  army  of  Evil  Ones.  To  the  seven  Amshaspands  he 
opposed  seven  Archdevs,  attached  to  the  seven  Planets ;  to  the 
Izeds  and  Ferouers  an  equal  number  of  Devs,  which  brought  upon 
the  world  all  moral  and  physical  evils.  Hence  Poverty.  Maladies, 
Impurity,  Envy,  Chagrin,  Drunkenness.  Falsehood.  Calumny,  and 
their  horrible  array. 

The  image  of  Ahriman  was  the  Dragon,  confounded  by  the 


258  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

Jews  with  Satan  and  the  Serpent-Tempter.  After  a  reign  of  3000 
years,  Ormuzd  had  created  the  Material  World,  in  six  periods, 
calling  successively  into  existence  the  Light,  Water,  Earth,  plants, 
animals,  and  Man.  But  Ahriman  concurred  in  creating  the  earth 
and  water;  for  darkness  was  already  an  element,  and  Ormuzd 
could  not  exclude  its  Master.  So  also  the  two  concurred  in  pro- 
ducing Man.  Ormuzd  produced,  by  his  Will  and  Word,  a  Being 
that  was  the  type  and  source  of  universal  life  for  everything  that 
exists  under  Heaven.  He  placed  in  man  a  pure  principle,  or  Life, 
proceeding  from  the  Supreme  Being.  But  Ahriman  destroyed 
that  pure  principle,  in  the  form  wherewith  it  was  clothed;  and 
when  Ormuzd  had  made,  of  its  recovered  and  purified  essence,  the 
first  man  and  woman,  Ahriman  seduced  and  tempted  them  with 
wine  and  fruits ;  the  woman  yielding  first. 

Often,  during  the  three  latter  periods  of  3000  years  each,  Ahri- 
man and  Darkness  are,  and  are  to  be,  triumphant.  But  the  pure 
souls  are  assisted  by  the  Good  Spirits ;  the  Triumph  of  Good  is 
decreed  by  the  Supreme  Being,  and  the  period  of  that  triumph 
will  infallibly  arrive.  When  the  world  shall  be  most  afflicted  with 
the  evils  poured  out  upon  it  by  the  spirits  of  perdition,  three 
Prophets  will  come  to  bring  relief  to  mortals.  SOSIOSCH,  the 
principal  of  the  Three,  will  regenerate  the  earth,  and  restore  to  it 
its  primitive  beauty,  strength,  and  purity.  He  will  judge  the  good 
and  the  wicked.  After  the  universal  resurrection  of  the  good,  he 
will  conduct  them  to  a  home  of  everlasting  happiness.  Ahriman, 
his  evil  demons,  and  all  wicked  men,  will  also  be  purified  in  a  tor- 
rent of  melted  metal.  The  law  of  Ormuzd  will  reign  everywhere ; 
all  men  will  be  happy;  all,  enjoying  unalterable  bliss,  will  sing 
with  Sosiosch  the  praises  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

These  doctrines,  the  details  of  which  were  sparingly  borrowed 
by  the  Pharisaic  Jews,  were  much  more  fully  adopted  by  the 
Gnostics ;  who  taught  the  restoration  of  all  things,  their  return  to 
their  original  pure  condition,  the  happiness  of  those  to  be  saved, 
and  their  admission  to  the  feast  of  Heavenly  Wisdom. 

The  doctrines  of  Zoroaster  came  originally  from  Bactria,  an 
Indian  Province  of  Persia.  Naturally,  therefore,  it  would  include 
Hindu  or  Buddhist  elements,  as  it  did.  The  fundamental  idea  of 
Buddhism  was,  matter  subjugating  the  intelligence,  and  intelli- 
gence freeing  itself  from  that  slavery.  Perhaps  something  came 
to  Gnosticism  from  China.  "Before  the  chaos  which  preceded 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  259 

the  birth  of  Heaven  and  Earth,"  says  Lao-Tseu,  "a  single  Being 
existed,  immense  and  silent,  immovable  and  ever  active — the 
mother  of  the  Universe.  I  know  not  its  name :  but  I  designate  it 
by  the  word  Reason.  Man  has  his  type  and  model  in  the  Earth ; 
Earth  in  Heaven ;  Heaven  in  Reason ;  and  Reason  in  Itself." 
Here  again  are  the  Ferouers,  the  Ideas,  the  Aions — the  REASON 
or  INTELLIGENCE  [Ewwa],  SILENCE  [2V^],  WORD  [Jopc],  and 
WISDOM  [Zoyia]  of  the  Gnostics. 

The  dominant  system  among  the  Jews  after  their  captivity  was 
that  of  the  Pharoschim  or  Pharisees.  Whether  their  name  was 
derived  from  that  of  the  Parsees,or  followers  of  Zoroaster,  or  from 
some  other  source,  it  is  certain  that  they  had  borrowed  much  of 
their  doctrine  from  the  Persians.  Like  them  they  claimed  to  have 
the  exclusive  and  mysterious  knowledge,  unknown  to  the  mass. 
Like  them  they  taught  that  a  constant  war  was  waged  between 
the  Empire  of  Good  and  that  of  Evil.  Like  th6m  they  attributed 
the  sin  and  fall  of  man  to  the  demons  and  their  chief;  and  like 
them  they  admitted  a  special  protection  of  the  righteous  by  in- 
ferior beings,  agents  of  Jehovah.  All  their  doctrines  on  these  sub- 
jects were  at  bottom  those  of  the  Holy  Books;  but  singularly 
developed;  and  the  Orient  was  evidently  the  source  from  which 
those  developments  came. 

They  styled  themselves  Interpreters;  a  name  indicating  their 
claim  to  the  exclusive  possession  of  the  true  meaning  of  the  Holy 
Writings,  by  virtue  of  the  oral  tradition  which  Moses  had  received 
on  Mount  Sinai,  and  which  successive  generations  of  Initiates  had 
transmitted,  as  they  claimed,  unaltered,  unto  them.  Their  very 
costume,  their  belief  in  the  influences  of  the  stars,  and  in  the  im- 
mortality and  transmigration  of  souls,  their  system  of  angels  and 
their  astronomy,  were  all  foreign. 

Sadduceeism  arose  merely  from  an  opposition  essentially  Jewish, 
to  these  foreign  teachings,  and  that  mixture  of  doctrines,  adopted 
by  the  Pharisees,  and  which  constituted  the  popular  creed. 

We  come  at  last  to  the  Esscnes  and  Therapeuts,  with  whom  this 
Degree  is  particularly  concerned.  That  intermingling  of  oriental 
and  occidental  rites,  of  Persian  and  Pythagorean  opinions,  which 
we  have  pointed  out  in  the  doctrines  of  Philo,  is  unmistakable  in 
the  creeds  of  these  two  sects. 

They  were  less  distinguished  by  metaphysical  speculations  than 
by  simple  meditations  and  moral  practices.  But  the  latter  always 


2<3o  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

partook  of  the  Zoroastrian  principle,  that  it  was  necessary  to  free 
the  soul  from  the  trammels  and  influences  of  matter;  which  led 
to  a  system  of  abstinence  and  maceration  entirely  opposed  to  the 
ancient  Hebraic  ideas,  favorable  as  they  were  to  physical  pleasures. 

In  general,  the  life  and  manners  of  these  mystical  associa- 
tions, as  Philo  and  Josephus  describe  them,  and  particularly  their 
prayers  at  sunrise,  seem  the  image  of  what  the  Zend-Avesta  pre- 
scribes to  the  faithful  adorer  or  Ormuzd;  and  some  of  their 
observances  cannot  otherwise  be  explained. 

The  Therapeuts  resided  in  Egypt,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Alex- 
andria; and  the  Essenes  in  Palestine,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Dead 
Sea.  But  there  was  nevertheless  a  striking  coincidence  in  their 
ideas,  readily  explained  by  attributing  it  to  a  foreign  influence. 
The  Jews  of  Egypt,  under  the  influence  of  the  School  of  Alexan- 
dria, endeavored  in  general  to  make  their  doctrines  harmonize 
with  the  traditions  of  Greece;  and  thence  came,  in  the  doctrines 
of  the  Therapeuts,  as  stated  by  Philo,  the  many  analogies  between 
the  Pythagorean  and  Orphic  ideas,  on  one  side,  and  those  of  Ju- 
daism on  the  other:  while  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  having  less  com- 
munication with  Greece,  or  contemning  its  teachings,  rather  im- 
bibed the  Oriental  doctrines,  which  they  drank  in  at  the  source, 
and  with  which  their  relations  with  Persia  made  them  familiar. 
This  attachment  was  particularly  shown  in  the  Kabalah,  which 
belonged  rather  to  Palestine  than  to  Egypt,  though  extensively 
known  in  the  latter;  and  furnished  the  Gnostics  with  some  of 
their  most  striking  theories. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  that  while  Christ  spoke  often  of  the 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  He  never  once  mentioned  the  Essenes, 
bet  ween  whose  doctrines  and  His  there  was  so  great  a  resemblance, 
and,  in  many  points,  so  perfect  an  identity.  Indeed,  they  are  not 
named,  nor  even  distinctly  alluded  to.  anywhere  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament. 

John,  the  son  of  a  Priest  who  ministered  in  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem,  and  whose  mother  was  of  the  family  of  Aharun,  was  in 
the  deserts  until  the  day  of  his  showing  unto  Israel.  He  drank 
neither  wine  nor  strong-  drink.  Clad  in  hair-cloth,  and  with  a 
girdle  of  leather,  and  feeding  upon  such  food  as  the  desert  afforded, 
he  preached,  in  the  country  about  Jordan,  the  baptism  of  repent- 
ance, for  the  remission  of  sins ;  that  is,  the  necessity  of  repent- 
ance proven  by  reformation.  He  taught  the  people  charity  and 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  26l 

liberality;  the  publicans,  justice,  equity,  and  fair  dealing;  the 
soldiery,  peace,  truth,  and  contentment;  to  do  violence  to  none, 
accuse  none  falsely,  and  be  content  with  their  pay.  He  incul- 
cated the  necessity  of  a  virtuous  life,  and  the  folly  of  trusting  to 
their  descent  from  Abraham. 

He  denounced  both  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  as  a  generation  of 
vipers,  threatened  with  the  anger  of  God.  He  baptized  those  who 
confessed  their  sins.  He  preached  in  the  desert ;  and  therefore  in 
the  country  where  the  Essenes  lived,  professing  the  same  doctrines. 
He  was  imprisoned  before  Christ  began  to  preach.  Matthew  men- 
tions him  without  preface  or  explanation;  as  if,  apparently,  his 
history  was  too  well  known  to  need  any.  "In  those  days,"  he 
says,  "came  John  the  Baptist,  preaching  in  the  wilderness  of 
Judea."  His  disciples  frequently  fasted;  for  we  find  them  with 
the  Pharisees  coming  to  Jesus  to  inquire  why  His  Disciples  did 
not  fast  as  often  as  they ;  and  He  did  not  denounce  tliem,  as  His 
habit  was  to  denounce  the  Pharisees ;  but  answered  them  kindly 
and  gently. 

From  his  prison,  John  sent  two  of  his  disciples  to  inquire  of 
Christ:  "Art  thou  he  that  is  to  come,  or  do  we  look  for  another?" 
Christ  referred  them  to  his  miracles  as  an  answer;  and  declared 
to  the  people  that  John  was  a  prophet,  and  more  than  a  prophet, 
and  that  no  greater  man  had  ever  been  born ;  but  that  the  hum- 
blest Christian  was  his  superior.  He  declared  him  to  be  Elias,  who 
was  to  come. 

John  had  denounced  to  Herod  his  marriage  with  his  brother's 
wife  as  unlawful ;  and  for  this  he  was  imprisoned,  and  finally  exe- 
cuted to  gratify  her.  His  disciples  buried  him ;  and  Herod  and 
others  thought  he  had  risen  from  the  dead  and  appeared  again  in 
the  person  of  Christ.  The  people  all  regarded  John  as  a  prophet ; 
and  Christ  silenced  the  Priests  and  Elders  by  asking  them  whether 
he  was  inspired.  They  feared  to  excite  the  anger  of  the  people  by 
saying  that  he  was  not.  Christ  declared  that  he  came  "in  the  way 
of  righteousness"  ;  and  that  the  lower  classes  believed  him.  though 
the  Priests  and  Pharisees  did  not. 

Thus  John,  who  was  often  consulted  by  Herod,  and  to  whom 
that  monarch  showed  great  deference,  and  was  often  governed  by 
his  advice ;  whose  doctrine  prevailed  very  extensively  among  the 
people  and  the  publicans,  taught  some  creed  older  than  Chris- 
tianity. That  is  plain:  and  it  is  equally  plain,  that  the  very  large 


262  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

body  of  the  Jews  that  adopted  his  doctrines,  were  neither  Phari- 
sees nor  Sadducees,  but  the  humble,  common  people.  They  must, 
therefore,  have  been  Essenes.  It  is  plain,  too,  that  Christ  applied 
for  baptism  as  a  sacred  rite,  well  known  and  long  practised.  It 
was  becoming  to  him,  he  said,  to  fulfill  all  righteousness. 

In  the  1 8th  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  read  thus: 
"And  a  certain  Jew,  named  Apollos,  born  at  Alexandria,  an  elo- 
quent man,  and  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  came  to  Ephesus.  This 
man  was  instructed  in  the  way  of  the  Lord,  and,  being  fervent  in 
spirit,  he  spake  and  taught  diligently  the  things  of  the  Lord,  know- 
ing only  the  baptism  of  John;  and  he  began  to  speak  boldly  in 
the  synagogue ;  whom,  when  Aquila  and  Priscilla  had  heard,  they 
took  him  unto  them,  and  expounded  unto  him  the  way  of  God 
more  perfectly." 

Translating  this  from  the  symbolic  and  figurative  language 
into  the  true  ordinary  sense  of  the  Greek  text,  it  reads  thus :  "And 
a  certain  Jew,  named  Apollos,  an  Alexandrian  by  birth,  an  eloquent 
man,  and  of  extensive  learning,  came  to  Ephesus.  He  had  learned 
in  the  mysteries  the  true  doctrine  in  regard  to  God ;  and,  being  a 
zealous  enthusiast,  he  spoke  and  taught  diligently  the  truths  in 
regard  to  the  Deity,  having  received  no  other  baptism  than  that 
of  John."  He  knew  nothing  in  regard  to  Christianity;  for  he 
had  resided  in  Alexandria,  and  had  just  then  come  to  Ephesus; 
being,  probably,  a  disciple  of  Philo,  and  a  Therapeut. 

"That,  in  all  times/'  says  St.  Augustine,  "is  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, which  to  know  and  follow  is  the  most  sure  and  certain 
health,  called  according  to  that  name,  but  not  according  to  the 
thing  itself,  of  which  it  is  the  name;  for  the  thing  itself,  which 
is  now  called  the  Christian  religion,  really  was  known  to  the  An- 
cients, nor  was  wanting  at  any  time  from  the  beginning  of  the 
human  race,  until  the  time  when  Christ  came  in  the  flesh ;  from 
whence  the  true  religion,  which  had  previously  existed,  began  xc 
be  called  Christian ;  and  this  in  our  days  is  the  Christian  religion, 
not  as  having  been  wanting1  in  former  times,  but  as  having,  in 
later  times,  received  this  name."  The  disciples  were  first  called 
"Christians."  at  Antioch,  when  Barnabas  and  Paul  began  tc 
preach  there. 

The  Wandering  or  Itinerant  Jews  o^  Exorcises,  who  assumed  to 
employ  the  Sacred  Name  in  exorcising  evil  spirits,  were  no  doubt 
Therapeutae  or  Es-senes. 


KNIGHT  OF  1  HE  EAST  AND  WEST.  263 

"And  it  came  to  pass,"  we  read  in  the  I9th  chapter  of  the  Acts, 
verses  I  to  4,  "that  while  Apollos  was  at  Corinth,  Paul,  having 
passed  through  the  upper  pai  ts  of  Asia  Minor,  came  to  Ephesus ; 
and  finding  certain  disciples,  he  said  to  them,  'Have  ye  received 
the  Holy  Ghost  since  ye  bec.ime  Believers?'  And  they  said  unto 
him,  'We  have  not  so  mucn  as  heard  that  there  is  any  Holy 
Ghost.'  And  he  said  to  them,  'In  what,  then,  were  you  baptized  ?' 
And  they  said  'In  John's  Baptism.'  Then  said  Paul,  'John  in- 
deed baptized  with  the  baptism  of  repentence,  saying  to  the  people 
that  they  should  believe  in  Him  who  was  to  come  after  him,  that 
is,  in  Jesus  Christ.'  When  they  heard  this,  they  were  baptized  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 

This  faith,  taught  by  John,  and  so  nearly  Christianity,  could 
have  been  nothing  but  the  doctrine  of  the  Essenes ;  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  John  belonged  to  that  sect.  The  place  where  he 
preached,  his  macerations  and  frugal  diet,  the  doctrines  he  taught, 
all  prove  it  conclusively.  There  was  no  other  sect  to  which  he 
could  have  belonged;  certainly  none  so  numerous  as  his,  except 
the  Essenes. 

Wa  find,  from  the  two  letters  written  by  Paul  to  the  brethren  at 
Corinth,  that  City  of  Luxury  and  Corruption,  that  there  were 
contentions  among  them.  Rival  sects  had  already,  about  the  57th 
year  of  our  era,  reared  their  banners  there,  as  followers,  some  of 
Paul,  some  of  Apollos,  and  some  of  Cephas.  Some  of  them  de- 
nied the  resurrection.  Paul  urged  them  to  adhere  1  j  the  doctrines 
taught  by  himself,  and  had  sent  Timothy  to  them  to  bring  them 
afresh  to  their  recollection. 

According  to  Paul,  Christ  was  to  come  again.  He  was  to  put 
an  end  to  all  other  Principles  and  Powers,  and  finally  to  Death, 
and  then  be  Himself  once  more  merged  in  God;  who  should  then 
be  all  in  all. 

The  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the  Essenes  were  symbolical. 
They  had,  according  to  Philo  the  Jew,  four  Degrees  ;  the  members 
being  divided  into  two  Orders,  the  Practici  and  Therapeutici; 
the  latter  being  the  contemplative  and  medical  Brethren ;  and  the 
former  the  active,  practical,  business  men.  They  were  Jews  by 
birth;  and  had  a  greater  affection  for  each  other  than  the  mem- 
bers of  any  other  sect.  Their  brotherly  love  was  intense.  They 
fulfilled  the  Christian  law,  "Love  one  another."  They  despised 
riches.  No  one  was  to  be  found  among  them,  having  more  than 
18 


264  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

another.  The  possessions  of  one  were  intermingled  with  those  of 
the  others ;  so  that  they  all  had  but  one  patrimony,  and  were 
brethren.  Their  piety  toward  God  was  extraordinary.  Before 
sunrise  they  never  spake  a  word  about  profane  matters;  but  put 
up  certain  prayers  which  they  had  received  from  their  forefathers. 
At  dawn  of  day,  and  before  it  was  light,  their  prayers  and  hymns 
ascended  to  Heaven.  They  were  eminently  faithful  and  true,  and 
the  Ministers  of  Peace.  They  had  mysterious  ceremonies,  and 
initiations  into  their  mysteries;  and  the  Candidate  promised  that 
he  would  ever  practise  fidelity  to  all  men,  and  especially  to  those 
in  authority,  "because  no  one  obtains  the  government  without 
God's  assistance." 

Whatever  they  said,  was  firmer  than  an  oath ;  but  they  avoided 
swearing,  and  esteemed  it  worse  than  perjury.  They  were  simple 
in  their  diet  and  mode  of  living,  bore  torture  with  fortitude,  and 
despised  death.  They  cultivated  the  science  of  medicine  and  were 
/ery  skillful.  They  deemed  it  a  good  omen  to  dress  in  white  robes. 
They  had  their  own  courts,  and  passed  righteous  judgments.  They 
kept  the  Sabbath  more  rigorously  than  the  Jews. 

Their  chief  towns  were  Engaddi,  near  the  Dead  Sea,  and 
Hebron.  Engaddi  was  about  30  miles  southeast  from  Jerusalem, 
and  Hebron  about  20  miles  south  of  that  city.  Josephus  and 
Eusebius  speak  of  them  as  an  ancient  sect;  and  they  were  no 
doubt  the  first  among  the  Jews  to  embrace  Christianity :  with 
whose  faith  and  doctrine  their  own  tenets  had  so  many  points  of 
resemblance,  and  were  indeed  in  a  great  measure  the  same.  Pliny 
regarded  them  as  a  very  ancient  people. 

In  their  devotions  they  turned  toward  the  rising  sun;  as  the 
Jews  generally  did  toward  the  Temple.  But  they  were  no  idola- 
ters ;  for  they  observed  the  law  of  Moses  with  scrupulous  fidelity. 
They  held  all  things  in  common,  and  despised  riches,  their  wants 
being  supplied  by  the  administration  of  Curators  or  Stewards. 
The  Tetractys,  composed  of  round  dots  instead  of  jods,  was  re- 
vered among  them.  This  being  a  Pythagorean  symbol,  evidently 
shows  their  connection  with  the  school  of  Pythagoras ;  but  their 
peculiar  tenets  more  resemble  those  of  Confucius  and  Zoroaster; 
and  probably  were  adopted  while  they  were  prisoners  in  Persia; 
which  explains  their  turning  toward  the  Sun  in  prayer. 

Their  demeanor  was  sober  and  chaste.  They  submitted  to  the 
superintendence  of  governors  whom  they  appointed  over  them- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  265 

selves.  The  whole  of  their  time  was  spent  in  labor,  meditation, 
and  prayer;  and  they  were  most  sedulously  attentive  to  every  call 
of  justice  and  humanity,  and  every  moral  duty.  They  believed 
in  the  unity  of  God.  They  supposed  the  souls  of  men  to  have 
fallen,  by  a  disastrous  fate,  from  the  regions  of  purity  and  light, 
into  the  bodies  which  they  occupy ;  during  their  continuance  in 
which  they  considered  them  confined  as  in  a  prison.  Therefore 
they  did  not  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body ;  but  in  that 
of  the  soul  only.  They  believed  in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and 
punishments ;  and  they  disregarded  the  ceremonies  or  external 
forms  enjoined  in  the  law  of  Moses  to  be  observed  in  the  worship 
of  God ;  holding  that  the  words  of  that  lawgiver  were  to  be  un- 
derstood in  a  mysterious  and  recondite  sense,  and  not  according  to 
their  literal  meaning.  They  offered  no  sacrifices,  except  at  home ; 
and  by  meditation  they  endeavored,  as  far  as  possible,  to  isolate 
the  soul  from  the  body,  and  carry  it  back  to  God. 

Eusebius  broadly  admits  "that  the  ancient  Therapeutae  were 
Christians ;  and  that  their  ancient  writings  were  our  Gospels  and 
Epistles." 

The  ESSENES  were  of  the  Eclectic  Sect  of  Philosophers,  and 
held  PLATO  in  the  highest  esteem ;  they  believed  that  true  philos- 
ophy, the  greatest  and  most  salutary  gift  of  God  to  mortals,  was 
scattered,  in  various  portions,  through  all  the  different  Seels ;  and 
that  it  was,  consequently,  the  duty  of  every  wise  man  to  gather  it 
from  the  several  quarters  where  it  lay  dispersed,  and  to  employ 
it,  thus  reunited,  in  destroying  the  dominion  of  impiety  and 
vice. 

The  great  festivals  of  the  Solstices  were  observed  in  a  distin- 
guished manner  by  the  Essenes ;  as  would  naturally  be  supposed, 
from  the  fact  that  they  reverenced  the  Sun,  not  as  a  god,  but  as  a 
symbol  of  light  and  fire;  the  fountain  of  which,  the  Orientals 
supposed  God  to  be.  They  lived  in  continence  and  abstinence, 
and  had  establishments  similar  to  the  monasteries  of  the  early 
Christians. 

The  writings  of  the  Essenes  were  full  of  mysticism,  parables, 
enigmas,  and  allegories.  They  believed  in  the  esoteric  and  exote- 
ric meanings  of  the  Scriptures ;  and,  as  we  have  already  said,  they 
had  a  warrant  for  that  in  the  Scriptures  themselves.  They  found 
it  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  the  Gnostics  found  it  in  the  New. 
The  Christian  writers,  and  even  Christ  himself,  recognized  it  as  a 


266  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

truth,  that  all  Scripture  had  an  inner  and  an  outer  meaning.  Thus 
we  find  it  said  as  follows,  in  one  of  the  Gospels : 

"Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mystery  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God ;  but  unto  men  that  are  without,  all  these  things  are  done  in 
parables ;  that  seeing,  they  may  see  and  not  perceive,  and  hearing 
they  may  hear  and  not  understand.  .  .  .  And  the  disciples  came 
and  said  unto  him,  'Why  speakest  Thou  the  truth  in  par-ables?'— 
He  answered  and  said  unto  them,  'Because  it  is  given  unto  you  to 
know  the  mysteries  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  to  them  it  is 
not  given.'  " 

Paul,  in  the  4th  chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  speak- 
ing of  the  simplest  facts  of  the  Old  Testament,  asserts  that  they 
are  an  allegory.  In  the  3d  chapter  of  the  second  letter  to  the 
Corinthians,  he  declares  himself  a  minister  of  the  New  Testament, 
appointed  by  God ;  "Not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit ;  for  the 
letter  killeth."  Origen  and  St.  Gregory  held  that  the  Gospels 
were  not  to  be  taken  in  their  literal  sense;  and  Athanasius  ad- 
monishes us  that  "Should  we  understand  sacred  writ  according  to 
the  letter,  we  should  fall  into  the  most  enormous  blasphemies." 

Eusebius  said,  "Those  who  preside  over  the  Holy  Sepulchres, 
philosophize  over  them,  and  expound  their  literal  sense  by  alle- 
gory." 

The  sources  of  our  knowledge  of  the  Kabalistic  doctrines,  are 
the  books  of  Jezirah  and  Sohar,  the  former  drawn  up  in  the  second 
century,  and  the  latter  a  little  later;  but  containing  materials 
much  older  than  themselves.  In  their  most  characteristic  ele- 
ments, they  go  back  to  the  time  of  the  exile.  In  them,  as  in  the 
teachings  of  Zoroaster,  everything  that  exists  emanated  from  a 
source  of  infinite  LIGHT.  Before  everything,  existed  THE  AN- 
CIENT OF  DAYS,  the  KING  OF  LIGHT;  a  title  often  given  to  the 
Creator  in  the  Zend-Avesta  and  the  code  of  the  Sabccans.  With 
the  idea  so  expressed  is  connected  the  pantheism  of  India.  THE 
KING  OF  LIGHT,  THE  ANCIENT,  is  ALL  THAT  is.  He  is  not  only 
the  real  cause  of  all  Existences;  he  is  Infinite  [AlNSOPH].  He  is 
HIMSELF  :  there  is  nothing  in  Him  that  We  can  call  Thou. 

In  the  Indian  doctrine,  not  only  is  the  Supreme  Being  the  real 
cause  of  all,  but  he  is  the  only  real  Existence:  ?.ll  the  rest  is  illu- 
sion. In  the  Kabalah,  as  in  the  Persian  and  Gnostic  doctrines, 
He  is  the  Supreme  Eeing  unknown  to  all,  the  "Unknown  Father." 
The  world  is  his  revelation,  and  subsists  only  in  Him.  His  attri- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  267 

butes  are  reproduced  there,  with  different  modifications,  and  in 
different  degrees,  so  that  the  Universe  is  His  Holy  Spleador:  it 
is  but  His  Mantle;  but  it  must  be  revered  in  silence.  All  beings 
have  emanated  from  the  Supreme  Being :  The  nearer  a  being  is  to 
Him,  the  more  perfect  it  is ;  the  more  remote  in  the  scale,  the  less 
its  purity. 

A  ray  of  Light,  shot  from  the  Deity,  is  the  cause  and  principle 
of  all  that  exists.  It  is  at  once  Father  and  Mother  of  All,  in  the 
sublimest  sense.  It  penetrates  everything ;  and  without  it  nothing 
can  exist  an  instant.  From  this  double  FORCE,  designated  by  the 
two  parts  of  the  word  I.*.  H.'.  U.'.  H.'.  emanated  the  FIRST-BORN 
of  God,  the  Universal  FORM,  in  which  are  contained  all  beings ; 
the  Persian  and  Platonic  Archetype  of  things,  united  with  the 
Infinite  by  the  primitive  ray  of  Light. 

This  First-Born  is  the  Creative  Agent,  Conservator,  and  ani- 
mating Principle  of  the  Universe.  It  is  THE  LIGHT  OF  LIGHT.  It 
possesses  the  three  Primitive  Forces  of  the  Divinity,  LIGHT,  SPIRIT, 
and  LIFE  [<J>u><»,  Hveufw,  and  Zwr)].  As  it  has  received  what  it 
gives,  Light  and  Life,  it  is  equally  considered  as  the  generative 
and  conceptive  Principle,  the  Primitive  Man,  ADAM  KADMON. 
As  such,  it  has  revealed  itself  in  ten  emanations  or  Sephiroth, 
which  are  not  ten  different  beings,  nor  even  beings  at  all ;  but 
sources  of  life,  vessels  of  Omnipotence,  and  types  of  Creation. 
They  are  Sovereignty  or  Will,  Wisdom,  Intelligence,  Benignity, 
Severity,  Beauty,  Victory,  Glory,  Permanency,  and  Empire.  These 
are  attributes  of  God ;  and  this  idea,  that  God  reveals  Himself  by 
His  attributes,  and  that  the  human  mind  cannot  perceive  or  dis- 
cern God  Himself,  in  his  works,  but  only  his  mode  of  manifesting 
Himself,  is  a  profound  Truth.  We  know  of  the  Invisible  only 
what  the  Visible  reveals. 

Wisdom  was  called  Nous  and  LOGOS  [Nous  and  Ao-yoz],  INTEL- 
LECT or  the  WORD.  Intelligence,  source  of  the  oil  of  anointing, 
responds  to  the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  Christian  Faith. 

Beauty  is  represented  by  green  and  yellow.  Victory  is  YA- 
HOVAH-TsABAOTH,  the  column  on  the  right  hand,  the  column 
fachin:  Glory  is  the  column  Boas,  on  the  left  hand.  And  thus 
our  symbols  appear  again  in  the  Kabalah.  And  again  the  LIGHT, 
the  object  of  our  labors,  appears  as  the  creative  power  of  Deity. 
The  circle,  also,  was  the  special  symbol  of  the  first  Sephirah,  Ke- 
ther,  or  the  Crown. 


268  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

We  do  not  further  follow  the  Kabalah  in  its  four  Worlds  of 
Spirits,  Azilnth,  Briah,  Yezirah,  and  Asiah,  or  of  emanation,  crea- 
tion, formation,  and  fabrication,  one  inferior  to  and  one  emerging 
from  the  other,  the  superior  always  enveloping  the  inferior;  its 
doctrine  that,  in  all  that  exists,  there  is  nothing  purely  material ; 
that  all  comes  from  God,  and  in  all  He  proceeds  by  irradiation ; 
that  everything  subsists  by  the  Divine  ray  that  penetrates  crea- 
tion ;  and  all  is  united  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is  the  life  of 
life;  so  that  all  is  God;  the  Existences  that  inhabit  the  four 
worlds,  inferior  to  each  other  in  proportion  to  their  distance  from 
the  Great  King  of  Light :  the  contest  between  the  good  and  evil 
Angels  and  Principles,  to  endure  until  the  Eternal  Himself  comes 
to  end  it  and  re-establish  the  primitive  harmony ;  the  four  distinct 
parts  of  the  Soul  of  Man;  and  the  migrations  of  impure  souls, 
until  they  are  sufficiently  purified  to  share  with  the  Spirits  of 
Light  the  contemplation  of  the  Supreme  Being  whose  Splendor 
fills  the  Universe. 

The  WORD  was  also  found  in  the  Phoenician  Creed.  As  in  all 
those  of  Asia,  a  WORD  of  God,  written  in  starry  characters,  by  the 
planetary  Divinities,  and  communicated  by  the  Demi-Gods,  as  a 
profound  mystery,  to  the  higher  classes  of  the  human  race,  to  be 
communicated  by  them  to  mankind,  created  the  world.  The  faith 
of  the  Phoenicians  was  an  emanation  from  that  ancient  worship  of 
the  Stars,  which  in  the  creed  of  Zoroaster  alone,  is  connected  with 
a  faith  in  one  God.  Light  and  Fire  are  the  most  important  agents 
in  the  Phoenician  faith.  There  is  a  race  of  children  of  the  Light. 
They  adored  the  Heaven  with  its  Lights,  deeming  it  the  Supreme 
God. 

Everything  emanates  from  a  Single  Principle,  and  a  Primitive 
Love,  which  is  the  Moving  Power  of  All  and  governs  all.  Light, 
by  its  union  with  Spirit,  whereof  it  is  but  the  vehicle  or  symbol, 
is  the  Life  of  everything,  and  penetrates  everything.  It  should 
therefore  be  respected  and  honored  everywhere;  for  everywhere 
it  governs  and  controls. 

The  Chaldaic  and  Jerusalem  Paraphrasts  endeavored  to  render 
the  phrase,  DEBAR- YAHOVAH  [mrT1  12T] ,  the  Word  of  God,  a  per- 
sonalty, wherever  they  met  with  it.  The  phrase,  "And  God 
created  man;"  is,  in  the  Jerusalem  Targum,  "And  the  Word  of 
IHUH  created  man." 

So,  in  xxviii.  Gen.  20,  21,  where  Jacob  says :    If  God 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  269 

linn  ALHIMJ  will  be  with  me  ...  then  shall  IHUH  be  my  ALHIM 
[CTi^N^  *b  mrP  JTiTi;  UHIH  IHUH  Li  LALHIM]  ;  and  this  stone  shall 
6e  God's  House  [zrr6«  JV3  nTP  .  .  IHIH  BITH  ALHIM]:  Onkelos 
paraphrases  it,  "If  the  word  of  IHUH  will  be  my  help  ....  then 
the  Word  of  IHUH  ohall  be  my  God." 

So,  in  iii.  Gen.  8,  for  "The  Voice  of  the  Lord  God"  [DV^N  mn\ 
IHUH  ALHIM],  we  have,  "The  Voice  of  the  Word  of  IHUH." 

In  ix.  Wisdom,  I,  "O  God  of  my  Fathers  and  Lord  of  Mercy! 
who  hast  made  all  things  with  thy  word.  .  iv  \6yov  wj." 

And  in  xviii.  Wisdom,  15,  "Thine  Almighty  Wrord  [Aoyos]  leaped 
down  from  Heaven." 

Philo  speaks  of  the  Word  as  being  the  same  with  God.  So  in  sev- 
eral places  he  calls  it  "Sevrepo?  ®dos  Ao'yos,"  the  Second  Divinity ; 
"lixwv  roo  6sout"  the  Image  of  God:  the  Divine  Word  that  made 
all  things:  "the  wa^os,"  substitute,  of  God;  and  the  like. 

Thus,  when  John  commenced  to  preach,  had  been  for  ages 
agitated,  by  the  Priests  and  Philosophers  of  the  East  and  West, 
the  great  questions  concerning  the  eternity  or  creation  of  matter : 
immediate  or  intermediate  creation  of  the  Universe  by  the  Su- 
preme God ;  the  origin,  object,  and  final  extinction  of  evil ;  the 
relations  between  the  intellectual  and  material  worlds,  and  be- 
tween God  and  man ;  and  the  creation,  fall,  redemption,  and 
restoration  to  his  first  estate,  of  man. 

The  Jewish  doctrine,  differing  in  this  from  all  the  other  Oriental 
creeds,  and  even  from  the  Alohayistic  legend  with  which  the  book 
of  Genesis  commences,  attributed  the  creation  to  the  immediate 
action  of  the  Supreme  Being.  The  Theosophists  of  the  other 
Eastern  Peoples  interposed  more  than  one  intermediary  between 
God  and  the  world.  To  place  between  them  but  a  single  Being, 
to  suppose  for  the  production  of  the  world  but  a  single  interme- 
diary, was,  in  their  eyes,  to  lower  the  Supreme  Majesty.  The 
interval  between  God,  who  is  perfect  Purity,  and  matter,  which  is 
base  and  foul,  was  too  great  for  them  to  clear  it  at  a  single  step. 
Even  in  the  Occident,  neither  Plato  nor  Philo  could  thus  im- 
poverish the  Intellectual  World. 

Thus,  Cerinthus  of  Ephesus,  with  most  of  the  Gnostics,  Philo, 
the  Kabalah,  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Puranas,  and  all  the  Orient, 
deemed  the  distance  and  antipathy  between  the  Supreme  Being 
and  the  material  world  too  great,  to  attribute  to  the  former  the 
creation  of  the  latter.  Below,  and  emanating  from,  or  created 


2/O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

by,  the  Ancient  of  Days,  the  Central  Light,  the  Beginning,  or 
First  Principle  [Apx>]]>  one,  two,  or  more  Principles,  Existences,  or 
Intellectual  Beings  were  imagined,  to  some  one  or  more  of  whom 
[without  any  immediate  creative  act  on  the  part  of  the  Great 
Immovable,  Silent  Deity],  the  immediate  creation  of  the  material 
and  mental  universe  was  due. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  many  of  the  speculations  on  this 
point.  To  some,  the  world  was  created  by  the  LOGOS  or  WORD, 
first  manifestation  of,  or  emanation  from,  the  Deity.  To  others, 
the  beginning  of  creation  was  by  the  emanation  of  a  ray  of 
LIGHT,  creating  the  principle  of  Light  and  Life.  The  Primitive 
THOUGHT,  creating  the  inferior  Deities,  a  succession  of  INTELLI- 
GENCES, the  lynges  of  Zoroaster,  his  Amshaspands,  Izeds,  and 
Ferouers,  the  Ideas  of  Plato,  the  Aions  of  the  Gnostics,  the 
Angels  of  the  Jews,  the  Nous,  the  Demiourgos,  the  DIVINE  REA- 
SON, the  Pozvers  or  Forces  of  Philo,  and  the  Alohayim,  Forces  or 
Superior  Gods  of  the  ancient  legend  with  which  Genesis  begins, — 
to  these  and  other  intermediaries  the  creation  was  owing.  No  re- 
straints were  laid  on  the  Fancy  and  the  Imagination.  The  veriest 
Abstractions  became  Existences  and  Realities.  The  attributes  of 
God,  personified,  became  Powers,  Spirits,  Intelligences. 

God  was  the  Light  of  Light,  Divine  Fire,  the  Abstract  Intellec- 
tuality, the  Root  or  Germ  of  the  Universe.  Simon  Magus,  founder 
of  the  Gnostic  faith,  and  many  of  the  early  Judaizing  Christians, 
admitted  that  the  manifestations  of  the  Supreme  Being,  as  FATHER, 
or  JEHOVAH,  SON  or  CHRIST,  and  HOLY  SPIRIT,  were  only  so  many 
different  modes  of  Existence,  or  Forces  [Suva/nets]  of  the  same  God. 
To  others  they  were,  as  were  the  multitude  of  Subordinate  Intelli- 
gences, real  and  distinct  beings. 

The  Oriental  imagination  revelled  in  the  creation  of  these  Infe- 
rior Intelligences,  Powers  of  Good  and  Evil,  and  Angels.  We 
have  spoken  of  those  imagined  by  the  Persians  and  the  Kabalists. 
In  the  Talmud,  every  star,  every  country,  every  town,  and  almost 
every  tongue  has  a  Prince  of  Heaven  as  its  Protector.  JEHUEL  is 
the  guardian  of  fire,  and  MICHAEL  of  water.  Seven  spirits  assist 
each ;  those  of  fire  being  Seraphiel,  Gabriel,  Nitriel,  Tammael, 
Tchimschiel,  Hadarniel,  and  Sarniel.  These  seven  are  represented 
by  the  square  columns  of  this  Degree,  while  the  columns  JACHIN 
and  BOAZ  represent  the  angels  of  fire  and  water.  But  the  col- 
umns are  not  representatives  of  these  alone. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  27! 

To  Basilides,  God  was  without  name,  uncreated,  at  first  contain- 
ing and  concealing  in  Himself  the  Plenitude  of  His  Perfections ; 
and  when  these  are  by  Him  displayed  and  manifested,  there  result 
as  many  particular  Existences,  all  analogous  to  Him,  and  still  and 
always  Him.  To  the  Essenes  and  the  Gnostics,  the  East  and  the 
West  both  devised  this  faith;  that  the  Ideas,  Conceptions,  or 
Manifestations  of  the  Deity  were  so  many  Creations,  so  many  Be- 
ings, all  God,  nothing  without  Him,  but  more  than  what  we  now 
understand  by  the  word  ideas.  They  emanated  from  and  were 
again  merged  in  God.  They  had  a  kind  of  middle  existence  be- 
tween our  modern  ideas,  and  the  intelligences  or  ideas,  elevated  to 
the  rank  of  genii,  of  the  Oriental  mythology. 

These  personified  attributes  of  Deity,  in  the  theory  of  Basilides, 
were  the  UfHOTo-fovoz  or  First-born,  Nous  [Nous  or  Mind]  :  from  it 
emanates  Aoyo*  [Logos,  or  THE  WORD]  from  it  Qpovyai.-;  :  [Phro- 
nesis, Intellect]  :  from  it  Soyia  [Sophia,  Wisdom}  :  from  it  AiW^us 
[Dunamis,  Power]  :  and  from  it  AIKCUOOWT/  [Dikaiosune,  Right- 
eousness] :  to  which  latter  the  Jews  gave  the  name  of  Eipr/nj 
[Eirene,  Peace,  or  Calm] ,  the  essential  characteristic  of  Divinity, 
and  harmonious  effect  of  all  His  perfections.  The  whole  number 
of  successive  emanations  was  365,  expressed  by  the  Gnostics,  in 
Greek  letters,  by  the  mystic  word  ABPAHA-'  [Abraxas]  ;  desig- 
nating God  as  manifested,  or  the  aggregate  of  his  manifestations ; 
but  not  the  Supreme  and  Secret  God  Himself.  These  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  Intelligences  compose  altogether  the  Fullness 
or  Plenitude  [nAr/pw/xa]  of  the  Divine  Emanations. 

With  the  Ophites,  a  sect  of  the  Gnostics,  there  were  seven  infe- 
rior spirits  [inferior  to  laldabaoth,  the  Demiourgos  or  Actual  Cre- 
ator] :  Michael,  Suriel,  Raphael,  Gabriel,  Thauthabaoth,  Erataoth, 
and  Athaniel,  the  genii  of  the  stars  called  the  Bull,  the  Dog,  the 
Lion,  the  Bear,  the  Serpent,  the  Eagle,  and  the  Ass  that  formerly 
figured  in  the  constellation  Cancer,  and  symbolized  respectively 
by  those  animals;  as  laldabaoth,  lao,  Adonai,  Elo'i,  Oral,  and  As- 
taphai  were  the  genii  of  Saturn,  the  Moon,  the  Sun,  Jupiter, 
Venus,  and  Mercury. 

The  WORD  appears  in  all  these  creeds.  It  is  the  Ormuzd  of 
Zoroaster,  the  Ainsoph  of  the  Kabalah,  the  Nous  of  Platonism 
and  Philonism,  and  the  Sophia  or  Demiourgos  of  the  Gnostics. 

And  all  these  creeds,  while  admitting  there  different  manifesta- 
tions of  the  Supreme  Being,  held  that  His  identity  was  immutable 


272  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  permanent.  That  was  Plato's  distinction  between  the  Being 
always  the  same  [TO  ov]  and  the  perpetual  flow  of  things  inces- 
santly changing,  the  Genesis. 

The  belief  in  dualism  in  some  shape,  was  universal.  Those 
who  held  that  everything  emanated  from  God,  aspired  to  God,  and 
re-entered  into  God,  believed  that,  among  those  emanations  were 
two  adverse  Principles,  of  Light  and  Darkness,  Good  and  Evil. 
This  prevailed  in  Central  Asia  and  in  Syria;  while  in  Egypt  it 
assumed  the  form  of  Greek  speculation.  In  the  former,  a  second 
Intellectual  Principle  was  admitted,  active  in  its  Empire  of  Dark- 
ness, audacious  against  the  Empire  of  Light.  So  the  Persians  and 
Sabeans  understood  it.  In  Egypt,  this  second  Principle  was  Mat- 
ter, as  the  word  was  used  by  the  Platonic  School,  with  its  sad  at- 
tributes, Vacuity,  Darkness,  and  Death.  In  their  theory,  matter 
could  be  animated  only  by  the  low  communication  of  a  principle 
of  divine  life.  It  resists  the  influences  that  would  spiritualize  it. 
That  resisting  Power  is  Satan,  the  rebellious  Matter,  Matter  that 
does  not  partake  of  God. 

To  many  there  were  two  Principles;  the  Unknown  Father,  or 
Supreme  and  Eternal  God,  living  in  the  centre  of  the  Light, 
happy  in  the  perfect  purity  of  His  being ;  the  other,  eternal  Mat- 
ter, that  inert,  shapeless,  darksome  mass,  which  they  considered  as 
the  source  of  all  evils,  the  mother  and  dwelling-place  of  Satan. 

To  Philo  and  the  Platonists,  there  was  a  Soul  of  the  world,  cre- 
ating visible  things,  and  active  in  them,  as  agent  of  the  Supreme 
Intelligence;  realizing  therein  the  ideas  communicated  to  Him  by 
that  Intelligence,  and  which  sometimes  excel  His  conceptions,  but 
which  He  executes  without  comprehending  them. 

The  Apocalypse  or  Revelations,  by  whomever  written,  belongs 
to  the  Orient  and  to  extreme  antiquity.  It  reproduces  what  is  far 
older  than  itself.  It  paints,  with  the  strongest  colors  that  the  Ori- 
ental genius  ever  employed,  the  closing  scenes  of  the  great  strug- 
gle of  Light,  and  Truth,  and  Good,  against  Darkness,  Error,  and 
Evil ;  personified  in  that  between  the  New  Religion  on  one  side, 
and  Paganism  and  Judaism  on  the  other.  It  is  a  particular  appli- 
cation of  the  ancient  myth  of  Ormuzd  and  his  Genii  against  Ahri- 
man  and  his  Devs ;  and  it  celebrates  the  final  triumph  of  Truth 
against  the  combined  powers  of  men  and  demons.  The  ideas  and 
imagery  are  borrowed  from  every  quarter ;  and  allusions  are  found 
in  it  to  the  doctrines  of  all  ages.  We  are  continually  reminded 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  2/3 

of  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Jewish  Codes,  Philo,  and  the  Gnosis. 
The  Seven  Spirits  surrounding  the  Throne  of  the  Eternal,  at  the 
opening  of  the  Grand  Drama,  and  acting  so  important  a  part 
throughout,  everywhere  the  first  instruments  of  the  Divine  Will 
and  Vengeance,  are  the  Seven  Amshaspands  of  Parsism  ;  as  the 
Twenty-four  Ancients,  offering  to  the  Supreme  Being  the  first 
supplications  and  the  first  homage,  remind  us  of  the  Mysterious 
Chiefs  of  Judaism,  foreshadow  the  Eons  of  Gnosticism,  and  repro- 
duce the  twenty-four  Good  Spirits  created  by  Ormuzd  and  in- 
closed in  an  egg. 

The  Christ  of  the  Apocalypse,  First-born  of  Creation  and  of  the 
Resurrection,  is  invested  with  the  characteristics  of  the  Ormuzd 
and  Sosiosch  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Ainsoph  of  the  Kabalah 
and  the  Carpistes  [Kap7r«m/s]  of  the  Gnostics.  The  idea  that  the 
true  Initiates  and  Faithful  become  Kings  and  Priests,  is  at  once 
Persian,  Jewish,  Christian,  and  Gnostic.  And  the  definition  of 
the  Supreme  Being,  that  He  is  at  once  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  be- 
ginning and  the  end — He  that  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come, 
t.  e.,  Time  illimitable,  is  Zoroaster's  definition  of  Zerouane-Ak- 
herene. 

The  depths  of  Satan  which  no  man  can  measure ;  his  triumph 
for  a  time  by  fraud  and  violence ;  his  being  chained  by  an  angel ; 
his  reprobation  and  his  precipitation  into  a  sea  of  metal ;  his 
names  of  the  Serpent  and  the  Dragon ;  the  whole  conflict  of  the 
Good  Spirits  or  celestial  armies  against  the  bad ;  are  so  many 
ideas  and  designations  found  alike  in  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Ka- 
balah, and  the  Gnosis. 

We  even  find  in  the  Apocalypse  that  singular  Persian  idea, 
which  regards  some  of  the  lower  animals  as  so  many  Devs  or  ve- 
hicles of  Devs. 

The  guardianship  of  the  earth  by  a  good  angel,  the  renewing  of 
the  earth  and  heavens,  and  the  final  triumph  of  pure  and  holy 
men,  are  the  same  victory  of  Good  over  Evil,  for  which  the  whole 
Orient  looked. 

The  gold,  and  white  raiments,  of  the  twenty-four  Elders  are,  as 
in  the  Persian  faith,  the  signs  of  a  lofty  perfection  and  divine 
purity. 

Thus  the  Human  mind  labored  and  struggled  and  tortured  itself 
for  ages,  to  explain  to  itself  what  it  felt,  without  confessing  it,  to 
be  inexplicable.  A  vast  crowd  of  indistinct  abstractions,  hovering 


2/4  MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

in  the  imagination,  a  train  of  words  embodying  no  tangible  mean- 
ing, an  inextricable  labyrinth  of  subtleties,  was  the  result. 

But  one  grand  idea  ever  emerged  and  stood  prominent  and  un- 
changeable over  the  weltering  chaos  of  confusion.  God  is  great, 
and  good,  and  wise.  Evil  and  pain  and  sorrow  are  temporary, 
and  for  wise  and  beneficent  purposes.  They  must  be  consistent 
with  God's  goodness,  purity,  and  infinite  perfection ;  and  there 
must  be  a  mode  of  explaining  them,  if  we  could  but  find  it  out; 
as,  in  all  ways  we  will  endeavor  to  do.  Ultimately,  Good  will  pre- 
vail, and  Evil  be  overthrown.  God  alone  can  do  this,  and  He  will 
do  it,  by  an  Emanation  from  Himself,  assuming  the  Human  form 
and  redeeming  the  world. 

Behold  the  object,  the  end,  the  result,  of  the  great  speculations 
and  logomachies  of  antiquity;  the  ultimate  annihilation  of  evil, 
and  restoration  of  Man  to  his  first  estate,  by  a  Redeemer,  a  Ma- 
sayah,  a  Christos,  the  incarnate  Word,  Reason,  or  Power  of  Deity. 

This  Redeemer  is  the  Word  or  Logos,  the  Ormuzd  of  Zoroaster, 
the  Ainsoph  of  the  Kabalah,  the  Nous  of  Platonism  and  Philon- 
ism ;  He  that  was  in  the  Beginning  with  God,  and  was  God,  and 
by  Whom  everything  was  made.  That  He  was  looked  for  by  all 
the  People  of  the  East  is  abundantly  shown  by  the  Gospel  of  John 
and  the  Letters  of  Paul ;  wherein  scarcely  anything  seemed  neces- 
sary to  be  said  in  proof  that  such  a  Redeemer  was  to  come ;  but 
all  the  energies  of  the  writers  are  devoted  to  showing  that  Jesus 
was  that  Christos  whom  all  the  nations  were  expecting ;  the 
"Word,"  the  Masayah,  the  Anointed  or  Consecrated  One. 

In  this  Degree  the  great  contest  between  good  and  evil, in  antici- 
pation of  the  appearance  and  advent  of  the  Word  or  Redeemer  is 
symbolized ;  and  the  mysterious  esoteric  teachings  of  the  Essenes 
and  the  Cabalists.  Of  the  practices  of  the  former  we  gain  but 
glimpses  in  the  ancient  writers;  but  we  know  that,  as  their  doc- 
trines were  taught  by  John  the  Baptist,  they  greatly  resembled 
those  of  greater  purity  and  more  nearly  perfect,  taught  by  Jesus  ; 
and  that  not  only  Palestine  was  full  of  John's  disciples,  so  that  the 
Priests  and  Pharisees  did  not  dare  to  deny  John's  inspiration ;  but 
his  doctrine  had  extended  to  Asia  Minor,  and  had  made  converts 
in  luxurious  Ephesus,  as  it  also  had  in  Alexandria  in  Egypt ;  and 
that  they  readily  embraced  the  Christian  faith,  of  which  they  had 
before  not  even  heard. 

These  old  controversies  have  died  away,  and  the  old  faiths  have 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  EAST  AND  WEST.  2/5 

faded  into  oblivion.  But  Masonry  still  survives,  vigorous  and 
strong,  as  when  philosophy  was  taught  in  the  schools  of  Alexan- 
dria and  under  the  Portico ;  teaching  the  same  old  truths  as  the 
Essenes  taught  by  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  as  John  tho 
Baptist  preached  in  the  Desert:  truths  imperishable  as  the  Deity, 
and  undeniable  as  Light.  Those  truths  were  gathered  by  the 
Essenes  from  the  doctrines  of  the  Orient  and  the  Occident,  from 
the  Zend-Avesta  and  the  Vedas,  from  Plato  and  Pythagoras,  from 
India,  Persia,  Phoenicia,  and  Syria,  from  Greece  and  Egypt,  and 
from  the  Holy  Books  of  the  Jews.  Hence  we  are  called  Knights 
of  the  East  and  West,  because  their  doctrines  came  from  both. 
And  these  doctrines,  the  wheat  sifted  from  the  chaff,  the  Truth 
separated  from  Error,  Masonry  has  garnered  up  in  her  heart  of 
hearts,  and  through  the  fires  of  persecution,  and  the  storms  of 
calamity,  has  brought  them  and  delivered  them  unto  us.  That 
God  is  One,  immutable,  unchangeable,  infinitely  just  and  good; 
that  Light  will  finally  overcome  Darkness, — Good  conquer  Evil, 
and  Truth  be  victor  over  Error; — these,  rejecting  all  the  wild  and 
useless  speculations  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  theKabalah,  the  Gnostics, 
and  the  Schools,  are  the  religion  and  Philosophy  of  Masonry. 

Those  speculations  and  fancies  it  is  useful  to  study ;  that  know- 
ing in  what  worthless  and  unfruitful  investigations  the  mind  may 
engage,  you  may  the  more  value  and  appreciate  the  plain,  simple, 
sublime,  universally-acknowledged  truths,  which  have  in  all  ages 
been  the  Light  by  which  Masons  have  been  guided  on  their  way ; 
the  Wisdom  and  Strength  that  like  imperishable  columns  have 
sustained  and  will  continue  to  sustain  its  glorious  and  magnificent 
Temple. 


XVIII. 
'KNIGHT    ROSE    CROIX. 

[Prince  Rose  Croix.] 

EACH  of  us  makes  such  applications  to  his  own  faith  and  creed, 
of  the  symbols  and  ceremonies  of  this  Degree,  as  seems  to  him 
proper.  With  these  special  interpretations  we  have  here  nothing 
to  do.  Like  the  legend  of  the  Master  Khurum,  in  which  some 
see  figured  the  condemnation  and  sufferings  of  Christ;  others 
those  of  the  unfortunate  Grand  Master  of  the  Templars ;  others 
those  of  the  first  Charles,  King  of  England ;  and  others  still  the 
annual  descent  of  the  Sun  at  the  winter  Solstice  to  the  regions  of 
darkness,  the  basis  of  many  an  ancient  legend ;  so  the  ceremonies 
of  this  Degree  receive  different  explanations ;  each  interpreting 
them  for  himself,  and  being  offended  at  the  interpretation  of  no 
other. 

In  no  other  way  could  Masonry  possess  its  character  of  Univer- 
sality ;  that  character  which  has  ever  been  peculiar  to  it  from  its 
origin ;  and  which  enables  two  Kings,  worshippers  of  different 
Deities,  to  sit  together  as  Masters,  while  the  walls  of  the  first  tem- 
ple arose ;  and  the  men  of  Gebal,  bowing  down  to  the  Phoenician 
Gods,  to  work  by  the  side  of  the  Hebrews  to  whom  those  Gods 
\vere  abomination ;  and  to  sit  with  them  in  the  same  Lodge  as 
brethren. 
276 


KNIGHT   ROSE   CROIX.  277 

You  have  already  learned  that  these. ceremonies  have  one  gen- 
eral significance,  to  every  one,  of  every  faith,  who  believes  in  God, 
and  the  soul's  immortality. 

The  primitive  men  met  in  no  Temples  made  with  human  hands. 
"God,"  said  Stephen,  the  first  Martyr,  "dwelleth  not  in  Temples 
made  with  hands."  In  the  open  air,  under  the  overarching  mys- 
terious sky,  in  the  great  World-Temple,  they  uttered  their  vows^ 
and  thanksgivings,  and  adored  the  God  of  Light ;  of  that  Light 
that  was  to  them  the  type  of  Good,  as  darkness  was  the  type  of 
Evil. 

All  antiquity  solved  the  enigma  of  the  existence  of  Evil,  by 
supposing  the  existence  of  a  Principle  of  Evil,  of  Demons,  fallen 
Angels,  an  Ahriman,  a  Typhon,  a  Siva,  a  Lok,  or  a  Satan,  that, 
first  falling  themselves,  and  plunged  in  misery  and  darkness, 
tempted  man  to  his  fall,  and  brought  sin  into  the  world.  All  be- 
lieved in  a  future  life,  to  be  attained  by  purification  and  trials ;  in 
a  state  or  successive  states  of  reward  and  punishment ;  and  in  a 
Mediator  or  Redeemer,  by  whom  the  Evil  Principle  was  to  be 
overcome,  and  the  Supreme  Deity  reconciled  to  His  creatures. 
The  belief  was  general,  that  He  was  to  be  born  of  a  Virgin,  and 
suffer  a  painful  death.  The  Indians  called  him  Chrishna ;  the 
Chinese,  Kioun-tse ;  the  Persians,  Sosiosch ;  the  Chaldeans,  Dhou- 
vanai ;  the  Egyptians,  Har-Oeri ;  Plato,  Love ;  and  the  Scandina- 
vians, Balder. 

Chrishna,  the  Hindoo  Redeemer,  was  cradled  and  educated 
among  Shepherds.  A  Tyrant,  at  the  time  of  his  birth,  ordered 
all  the  male  children  to  be  slain.  He  performed  miracles,  say  his 
legends,  even  raising  the  dead.  He  washed  the  feet  of  the  Brah- 
mins, and  was  meek  and  lowly  of  spirit.  He  was  born  of  a  Vir- 
gin ;  descended  to  Hell,  rose  again,  ascended  to  Heaven,  charged 
his  disciples  to  teach  his  doctrines,  and  gave  them  the  gift  of  mir- 
acles. 

The  first  Masonic  Legislator  whose  memory  is  preserved  to  us 
by  history,  was  Buddha,  who,  about  a  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  reformed  the  religion  of  Manous.  He  called  to  the 
Priesthood  all  men,  without  distinction  of  caste,  who  felt  them- 
selves inspired  by  God  to  instruct  men.  Those  who  so  associated 
themselves  formed  a  Society  of  Prophets  under  the  name  of  Sa- 
maneans.  They  recognized  the  existence  of  a  single  uncreated 
God,  in  whose  bosom  everything-  grows,  is  developed  and  trans- 


2/8  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

formed.  The  worship  of  this  God  reposed  upon  the  obedience  of 
all  the  beings  He  created.  His  feasts  were  those  of  the  Solstices. 
The  doctrines  of  Buddha  pervaded  India,  China,  and  Japan.  The 
Priests  of  Brahma,  professing  a  dark  and  bloody  creed,  brutalized 
by  Superstition,  united  together  against  Buddhism,  and  with  the 
aid  of  Despotism,  exterminated  its  followers.  But  their  blood 
fertilized  the  new  doctrine,  which  produced  a  new  Society  under 
the  name  of  Gymnosophists ;  and  a  large  number,  fleeing  to 
Ireland,  planted  their  doctrines  there,  and  there  erected  the  round 
towers,  some  of  which  still  stand,  solid  and  unshaken  as  at  first, 
visible  monuments  of  the  remotest  ages. 

The  Phoenician  Cosmogony,  like  all  others  in  Asia,  was  the 
Word  of  God,  written  in  astral  characters,  by  the  planetary  Divin- 
ities, and  communicated  by  the  Demi-gods,  as  a  profound  mystery, 
to  the  brighter  intelligences  of  Humanity,  to  be  propagated  by 
them  among  men.  Their  doctrines  resembled  the  Ancient  Sabe- 
ism,  and  being  the  faith  of  Hiram  the  King  and  his  namesake  the 
Artist,  are  of  interest  to  all  Masons.  With  them,  the  First  Prin- 
ciple was  half  material,  half  spiritual,  a  dark  air,  animated  and 
impregnated  by  the  spirit ;  and  a  disordered  chaos,  covered  with 
thick  darkness.  From  this  came  the  WORD,  and  thence  creation 
and  generation ;  and  thence  a  race  of  men,  children  of  light,  who 
adored  Heaven  and  its  Stars  as  the  Supreme  Being;  and  whose 
different  gods  were  but  incarnations  of  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  the 
Stars,  and  the  Ether.  Chryspr  was  the  great  igneous  power  of 
Nature,  and  Baal  and  Malakarth  representations  of  the  Sun  and 
Moon,  the  latter  word,  in  Hebrew,  meaning  Queen. 

Man  had  fallen,  but  not  by  the  tempting  of  the  serpent.  For, 
with  the  Phoenicians,  the  serpent  was  deemed  to  partake  of  the 
Divine  Nature,  and  was  sacred,  as  he  was  in  Egypt.  He  was 
deemed  to  be  immortal,  unless  slain  by  violence,  becoming  young 
again  in  his  old  age,  by  entering  into  and  consuming  himself. 
Hence  the  Serpent  in  a  circle,  holding  his  tail  in  his  mouth,  was 
an  emblem  of  eternity.  With  the  head  of  a  hawk  he  was  of  a 
Divine  Nature,  and  a  symbol  of  the  sun.  Hence  one  Sect  of  the 
Gnostics  took  him  ior  their  good  genius,  and  hence  the  brazen  ser- 
pent reared  by  Moses  in  the  Desert,  on  which  the  Israelites  looked 
and  lived. 

"Before  the  chaos,  that  preceded  the  birth  of  Heaven  and 
Earth,"  said  the  Chinese  Lao-Tseu,  "a  single  Being  existed,  im- 


KNIGHT   ROSE  CROIX.  279 

mense  and  silent,  immutable  and  always  acting;  the  mother  of 
the  Universe.  I  know  not  the  name  of  that  Being-,  but  I  designate 
it  by  the  word  Reason.  Man  has  his  model  in  the  earth,  the 
earth  in  Heaven,  Heaven  in  Reason,  and  Reason  in  itself." 

"I  am,"  says  Isis,  "Nature ;  parent  of  all  things,  the  sovereign 
of  the  Elements,  the  primitive  progeny  of  Time,  the  most  exalted 
of  the  Deities,  the  first  of  the  Heavenly  Gods  and  Goddesses,  the 
Queen  of  the  Shades,  the  uniform  countenance ;  who  dispose 
with  my  rod  the  numerous  lights  of  Heaven,  the  salubrious  breezes 
of  the  sea,  and  the  mournful  silence  of  the  dead ;  whose  single 
Divinity  the  whole  world  venerates  in  many  forms,  with  various 
rites  and  by  many  names.  The  Egyptians,  skilled  in  ancient  lore, 
worship  me  with  proper  ceremonies,  and  call  me  by  my  true  name, 
Isis  the  Queen." 

The  Hindu  Vedas  thus  define  the  Deity: 

"He  who  surpasses  speech,  and  through  whose  power  speech  is 
expressed,  know  thou  that  He  is  Brahma;  and  not  these  perish- 
able things  that  man  adores. 

"He  whom  Intelligence  cannot  comprehend,  and  He  alone,  say 
the  sages,  through  whose  Power  the  nature  of  Intelligence  can  be 
understood,  know  thou  that  He  is  Brahma ;  and  not  these  perish- 
able things  that  man  adores. 

"He  who  cannot  be  seen  by  the  organ  of  sight,  and  through 
whose  power  the  organ  of  seeing  sees,  know  thou  that  He  is 
Brahma ;  and  not  these  perishable  things  that  man  adores. 

"He  who  cannot  be  heard  by  the  organ  of  hearing,  and  through 
whose  power  the  organ  of  hearing  hears,  know  thou  that  He  is 
Brahma ;  and  not  these  perishable  things  that  man  adores. 

"He  who  cannot  be  perceived  by  the  organ  of  smelling,  and 
through  whose  power  the  organ  of  smelling  smells,  know  thou  that 
He  is  Brahma ;  and  not  these  perishable  things  that  man  adores." 

"When  God  resolved  to  create  the  human  race."  said  Arius, 
"He  made  a  Being  that  He  called  The  WORD,  The  Son,  Wisdom, 
to  the  end  that  this  Being  might  give  existence  to  men."  This 
WORD  is  the  Ormuzd  of  Zoroaster,  the  Ainsoph  of  the  Kabalah, 
the  Noij?  of  Plato  and  Philo,  the  Wisdom  or  Dcmiourgos  of  the 
Gnostics. 

That  is  the  True  Word,  the  knowledge  of  which  our  ancient 
brethren  sought  as  the  priceless  reward  of  their  labors  on  the 
Holy  Temple:  the  Word  of  Life,  the  Divine  Reason,  "in  whom 
19 


28O  MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

was  Life,  and  that  Life  the  Light  of  men" ;  "which  long  shone  in 
darkness,  and  the  darkness  comprehended  it  not;"  the  Infinite 
Reason  that  is  the  Soul  of  Nature,  immortal,  of  which  the  Word 
of  this  Degree  reminds  us ;  and  to  believe  wherein  and  revere  it,  is 
the  peculiar  duty  of  every  Mason. 

"In  the  beginning,"  says  the  extract  from  some  older  work, 
with  which  John  commences  his  Gospel,  "was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  near  to  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  All  things  were 
made  by  Him,  and  without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was 
made.  In  Him  was  Life,  and  the  life  was  the  Light  of  man ;  and 
the  light  shineth  in  darkness,  and  the  darkness  did  not  contain  it." 

It  is  an  old  tradition  that  this  passage  was  from  an  older  work. 
And  Philostorgius  and  Nicephorus  state,  that  when  the  Emperor 
Julian  undertook  to  rebuild  the  Temple,  a  stone  was  taken  up, 
that  covered  the  mouth  of  a  deep  square  cave,  into  which  one  of 
the  laborers,  being  let  down  by  a  rope,  found  in  the  centre  of 
the  floor  a  cubical  pillar,  on  which  lay  a  roll  or  book,  wrapped  in 
a  fine  linen  cloth,  in  which,  in  capital  letters,  was  the  foregoing 
passage. 

However  this  may  have  been,  it  is  plain  that  John's  Gospel  is  a 
polemic  against  the  Gnostics ;  and,  stating  at  the  outset  the  current 
doctrine  in  regard  to  the  creation  by  the  Word,  he  then  addresses 
himself  to  show  and  urge  that  this  Word  was  Jesus  Christ. 

And  the  first  sentence,  fully  rendered  into  our  language,  would 
read  thus :  "When  the  process  of  emanation,  of  creation  or  evolu- 
tion of  existences  inferior  to  the  Supreme  God  began,  the  Word 
came  into  existence  and  was :  and  this  word  was  [i-pos  rov  0eov] 
near  to  God ;  /.  e.  the  immediate  or  first  emanation  from  God  :  and 
it  was  God  Himself,  developed  or  manifested  in  that  particular 
mode,  and  in  action.  And  by  that  Word  everything  that  is  was 
created." — And  thus  Tertullian  says  that  God  made  the  World  out 
of  nothing,  by  means  of  His  Word,  Wisdom,  or  Power. 

To  Philo  the  Jew,  as  to  the  Gnostics,  the  Supreme  Being  was 
the  Primitive  Light,  or  Archetype  of  Light, — Source  whence  the 
rays  emanate  that  illuminate  Souls.  He  is  the  Soul  of  the  World, 
and  as  such  acts  everywhere.  He  himself  fills  and  bounds  his 
whole  existence,  and  his  forces  fill  and  penetrate  everything.  His 
Image  is  the  WORD  [Logos],  a  form  more  brilliant  than  fire,  which 
is  not  pure  light.  This  WORD  dwells  in  God ;  for  it  is  within  His 
Intelligence  that  the  Supreme  Being  frame?  for  Himself  the 


KNIGHT  ROSE  CROIX.  28\ 

Types  of  Ideas  of  all  that  is  to  assume  reality  in  the  Universe. 
The  WORD  is  the  Vehicle  by  which  God  acts  on  the  Universe ;  the 
World  of  Ideas  by  means  whereof  God  has  created  visible  things ; 
the  more  Ancient  God,  as  compared  with  the  Material  World ; 
Chief  and  General  Representative  of  all  Intelligences ;  the  Arch- 
angel, type  and  representative  of  all  spirits,  even  those  of  Mortals ; 
the  type  of  Man ;  the  primitive  man  himself.  These  ideas  are 
borrowed  from  Plato.  And  this  WORD  is  not  only  the  Creator  ["by 
Him  was  everything  made  that  was  made"]  ,but  acts  in  the  place  of 
God ;  and  through  him  act  all  the  Powers  and  Attributes  of  God. 
And  also,  as  first  representative  of  the  human  race,  he  is  the  pro- 
tector of  Men  and  their  Shepherd,  the  "Ben  H'Adam,"  or  Son  of 
Man. 

The  actual  condition  of  Man  is  not  his  primitive  condition,  that 
in  which  he  was  the  image  of  the  Word.  His  unruly  passions 
have  caused  him  to  fall  from  his  original  lofty  estate.  But  he  may 
rise  again,  by  following  the  teachings  of  Heavenly  Wisdom,  and 
the  Angels  whom  God  commissions  to  aid  him  in  escaping  from 
the  entanglements  of  the  body ;  and  by  fighting  bravely  against 
Evil,  the  existence  of  which  God  has  allowed  solely  to  furnish  him 
with  the  means  of  exercising  his  free  will. 

The  Supreme  Being  of  the  Egyptians  was  Amun,  a  secret  and 
concealed  God,  the  Unknown  Father  of  the  Gnostics,  the  Source 
of  Divine  Life,  and  of  all  force,  the  Plenitude  of  all,  comprehend- 
ing all  things  in  Himself,  the  original  Light.  He  creates  nothing ; 
but  everything  emanates  from  Him :  and  all  other  Gods  are  but 
his  manifestations.  From  Him,  by  the  utterance  of  a  Word,  ema- 
nated Neith,  the  Divine  Mother  of  all  things,  the  Primitive 
THOUGHT,  the  FORCE  that  puts  everything  in  movement,  the 
SPIRIT  everywhere  extended,  the  Deity  of  Light  and  Mother  of  the 
Sun. 

Of  this  Supreme  Being,  Osiris  was  the  image,  Source  of  all 
Good  in  the  moral  and  physical  world,  and  constant  foe  of  Typhon, 
the  Genius  of  Evil,  the  Satan  of  Gnosticism,  brute  matter,  deemed 
to  be  always  at  feud  with  the  spirit  that  flowed  from  the  Deity; 
and  over  whom  Har-Oeri,  the  Redeemer,  Son  of  Isis  and  Osiris, 
is  finally  to  prevail. 

In  the  Zend-Avesta  of  the   Persians   the   Supreme   Being   is 

.Time  withont  limit,  ZERUANE  AKHERENE. — No  origin  could  be 

assigned  to  Him ;  for  He  was  enveloped  in  His  own  Glory,  and 


282  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

His  Nature  and  Attributes  were  so  inaccessible  to  human  Intelli- 
gence, that  He  was  but  the  object  of  a  silent  veneration.  The  com- 
mencement of  Creation  was  by  emanation  from  Him.  The  first 
emanation  was  the  Primitive  Light,  and  from  this  Light  emerged 
Ormuzd,  the  King  of  Light,  who,  by  the  WORD,  created  the  World 
in  its  purity,  is  its  Preserver  and  Judge,  a  Holy  and  Sacred  Be- 
ing, Intelligence  and  Knowledge,  Himself  Time  without  limit, 
and  wielding  all  the  powers  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

In  this  Persian  faith,  as  taught  many  centuries  before  our  era, 
and  embodied  in  the  Zend-Avesta,  there  was  in  man  a  pure  Prin- 
ciple, proceeding  from  the  Supreme  Being,  produced  by  the  Will 
and  Word  of  Ormuzd.  To  that  was  united  an  impure  principle, 
proceeding  from  a  foreign  influence,  that  of  Ahriman,  the  Dragon, 
or  principle  of  Evil.  Tempted  by  Ahriman,  the  first  man  and  wo- 
man had  fallen ;  and  for  twelve  thousand  years  there  was  to  be 
war  between  Ormuzd  and  the  Good  Spirits  created  by  him,  and 
Ahriman  and  the  Evil  ones  whom  he  had  called  into  existence. 

But  pure  souls  are  assisted  by  the  Good  Spirits,  the  Triumph  of 
the  Good  Principle  is  determined  upon  in  the  decrees  of  the  Su- 
preme Being,  and  the  period  of  that  triumph  will  infallibly  arrive. 
At  the  moment  when  the  earth  shall  be  most  afflicted  with  the 
evils  brought  upon  it  by  the  Spirits  of  perdition,  three  Prophets 
will  appear  to  bring  assistance  to  mortals.  Sosiosch,  Chief  of  the 
Three,  will  regenerate  the  world,  and  restore  to  it  its  primitive 
Beauty,  Strength,  and  Purity.  He  will  judge  the  good  and  the 
wicked.  After  the  universal  resurrection  of  the  Good,  the  pure 
Spirits  will  conduct  them  to  an  abode  of  eternal  happiness.  Ahri- 
man, his  evil  Demons,  and  all  the  world,  will  be  purified  in  a  tor- 
rent of  liquid  burning  metal.  The  Law  of  Ormuzd  will  rule 
everywhere :  all  men  will  be  happy :  all,  enjoying  an  unalterable 
bliss,  will  unite  with  Sosiosch  in  singing  the  praises  of  the  Su- 
pieme  Being. 

These  doctrines,  with  some  modifications,  were  adopted  by  the 
Kabalists  and  afterward  by  the  Gnostics. 

Apollonius  of  Tyana  says :  "We  shall  render  the  most  appropri- 
ate worship  to  the  Deity,  when  to  that  God  whom  we  call  the 
First,  who  is  One,  and  separate  from  all,  and  after  whom  we  recog- 
nize the  others,  we  present  no  offerings  whatever,  kindle  to  Him 
no  fire,  dedicate  to  Him  no  sensible  thing;  for  he  needs  nothing, 
even  of  all  that  natures  more  exalted  than  ours  could  give.  The 


KNIGHT   ROSE  CROIX.  283 

earth  produces  no  plant,  the  air  nourishes  no  animal,  there  is  in 
short  nothing,  which  would  not  be  impure  in  his  sight.  In  address- 
ing ourselves  to  Him,  we  must  use  only  the  higher  word,  that,  I 
mean,  which  is  not  expressed  by  the  mouth, — the  silent  inner  word 

of  the  spirit From  the  most  Glorious  of  all  Beings,  we  must 

seek  for  blessings,  by  that  which  is  most  glorious  in  ourselves ;  and 
that  is  the  spirit,  which  needs  no  organ." 

Strabo  says:  "This  one  Supreme  Essence  is  that  which  embraces 
us  all,  the  water  and  the  land,  that  which  we  call  the  Heavens, 
the  World,  the  Nature  of  things.  This  Highest  Being  should  be 
worshipped,  without  any  visible  image,  in  sacred  groves.  In  such 
retreats  the  devout  should  lay  themselves  down  to  sleep,  and 
expect  signs  from  God  in  dreams." 

Aristotle  says :  "It  has  been  handed  down  in  a  mythical  form, 
from  the  earliest  times  to  posterity,  that  there  are  Gods,  and  that 
The  Divine  compasses  entire  nature.  All  besides  this  has  been 
added,  after  the  mythical  style,  for  the  purpose  of  persuading  the 
multitude,  and  for  the  interest  of  the  laws  and  the  advantage  of 
the  State.  Thus  men  have  given  to  the  Gods  human  forms,  and 
have  even  represented  them  under  the  figure  of  other  beings,  in 
the  train  of  which  fictions  followed  many  more  of  the  same  sort. 
But  if,  from  all  this,  we  separate  the  original  principle,  and  con- 
sider it  alone,  namely,  that  the  first  Essences  are  Gods,  we  shall 
find  that  this  has  been  divinely  said ;  and  since  it  is  probable  that 
philosophy  and  the  arts  have  been  several  times,  so  far  as  that  is 
possible,  found  and  lost,  such  doctrines  may  have  been  preserved 
to  our  times  as  the  remains  of  ancient  wisdom." 

Porphyry  says :  "By  images  addressed  to  sense,  the  ancients 
represented  God  and  his  powers — by  the  visible  they  typified  the 
invisible  for  those  who  had  learned  to  read,  in  these  types,  as  in 
a  book,  a  treatise  on  the  Gods.  We  need  not  wonder  if  the  ignorant 
consider  the  images  to  be  nothing  more  than  wood  or  stone ;  for 
just  so,  they  who  are  ignorant  of  writing  see  nothing  in  monu- 
ments but  stone,  nothing  in  tablets  but  wood,  and  in  books  but  a 
tissue  of  papyrus." 

Apollonius  of  Tyana  held,  that  birth  and  death  are  only  in  ap- 
pearance;  that  which  separates  itself  from  the  one  substance  (the 
one  Divine  essence),  and  is  caught  up  by  matter,  seems  to  be  born ; 
that,  again,  which  releases  itself  from  the  bonds  of  matter,  and  is 
reunited  with  the  one  Divine  Essence,  seems  to  die.  There  is,  at 


284  .  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

most,  an  alteration  between  becoming  visible  and  becoming  in- 
visible. In  all  there  is,  properly  speaking,  but  the  one  essence, 
which  alone  acts  and  suffers,  by  becoming  all  things  to  all ;  the 
Eternal  God,  whom  men  wrong,  when  they  deprive  Him  of  what 
properly  can  be  attributed  to  Him  only,  and  transfer  it  to  other 
names  and  persons. 

The  New  Platonists  substituted  the  idea  of  the  Absolute,  for 
the  Supreme  Essence  itself ; — as  the  first,  simplest  principle,  ante- 
rior to  all  existence;  of  which  nothing  determinate  can  be  predi- 
cated ;  to  which  no  consciousness,  no  self-contemplation  can  be 
ascribed ;  inasmuch  as  to  do  so,  would  immediately  imply  a  qual- 
ity, a  distinction  of  subject  and  object.  This  Supreme  Entity  can 
be  known  only  by  an  intellectual  intuition  of  the  Spirit,  trans- 
scending  itself,  and  emancipating  itself  from  its  own  limits. 

This  mere  logical  tendency,  by  means  of  which  men  thought  to 
arrive  at  the  conception  of  such  an  absolute,  the  #v,  was  united 
with  a  certain  mysticism,  which,  by  a  transcendent  state  of  feel- 
ing, communicated,  as  it  were,  to  this  abstraction  what  the  mind 
would  receive  as  a  reality.  The  absorption  of  the  Spirit  into  that 
superexistence  (rd  ir.lxs.iva  r^c  otWac),  so  as  to  be  entirely 
identified  with  it,  or  such  a  revelation  of  the  latter  to  the  spirit 
raised  above  itself,  was  regarded  as  the  highest  end  which  the  spir- 
itual life  could  reach. 

The  New  Platonists'  idea  of  God,  was  that  of  One  Simple  Origi- 
nal Essence,  exalted  above  all  plurality  and  all  becoming;  the 
only  true  Being;  unchangeable,  eternal  [E?c  &v  &t  TW  wv  rb 
dft  7:£7rtyf)(oxe  xal  [JLOVOV  lore  TO  xara  TOUTOV  6Wft»c  <iuu]: 
from  whom  all  Existence  in  its  several  gradations  has  emanated — 
the  world  of  Gods,  as  nearest  akin  to  Himself,  being  first,  and  at 
the  head  of  all.  In  these  Gods,  that  perfection,  which  in  the 
Supreme  Essence  was  inclosed  and  unevolved,  is  expanded  and 
becomes  knowable.  They  serve  to  exhibit  in  different  forms  the 
image  of  that  Supreme  Essence,  to  which  no  soul  can  rise,  except 
by  the  loftiest  flight  of  contemplation ;  and  after  it  has  rid  itself 
from  all  that  pertains  to  sense — from  all  manifoldness.  They  are 
the  mediators  between  man  (amazed  and  stupefied  by  manifold- 
ness)  and  the  Supreme  Unity. 

Philo  says :  "He  who  disbelieves  the  miraculous,  simply  as  the 
miraculous,  neither  knows  God,  nor  has  he  ever  sought  after  Him ; 
for  otherwise  he  would  have  understood,  by  looking  at  that  truly 


KNIGHT   ROSE   CROIX.  285 

great  and  awe-inspiring  sight,  the  miracle  of  the  Universe,  that  these 
miracles  (in  God's  providential  guidance  of  His  people)  are  but 
child's  play  for  the  Divine  Power.  But  the  truly  miraculous  has 
become  despised  through  familiarity.  The  universal,  on  the  con- 
trary, although  in  itself  insignificant,  yet,  through  our  love  of 
novelty,  transports  us  with  amazement." 

In  opposition  to  the  anthropopathism  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures, 
the  Alexandrian  Jews  endeavored  to  purify  the  idea  of  God  from 
all  admixture  of  the  Human.  By  the  exclusion  of  every  human 
passion,  it  was  sublimated  to  a  something  devoid  of  all  attributes, 
and  wholly  transcendental ;  and  the  mere  Being  [6V]  ?  the  Good, 
in  and  by  itself,  the  Absolute  of  Platonism,  was  substituted  for 
the  personal  Deity  [mrP]  of  the  Old  Testament.  By  soaring  up- 
ward, beyond  all  created  existence,  the  mind,  disengaging  itself 
from  the  Sensible,  attains  to  the  intellectual  intuition  of  this  Ab- 
solute Being;  of  whom,  however,  it  can  predicate  nothing  but 
existence,  and  sets  aside  all  other  determinations  as  not  answering 
to  the  exalted  nature  of  the  Supreme  Essence. 

Thus  Philo  makes  a  distinction  between  those  who  are  in  the 
proper  sense  Sons  of  God,  having  by  means  of  contemplation 
raised  themselves  to  the  highest  Being,  or  attained  to  a  knowledge 
of  Him,  in  His  immediate  self-manifestation,  and  those  who  know 
God  only  in  his  mediate  revelation  through  his  operation — s,;ch  as 
He  declares  Himself  in  creation — in  the  revelation 'still  veiled  in 
the  letter  of  Scripture — those,  in  short,  who  attach  themselves 
simply  to  the  Logos,  and  consider  this  to  be  the  Supreme  God ; 
who  are  the  sons  of  the  Logos, rather  than  of  the  True  Being,  (ov). 

"God,"  says  Pythagoras,  "is  neither  the  object  of  sense,  nor 
subject  to  passion,  but  invisible,  only  intelligible,  and  supremely 
intelligent.  In  His  body  He  is  like  the  light,  and  in  His  soul  He  re- 
sembles truth.  He  is  the  universal  spirit  that  pervades  and  dif- 
fuseth  itself  over  all  nature.  All  beings  receive  their  life  from 
Him.  There  is  but  one  only  God,  who  is  not,  as  some  are  apt  to 
imagine,  seated  above  the  world,  beyond  the  orb  of  the  Universe ; 
but  being  Himself  all  in  all,  He  sees  all  the  beings  that  fill  His 
immensity;  the  only  Principle,  the  Light  of  Heaven,  the  Father 
of  all.  He  produces  everything;  He  orders  and  disposes  every- 
thing ;  He  is  the  REASON,  the  LIFE,  and  the  MOTION  of  all  being." 

"I  am  the  LIGHT  of  the  world ;  he  that  followeth  Me  shall  not 
walk  in  DARKNESS,  but  shall  have  the  LIGHT  OF  LIFE."  So  said 


286  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  Founder  of  the  Christian  Religion,  as  His  words  are  reported 
by  John  the  Apostle. 

God,  say  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Jews,  appeared  to  Moses  in 
a  FLAME  OF  FIRE,  in  the  midst  of  a  bush,  which  was  not  consumed. 
He  descended  upon  Mount  Sinai,  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace;  He 
went  before  the  children  of  Israel,  by  day,  in  a  pillar  of  cloud,  and, 
by  night,  in  a  pillar  of  fire,  to  give  them  light.  "Call  you  on  the 
name  of  your  Gods,"  said  Elijah  the  Prophet  to  the  Priests  of 
Baal,  "and  I  will  call  upon  the  name  of  ADONAI  ;  and  the  God 
that  answereth  by  fire,  let  him  be  God." 

According  to  the  Kabalah,  as  according  to  the  doctrines  of 
Zoroaster,  everything  that  exists  has  emanated  from  a  source  of 
infinite  light.  Before  all  things,  existed  the  Primitive  Being,  THE 
ANCIENT  OF  DAYS,  the  Ancient  King  of  Light;  a  title  the  more 
remarkable,  because  it  is  frequently  given  to  the  Creator  in  the 
Zend-Avesta,  and  in  the  Code  of  the  Sabeans,  and  occurs  in  the 
Jewish  Scriptures. 

The  world  was  His  Revelation,  God  revealed ;  and  subsisted 
only  in  Him.  His  attributes  were  there  reproduced  with  various 
modifications  and  in  different  degrees ;  so  that  the  Universe  was 
His  Holy  Splendor,  His  Mantle.  He  was  to  be  adored  in  silence ; 
and  perfection  consisted  in  a  nearer  approach  to  Him. 

Before  the  creation  of  worlds,  the  PRIMITIVE  LIGHT  filled  all 
space,  so  that  there  was  no  void.  When  the  Supreme  Being,  ex- 
isting in  this  Light,  resolved  to  display  His  perfections,  or  mani- 
fest them  in  worlds,  He  withdrew  within  Himself,  formed  around 
Him  avoid  space, and  shot  forth  His  first  emanation, a  ray  of  light ; 
the  cause  and  principle  of  everything  that  exists,  uniting  both  the 
generative  and  conceptive  power,  which  penetrates  everything, 
and  without  which  nothing  could  subsist  for  an  instant. 

Man  fell,  seduced  by  the  Evil  Spirits  most  remote  from  the 
Great  King  of  Light ;  those  of  the  fourth  world  of  spirits.  Asian, 
whose  chief  was  Belial.  They  wage  incessant  war  against  the 
pure  Intelligences  of  the  other  worlds,  who,  like  the  Amshaspands. 
Izeds,  and  Ferouers  of  the  Persians  are  the  tutelary  guardians  of 
man.  In  the  beginning,  all  was  unison  and  harmony :  full  of  the 
same  divine  light  and  perfect  purity.  The  Seven  Kings  of  Evil 
fell,  and  the  Universe  was  troubled.  Then  the  Creator  took  from 
the  Seven  Kings  the  principles  of  Good  and  of  Light,  and  divided 
them  among  the  four  worlds  of  Spirits,  giving  to  the  first  three 


KNIGHT   ROSE  CROIX.  287 

the  Pure  Intelligences,  united  in  love  and  harmony,  while  to  the 
fourth  were  vouchsafed  only  some  feeble  glimmerings  of  light. 

When  the  strife  between  these  and  the  good  angels  shall  have 
continued  the  appointed  time,  and  these  Spirits  enveloped  in  dark- 
ness shall  long  and  in  vain  have  endeavored  to  absorb  the  Divine 
light  and  life,  then  will  the  Eternal  Himself  come  to  correct  them. 
He  will  deliver  them  from  the  gross  envelopes  of  matter  that  hold 
them  captive,  will  re-animate  and  strengthen  the  ray  of  light  or 
spiritual  nature  which  they  have  preserved,  and  re-establish 
throughout  the  Universe  that  primitive  Harmony  which  was  its 
bliss. 

Marcion,  the  Gnostic,  said,  "The  Soul  of  the  True  Christian, 
adopted  as  a  child  by  the  Supreme  Being,  to  whom  it  has  long 
been  a  stranger,  receives  from  Him  the  Spirit  and  Divine  Life.  It 
is  led  and  confirmed,  by  this  gift,  in  a  pure  and  holy  life,  like  that  of 
God ;  and  if  it  so  completes  its  earthly  career,  in  charity,  chastity, 
and  sanctity,  it  will  one  day  be  disengaged  from  its  material  en- 
velope, as  the  ripe  grain  is  detached  from  the  straw,  and  as  the 
young  bird  escapes  from  its  shell.  Like  the  angels,  it  will  share 
in  the  bliss  of  the  Good  and  Perfect  Father,  re-clothed  in  an  aerial 
body  or  organ,  and  made  like  unto  the  Angels  in  Heaven." 

You  see,  my  brother,  what  is  the  meaning  of  Masonic  "Light." 
You  see  why  the  EAST  of  the  Lodge,  where  the  initial  letter  of  the 
Name  of  the  Deity  overhangs  the  Master,  is  the  place  of  Light. 
Light,  as  contradistinguished  from  darkness,  is  Good,  as  contradis- 
tinguished from  Evil :  and  it  is  that  Light,  the  true  knowledge  of 
Deity,  the  Eternal  Good,  for  which  Masons  in  all  ages  have  sought. 
Still  Masonry  marches  steadily  onward  toward  that  Light  that 
shines  in  the  great  distance,  the  Light  of  that  day  when  Evil, 
overcome  and  vanquished,  shall  fade  away  and  disappear  forever, 
and  Life  and  Light  be  the  one  law  of  the  Universe,  and  its  eternal 
Harmony. 

The  Degree  of  Rose  %t  teaches  three  things ; — the  unity,  im- 
mutability and  goodness  of  God ;  the  immortality  of  the  Soul ; 
and  the  ultimate  defeat  and  extinction  of  evil  and  wrong  and  sor- 
row, by  a  Redeemer  or  Messiah,  yet  to  come,  if  he  has  not  already 
appeared. 

It  replaces  the  three  pillars  of  the  old  Temple,  with  three  that 
have  already  been  explained  to  you, — Faith  [in  God,  mankind,  and 
man's  self],  Hope  [in  the  victory  over  evil,  the  advancement  of 


288  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Humanity,  and  a  hereafter],  and  Charity  [relieving  the  wants, 
and  tolerant  of  the  errors  and  faults  of  others].  To  be  trustful,  to 
be  hopeful,  to  be  indulgent ;  these,  in  an  age  of  selfishness,  of  ill 
opinion  of  human  nature,  of  harsh  and  bitter  judgment,  are  the 
most  important  Masonic  Virtues,  and  the  true  supports  of  every 
Masonic  Temple.  And  they  are  the  old  pillars  of  the  Temple 
under  different  names.  For  he  only  is  wise  who  judges  others 
charitably ;  he  only  is  strong  who  is  hopeful ;  and  there  is  no 
beauty  like  a  firm  faith  in  God,  our  fellows  and  ourself. 

The  second  apartment,  clothed  in  mourning,  the  columns  of 
the  Temple  shattered  and  prostrate,  and  the  brethren  bowed  down 
in  the  deepest  dejection,  represents  the  world  under  the  tyranny  of 
the  Principle  of  Evil ;  where  virtue  is  persecuted  and  vice  reward- 
ed ;  where  the  righteous  starve  for  bread,  and  the  wicked  live  sump- 
tously  and  dress  in  purple  and  fine  linen ;  where  insolent  ignorance 
rules,  and  learning  and  genius  serve;  where  King  and  Priest 
trample  on  liberty  and  the  rights  of  conscience;  where  freedom 
hides  in  caves  and  mountains,  and  sycophancy  and  servility  fawn 
and  thrive ;  where  the  cry  of  the  widow  and  the  orphan  starving 
for  want  of  food,  and  shivering  with  cold,  rises  ever  to  Heaven  from 
a  million  miserable  hovels;  where  men,  willing  to  labor,  and 
starving,  they  and  their  children  and  the  wives  of  their  bosoms,  beg 
plaintively  for  work,  when  the  pampered  capitalist  stops  his  mills ; 
where  the  law  punishes  her  who,  starving,  steals  a  loaf,  and  lets 
the  seducer  go  free ;  where  the  success  of  a  party  justifies  murder, 
and  violence  and  rapine  go  unpunished;  and  where  he  who  with 
many  years' cheating  and  grinding  the  faces  of  the  poor  grows  rich, 
receives  office  and  honor  in  life,  and  after  death  brave  funeral  and 
a  splendid  mausoleum : — this  world,  where,  since  its  making,  war 
has  never  ceased,  nor  man  paused  in  the  sad  task  of  torturing  and 
murdering  his  brother;  and  of  which  ambition,  avarice,  envy, 
hatred,  lust,  and  the  rest  of  Ahriman's  and  Typhon's  army  make 
a  Pandemonium :  this  world,  sunk  in  sin,  reeking  with  baseness, 
clamorous  with  sorrow  and  misery.  If  any  see  in  it  also  a  type  of 
the  sorrow  of  the  Craft  for  the  death  of  Hiram,  the  grief  of  the 
Jews  at  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  the  misery  of  the  Templars  at  the 
ruin  of  their  order  and  the  death  of  DeMolay,  or  the  world's  agony 
and  pangs  of  woe  at  the  death  of  the  Redeemer,  it  is  the  right  of 
each  to  do  so. 

The  third  apartment  represents  the  consequences  of  sin  and 


kNIGHT  ROSE  CROJX.  269 

vice,  and  the  hell  made  of  the  human  heart,  by  its  fiery  passions. 
If  any  see  in  it  also  a  typo  of  the  Hades  of  the  Greeks,  the  Gehenna 
of  the  Hebrews,  the  Tartarus  of  the  Romans,  or  the  Hell  of  the 
Christians,  or  only  of  the  agonies  of  remorse  and  the  tortures  of 
an  upbraiding  conscience,  it  is  the  right  of  each  to  do  so. 

The  fourth  apartment  represents  the  Universe,  freed  from  the 
insolent  dominion  and  tyranny  of  the  Principle  of  Evil,  and  bril- 
liant with  the  true  Light  that  flows  from  the  Supreme  Deity ; 
when  sin  and  wrong,  and  pain  and  sorrow,  remorse  and  misery 
shall  be  no  more  forever ;  when  the  great  plans  of  Infinite  Eternal 
Wisdom  shall  be  fully  developed ;  and  all  God's  creatures,  seeing 
that  all  apparent  evil  and  individual  suffering  and  wrong  were 
but  the  drops  that  went  to  swell  the  great  river  of  infinite  good- 
ness, shall  know  that  vast  as  is  the  power  of  Deity,  His  goodness 
and  beneficence  are  infinite  as  His  power.  If  any  see  in  it  a  type 
of  the  peculiar  mysteries  of  any  faith  or  creed,  or  an  allusion  to  any 
past  occurrence,  it  is  their  right  to  do  so.  Let  each  apply  its  sym- 
bols as  he  pleases.  To  all  of  us  they  typify  the  universal  rule  of 
Masonry, — of  its  three  chief  virtues,  Faith,  Hope  and  Charity; 
of  brotherly  love  and  universal  benevolence.  We  labor  here  to 
no  other  end.  These  symbols  need  no  other  interpretation. 

The  obligations  of  our  Ancient  Brethren  of  the  Rose  tg<  were  to 
fulfill  all  the  duties  of  friendship,  cheerfulness,  charity,  peace,  lib- 
erality, temperance  and  chastity :  and  scrupulously  to  avoid  im- 
purity, haughtiness,  hatred,  anger,  and  every  other  kind  of  vice. 
They  took  their  philosophy  from  the  old  Theology  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, as  Moses  and  Solomon  had  done,  and  borrowed  its  hiero- 
glyphics and  the  ciphers  of  the  Hebrews.  Their  principal  rules 
were,  to  exercise  the  profession  of  medicine  charitably  and  without 
fee,  to  advance  the  cause  of  virtue,  enlarge  the  sciences,  and  induce 
men  to  live  as  in  the  primitive  times  of  the  world. 

When  this  Degree  had  its  origin,  it  is  not  important  to  inquire : 
nor  with  what  different  rites  it  has  been  practised  in  different 
countries  and  at  various  times.  It  is  of  very  high  antiquity.  Its 
ceremonies  differ  with  the  degrees  of  latitude  and  longitude,  and 
it  receives  variant  interpretations.  If  we  were  to  examine  all  the 
different  ceremonials,  their  emblems, and  their  formulas, we  should 
see  that  all  that  belongs  to  the  primitive  and  essential  elements 
of  the  order,  is  respected  in  every  sanctuary.  All  alike  practise 
virtue,  that  it  may  produce  fruit.  All  labor,  like  us,  for  the  ex- 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

tirpation  of  vice,  the  purification  of  man,  the  development  of  the 
arts  and  sciences,  and  the  relief  of  humanity. 

None  admit  an  adept  to  their  lofty  philosophical  knowledge,  and 
mysterious  sciences,  until  he  has  been  purified  at  the  altar  of  the 
symbolic  Degrees.  Of  what  importance  are  differences  of  opinion 
as  to  the  age  and  genealogy  of  the  Degree,  or  variance  in  the  prac- 
tice, ceremonial  and  liturgy,  or  the  shade  of  color  of  the  banner 
under  which  each  tribe  of  Israel  marched,  if  all  revere  the  Holy 
Arch  of  the  symbolic  Degrees,  first  and  unalterable  source  of  Free- 
Masonry  ;  if  all  revere  our  conservative  principles,  and  are  with  us 
in  the  great  put  poses  of  our  organization  ? 

If,  anywhere,  brethren  of  a  particular  religious  belief  have  been 
excluded  from  this  Degree,  it  merely  shows  how  gravely  the  pur- 
poses and  plan  of  Masonry  may  be  misunderstood.  For  whenever 
the  door  of  any  Degree  is  closed  against  him  who  believes  in  one 
God  and  the  soul's  immortality,  on  account  of  the  other  tenets  of 
his  faith,  that  Degree  is  Masonry  no  longer.  No  Mason  has  the 
right  to  interpret  the  symbols  of  this  Degree  for  another,  or  to  re- 
fuse him  its  mysteries,  if  he  will  not  take  them  with  the  explana- 
tion and  commentary  superadded. 

Listen,  my  brother,  to  our  explanation  of  the  symbols  of  the  De- 
gree, and  then  give  them  such  further  interpretation  as  you  think 
fit. 

The  Cross  has  been  a  sacred  symbol  from  the  earliest  Antiquity. 
It  is  found  upon  all  the  enduring  monuments  of  the  world,  in 
Egypt,  in  Assyria,  in  Hindostan,  in  Persia,  and  on  the  Buddhist 
towers  of  Ireland.  Buddha  was  said  to  have  died  upon  it.  The 
Druids  cut  an  oak  into  its  shape  and  held  it  sacred,  and  built  their 
temples  in  that  form.  Pointing  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  world, 
it  was  the  symbol  of  universal  nature.  It  was  on  a  cruciform  tree, 
that  Chrishna  was  said  to  have  expired,  pierced  with  arrows.  It 
was  revered  in  Mexico. 

But  its  peculiar  meaning  in  this  Degree,  is  that  given  to  it  by 
the  Ancient  Egyptians.  Thoth  or  Phtha  is  represented  on  the  old- 
est monuments  carrying  in  his  hand  the  Crux  Ansata,  or  Ankh. 
[a  Tau  cross,  with  a  ring  or  circle  over  it].  He  is  so  seen  on  the 
double  tablet  of  Shufu  and  Noh  Shufu,  builders  of  the  greatest  of 
the  Pyramids,  at  Wady  Meghara,  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai.  It  was 
the  hieroglyphic  for  life,  and  with  a  triangle  prefixed  meant  life- 
giving.  To  us  therefore  it  is  the  symbol  of  Life — of  that  life 


KNIGHT  ROSE  CROIX.  291 

that  emanated  from  the  Deity,  and  of  that  Eternal  Life  for  which 
we  all  hope ;  through  our  faith  in  God's  infinite  goodness. 

The  ROSE  was  anciently  sacred  to  Aurora  and  the  Sun.  It  is 
a  symbol  of  Dawn,  of  the  resurrection  of  Light  and  the  renewal 
of  life,  and  therefore  of  the  dawn  of  the  first  day,  and  more  par- 
ticularly of  the  resurrection :  and  the  Cross  and  Rose  together 
are  therefore  hieroglyphically  to  be  read,  the  Dawn  of  Eternal 
Life  which  all  Nations  have  hoped  for  by  the  advent  of  a  Re- 
deemer. 

The  Pelican  feeding  her  young  is  an  emblem  of  the  large  and 
bountiful  beneficence  of  Nature,  of  the  Redeemer  of  fallen  man, 
and  of  that  humanity  and  charity  that  ought  to  distinguish  a 
Knight  of  this  Degree. 

The  Eagle  was  the  living  Symbol  of  the  Egyptian  God  Mendes 
or  Menthra,  whom  Sesostris-Ramses  made  one  with  Amun-Re, 
the  God  of  Thebes  and  Upper  Egypt,  and  the  representative  of  the 
Sun,  the  word  RE  meaning  Sun  or  King. 

The  Compass  surmounted  with  a  crown  signifies  that  notwith- 
standing the  high  rank  attained  in  Masonry  by  a  Knight  of  the 
Rose  Croix,  equity  and  impartiality  are  invariably  to  govern  his 
conduct. 

To  the  word  INRI,  inscribed  on  the  Crux  Ansata  over  the 
Master's  Seat,  many  meanings  have  been  assigned.  The  Christian 
Initiate  reverentially  sees  in  it  the  initials  of  the  inscription  upon 
the  cross  on  which  Christ  suffered — lesns  Nazarenus  Rex  Indec- 
orum. The  sages  of  Antiquity  connected  it  with  one  of  the  great- 
est secrets  of  Nature,  that  of  universal  regeneration.  They  inter- 
preted it  thus,  Igne  Natura  renovatur  Integra;  [entire  nature  is 
renovated  by  fire]  :  The  Alchemical  or  Hermetic  Masons  framed 
for  it  this  aphorism,  Igne  nitrum  roris  invenitnr.  And  the  Jes- 
uits are  charged  with  having'applied  to  it  this  odious  zxlomjustum 
necarc  rcges  impios.  The  four  letters  are  the  initials  of  the  Hebrew 
words  that  represent  the  four  elements — laiumiui.tiie  seas  or  water; 
Nour,  fire ;  Rouach,  the  air,  and  lebeschah,  the  dry  earth.  How 
we  read  it,  I  need  not  repeat  to  you. 

The  CROSS,  X>  was  the  Sign  of  the  Creative  Wisdom  or  Logos, 
the  Son  of  God.  Plato  says,  "He  expressed  him  upon  the  Uni- 
verse in  the  figure  of  the  letter  X.  The  next  Power  to  the  Su- 
preme God  was  decussated  or  figured  in  the  shape  of  a  Cross  on 
the  Universe."  Mithras  signed  his  soldiers  on  the  forehead  with  a 


292  MOfcALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Cross.    )(    is  the  mark  of  600.  the  mysterious  cycle  of  the  Incar- 
nations. -t~y 

We  constantly  see  the  Tau  and  the  Resh  united  thus  -p.  These 
two  letters,  in  the  old  Samaritan,  as  found  in  Arius,  stand,  the 
first  for  400,  the  second  for  200=600.  This  is  the  Staff  of  Osiris, 
also,  and  his  monogram,  and  was  adopted  by  the  Christians  as  a 
Sign.  On  a  medal  ~Q  of  Constantius  is  this  inscription,  "In  hoc 
signo  inctor  eris  yf.  •"  An  inscription  in  the  Duomo  at  Milan 
reads,  ")(•  •  et  p.  Christi  •  Nomina  •  Sancta  -  Tcne'i." 

The  Egyptians  used  as  a  Sign  of  their  God  Canobus,  a  "f  or  a 
^  indifferently.  The  Vaishnavas  of  India  have  also  the  same 
Sacred  Tau,  which  they  also  mark  with  Crosses,  thus  fy}  and  with 
triangles,  thus,  ^% .  The  vestments  of  the  priests  of  Horus  were 
covered  with  these  Crosses^.  So  was  the  dress  ,  of  the  Lama  of 
Thibet.  The  Sectarian  marks  of  the  Jains  are  r^"*^*>  The  distinc- 
tive badge  of  the  Sect  of  Xac  Japonicus  is  J3J-  ^  *s  ^e  ^g?1 
of  Fo,  identical  with  the  Cross  of  Christ.  ^  *"• 

On  the  ruins  of  Mandore,  in  India,  among  other  mystic   ^Ar-r 
emblems,  are  the  mystic  triangle,  and  the  interlaced  triangle,  Ar^  • 
This  is  also  found  on  ancient  coins  and  medals,  excavated  from  the 
ruins  of  Oojein  and  other  ancient  cities  of  India. 

You  entered  here  amid  gloom  and  into  shadow,  and  are  clad  in 
the  apparel  of  sorrow.  Lament,  with  us,  the  sad  condition  of  the 
Human  race,  in  this  vale  of  tears !  the  calamities  of  men  and  the 
agonies  of  nations !  the  darkness  of  the  bewildered  soul,  oppressed 
by  doubt  and  apprehension  ! 

There  is  no  human  soul  that  is  not  sad  at  times.  There  is  no 
thoughtful  soul  that  does  not  at  times  despair.  There  is  perhaps 
none,  of  all  that  think  at  all  of  anything  beyond  the  needs  and  in- 
terests of  the  body,  that  is  not  at  times  startled  and  terrified  by  the 
awful  questions  which,  feeling  as  though  it  were  a  guilty  thing  for 
doing  so,  it  whispers  to  itself  in  its  inmost  depths.  Some  Demon 
seems  to  torture  it  with  doubts,  and  to  crush  it  with  despair,  ask- 
ing whether,  after  all,  it  is  certain  that  its  convictions  are  true, 
and  its  faith  well  founded :  whether  it  is  indeed  sure  that  a  God  of 
Infinite  Love  and  Beneficence  rules  the  Universe,  or  only  some  great 
remorseless  Fate  and  iron  Necessity,  hid  in  impenetrable  gloom, 
And  to  which  men  and  their  sufferings  and  sorrows,  their  hopes  and 
joys,  their  ambitions  and  deeds,  are  of  no  more  interest  or  im- 
portance than  the  motes  that  dance  in  the  sunshine ;  or  a  Being 


KNIGHT   ROSE   CROIX.  293 

that  amuses  Himself  with  the  incredible  vanity  and  folly,  the  wri- 
things  and  contortions  of  the  insignificant  insects  that  compose 
Humanity,  and  idly  imagine  that  they  resemble  the  Omnipotent. 
"What  are  \ve,"  the  Tempter  asks,  "but  puppets  in  a  show-box? 
O  Omnipotent  destiny,  pull  our  strings  gently !  Dance  us  merci- 
fully off  our  miserable  little  stage!" 

"Is  it  not,"  the  Demon  whispers,  "merely  the  inordinate  vanity  of 
man  that  causes  him  now  to  pretend  to  himself  that  he  is  like  unto 
God  in  intellect,  sympathies  and  passions,  as  it  was  that  which,  at 
the  beginning,  made  him  believe  that  he  was,  in  his  bodily  shape 
and  organs,  the  very  image  of  the  Deity?  Is  not  his  God  merely 
his  own  shadow,  projected  in  gigantic  outlines  upon  the  clouds? 
Does  he  not  create  for  himself  a  God  out  of  himself,  by  merely 
adding  indefinite  extension  to  his  own  faculties,  powers,  and 
passions  ?" 

"Who,"  the  Voice  that  will  not  be  always  silent  whispers,  "has 
ever  thoroughly  satisfied  himself  with  his  own  arguments  in  re- 
spect to  his  own  nature?  Who  ever  demonstrated  to  himself,  with 
a  conclusiveness  that  elevated  the  belief  to  certainty,  that  he  was  an 
immortal  spirit,  dwelling  only  temporarily  in  the  house  and  envel- 
ope of  the  body,  and  to  live  on  forever  after  that  shall  have  decay- 
ed ?  Who  ever  has  demonstrated  or  ever  can  demonstrate  that  the 
intellect  of  Man  differs  from  that  of  the  wiser  animals,  otherwise 
than  in  degree?  Who  has  ever  done  more  than  to  utter  nonsense 
and  incoherencies  in  regard  to  the  difference  between  the  instincts 
of  the  dog  and  the  reason  of  Man  ?  The  horse,  the  dog,  the  ele- 
phant, are  as  conscious  of  their  identity  as  we  are.  They  think, 
dream,  remember,  argue  with  themselves,  devise,  plan,  and  reason. 
What  is  the  intellect  and  intelligence  of  the  man  but  the  intel- 
lec>of  the  animal  in  a  higher  degree  or  larger  quantity?"  In  the 
real  explanation  of  a  single  thought  of  a  dog,  all  metaphysics  will 
be  condensed. 

And  with  still  more  terrible  significance,  the  Voice  asks,  in  what 
respect  the  masses  of  men,  the  vast  swarms  of  the  human  race, 
have  proven  themselves  either  wiser  or  better  than  the  animals  in 
whose  eyes  a  higher  intelligence  shines  than  in  their  dull,  unintel- 
lectual  orbs ;  in  what  respect  they  have  proven  themselves  wor- 
thy of  or  suited  for  an  immortal  life.  Would  that  be  a  prize  of  any 
value  to  the  vast  majority?  Do  they  show,  here  upon  earth,  any 
capacity  to  improve,  any  fitness  for  a  state  of  existence  in  which 


2^4  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

they  could  not  crouch  to  power,  like  hounds  dreading  the  lash,  or 
tyrannize  over  defenceless  weakness ;  in  which  they  could  not  hate, 
and  persecute,  and  torture,  and  exterminate ;  in  which  they  could 
not  trade,  and  speculate,  and  over-reach,  and  entrap  the  unwary  and 
cheat  the  confiding,  and  gamble  and  thrive,  and  sniff  with  self- 
righteousness  at  the  short-comings  of  others,  and  thank  God  that 
they  were  not  like  other  men?  What,  to  immense  numbers  of 
men,  would  be  the  value  of  a  Heaven  where  they  could  not  lie  and 
libel,  and  ply  base  avocations  for  profitable  returns? 

Sadly  we  look  around  us,  and  read  the  gloomy  and  dreary  rec- 
ords of  the  old  dead  and  rotten  ages.  More  than  eighteen  centuries 
have  staggered  away  into  the  spectral  realm  of  the  Past,  since 
Christ,  teaching  the  Religion  of  Love,  was  crucified,  that  it  might 
become  a  Religion  of  Hate ;  and  His  Doctrines  are  not  yet  even 
nominally  accepted  as  true  by  a  fourth  of  mankind.  Since  His 
death,  what  incalculable  swarms  of  human  beings  have  lived  and 
died  in  total  unbelief  of  all  that  we  deem  essential  to  Salvation ! 
What  multitudinous  myriads  of  souls,  since  the  darkness  of  idola- 
trous superstition  settled  down,  thick  and  impenetrable,  upon  the 
earth,  have  flocked  up  toward  the  eternal  Throne  of  God,  to 
receive  His  judgment? 

The  Religion  of  Love  proved  to  be,  for  seventeen  long  cen- 
turies, as  much  the  Religion  of  Hate,  and  infinitely  more  the  Re- 
ligion of  Persecution,  thanMahometanism,  its  unconquerable  rival. 
Heresies  grew  up  before  the  Apostles  died ;  and  God  hated  the 
Nicolaitans,  while  John,  at  Patmos,  proclaimed  His  coming 
wrath.  Sects  wrangled,  and  each,  as  it  gained  the  power,  persecuted 
the  other,  until  the  soil  of  the  whole  Christian  world  was  watered 
with  the  blood,  and  fattened  on  the  flesh,  and  whitened  with  the 
bones,  of  martyrs,  and  human  ingenuity  was  taxed  to  its  utmost 
to  invent  new  modes  by  which  tortures  and  agonies  could  be  pro- 
longed and  made  more  exquisite. 

"By  what  right,"  whispers  the  Voice,  "does  this  savage,  merciless, 
persecuting  animal,  to  which  the  sufferings  and  writhings  of  others 
of  its  wretched  kind  furnish  the  most  pleasurable  sensations,  and 
the  mass  of  which  care  only  to  eat,  sleep,  be  clothed,  and  wallow  in 
sensual  pleasures,  and  the  best  of  which  wrangle,  hate,  envy,  and, 
with  few  exceptions,  regard  their  own  interests  alone, — with  what 
right  does  it  endeavor  to  delude  itself  into  the  conviction  that  it  is 
not  an  animal,  as  the  wolf,  the  hyena,  and  the  tiger  are,  but  a 


KNIGHT   ROSE  CROIX.  295 

somewhat  nobler,  a  spirit  destined  to  be  immortal,  a  spark  of  the 
essential  Light,  Fire  and  Reason,  which  are  God?  What  other 
immortality  than  one  of  selfishness  could  this  creature  enjoy?  Of 
what  other  is  it  capable?  Must  not  immortality  commence  here 
and  is  not  life  a  part  of  it?  How  shall  death  change  the  base  na- 
ture of  the  base  soul?  Why  have  not  those  other  animals  that 
only  faintly  imitate  the  wanton,  savage,  human  cruelty  and  thirst 
for  blood,  the  same  right  as  man  has,  to  expect  a  resurrection  and 
an  Eternity  of  existence,  or  a  Heaven  of  Love? 

The  world  improves.  Man  ceases  to  persecute, — when  the  per- 
secuted become  too  numerous  and  strong,  longer  to  submit  to  it. 
That  source  of  pleasure  closed,  men  exercise  the  ingenuities  of 
their  cruelty  on  the  animals  and  other  livings  things  below  them. 
To  deprive  other  creatures  of  the  life  which  God  gave  them,  and 
this  not  only  that  we  may  eat  their  flesh  for  food,  but  out  of  mere 
savage  wantonness,  is  the  agreeable  employment  and  amusement  of 
man,  who  prides  himself  on  being  the  Lord  of  Creation,  and  a  lit- 
tle lower  than  the  Angels.  If  he  can  no  longer  use  the  rack,  the 
gibbet,  the  pincers,  and  the  stake,  he  can  hate,  and  slander, 
and  delight  in  the  thought  that  he  will,  hereafter,  luxuriously 
enjoying  the  sensual  beatitudes  of  Heaven,  see  with  pleasure  the 
writhing  agonies  of  those  justly  damned  for  daring  to  hold  opin- 
ions contrary  to  his  own,  upon  subjects  totally  beyond  the  compre- 
hension both  of  them  and  him. 

Where  the  armies  of  the  despots  cease  to  slay  and  ravage,  the 
armies  of  "Freedom"  take  their  place,  and,  the  black  and  white 
commingled,  slaughter  and  burn  and  ravish.  Each  age  re-enacts 
the  crimes  as  well  as  the  follies  of  its  predecessors,  and  still  war 
licenses  outrage  and  turns  fruitful  lands  into  deserts,  and  God  is 
thanked  in  the  Churches  for  bloody  butcheries,  and  the  remorse- 
less devastators,  even  when  swollen  by  plunder,  are  crowned  with 
laurels  and  receive  ovations. 

Of  the  whole  of  mankind,  not  one  in  ten  thousand  has  any  aspi- 
rations beyond  the  daily  needs  of  the  gross  animal  life.  In  thb 
age  and  in  all  others,  all  men  except  a  few,  in  most  countries,  are 
born  to  be  mere  beasts  of  burden,  co-laborers  with  the  horse  and 
the  ox.  Profoundly  ignorant,  even  in  "civilized"  lands,  they  think 
and  reason  like  the  animals  by  the  side  of  which  they  toil.  For 
them,  God,  Soul,  Spirit,  Immortality,  are  mere  words,  without  any 
real  meaning.  The  God  of  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  Christian 


296  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

world  is  only  Bel,  Moloch,  Zeus,  or  at  best  Osiris,  Mithras,  or 
Adonai,  under  another  name,  worshipped  with  the  old  Pagan  cere- 
monies and  ritualistic  formulas.  It  is  the  Statue  of  Olympian  Jove, 
worshipped  as  the  Father,  in  the  Christian  Church  that  was 'a 
Pagan  Temple ;  it  is  the  Statue  of  Venus,  become  the  Virgin  Mary. 
For  the  most  part,  men  do  not  in  their  hearts  believe  that  God  is 
either  just  or  merciful.  They  fear  and  shrink  from  His  lightnings 
and  dread  His  wrath.  For  the  most  part,  they  only  think  they 
believe  that  there  is  another  life,  a  judgment,  and  a  punishment 
for  sin.  Yet  they  will  none  the  less  persecute  as  Infidels  and  Athe- 
ists those  who  do  not  believe  what  they  themselves  imagine  they 
believe,  and  which  yet  they  do  not  believe,  because  it  is  incompre- 
hensible to  them  in  their  ignorance  and  want  of  intellect.  To  the 
vast  majority  of  mankind,  God  is  but  the  reflected  image,  in  infi- 
nite space,  of  the  earthly  Tyrant  on  his  Throne,  only  more  power- 
ful, more  inscrutable,  and  more  implacable.  To  curse  Humanity, 
the  Despot  need  only  be,  what  the  popular  mind  has,  in  every  age, 
imagined  God. 

In  the  great  cities,  the  lower  strata  of  the  populace  are  equally 
without  faith  and  without  hope.  The  others  have,  for  the  most 
part,  a  mere  blind  faith,  imposed  by  education  and  circumstances, 
and  not  as  productive  of  moral  excellence  or  even  common  honesty 
as  Mohammedanism.  "Your  property  will  be  safe  here,"  said  the 
Moslem ;  "There  are  no  Christians  here."  The  philosophical 
and  scientific  world  becomes  daily  more  and  more  unbelieving. 
Faith  and  Reason  are  not  opposites,  in  equilibrium ;  but  antago- 
nistic and  hostile  to  each  other ;  the  result  being  the  darkness  and 
despair  of  scepticism,  avowed,  or  half-veiled  as  rationalism. 

Over  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  habitable  globe,  humanity 
still  kneels,  like  the  camels,  to  take  upon  itself  the  burthens  to  be 
tamely  borne  for  its  tyrants.  If  a  Republic  occasionally  rises  like  a 
Star,  it  hastens  with  all  speed  to  set  in  blood.  The  kings  need  not 
make  war  upon  it,  to  crush  it  out  of  their  way.  It  is  only  neces- 
sary to  let  it  alone,  and  it  soon  lays  violent  hands  upon  itself.  And 
when  a  people  long  enslaved  shakes  off  its  fetters,  it  may  well  be 
incredulously  asked, 

Shall  the  braggart  shout 

For  some  blind  glimpse  of  Freedom,  link  itself, 
Through  madness,  hated  by  the  wise,  to  law, 

System  and  Empire  ? 


KNIGHT    ROSE    CROIX. 

Everywhere  in  the  world  labor  is,  in  some  shape,  the  slave  of 
capital ;  generally,  a  slave  to  be  fed  only  so  long  as  he  can  work ; 
or,  rather,  only  so  long  as  his  work  is  profitable  to  the  owner  of 
the  human  chattel.  There  are  famines  in  Ireland,  strikes  and 
starvation  in  England,  pauperism  and  tenement-dens  in  Xew  York, 
misery,  squalor,  ignorance,  destitution,  the  brutality  of  vice  and 
the  insensibility  to  shame,  of  despairing  beggary,  in  all  the  human 
cesspools  and  sewers  everywhere.  Here,  a  sewing-woman  fam- 
ishes and  freezes ;  there,  mothers  murder  their  children,  that  those 
spared  may  live  upon  the  bread  purchased  with  the  burial  allow- 
ances of  the  dead  starveling ;  and  at  the  next  door  young  girls 
prostitute  themselves  for  food. 

Moreover,  the  Voice  says,  this  besotted  race  is  not  satisfied  with 
seeing  its  multitudes  swept  away  by  the  great  epidemics  whose 
causes  are  unknown,  and  of  the  justice  or  wisdom  of  which  the 
human  mind  cannot  conceive.  It  must  also  be  ever  at  war.  There 
has  not  been  a  moment  since  men  divided  into  Tribes,  when  all 
the  world  was  at  peace.  Always  men  have  been  engaged  in  mur- 
dering each  other  somewhere.  Always  the  armies  have  lived  by 
the  toil  of  the  husbandman,  and  war  has  exhausted  the  resources, 
wasted  the  energies,  and  ended  the  prosperity  of  Nations.  Now  it 
loads  unborn  posterity  with  crushing  debt,  mortgages  all  estates, 
and  brings  upon  States  the  shame  and  infamy  of  dishonest  repudia- 
tion. 

At  times,  the  baleful  fires  of  war  light  up  half  a  Continent  at 
once;  as  when- all  the  Thrones  unite  to  compel  a  people  to  receive 
again  a  hated  and  detestable  dynasty,  or  States  deny  States  the 
right  to  dissolve  an  irksome  union  and  create  for  themselves  a 
separate,  government.  Then  again  the  flames  flicker  and  die  away, 
and  the  fire  smoulders  in  its  ashes,  to  break  out  again,  after  a 
time,  with  renewed  and  a  more  concentrated  fury.  At  times,  the 
storm,  revolving,  howls  over  small  areas  only  ;  at  times  its  lights 
are  seen,  like  the  old  beacon-fires  on  the  hills,  belting  the  whole 
globe.  No  sea,  but  hears  the  roar  of  cannon  :  no  river,  but  runs 
red  with  blood ;  no  plain,  but  shakes,  trampled  by  the  hoofs  of 
charging  squadrons ;  no  field,  but  is  fertilized  by  the  blood  of  the 
dead  ;  and  everywhere  man  slays,  the  vulture  gorges,  and  the  wolf 
howls  in  the  ear  of  the  dying  soldier.  No  city  is  not  tortured 
by  shot  and  shell ;  and  no  people  fail  to  enact  the  horrid  blas- 
phemy of  thanking  a  God  of  Love  for  victories  and  carnage.  Te 


298  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

Deums  are  still  sung  for  the  Eve  of  St. Bartholomew  and  the  Sicilian 
Vespers.  Man's  ingenuity  is  racked,  and  all  his  inventive  powers 
are  tasked,  to  fabricate  the  infernal  enginery  of  destruction,  by 
which  human  bodies  may  be  the  more  expeditiously  and  effectually 
crushed,  shattered,  torn,  and  mangled ;  and  yet  hypocritical  Hu- 
manity, drunk  with  blood  and  drenched  with  gore,  shrieks  to 
Heaven  at  a  single  murder,  perpetrated  to  gratify  a  revenge  not 
more  unchristian,  or  to  satisfy  a  cupidity  not  more  ignoble,  than 
those  which  are  the  promptings  of  the  Devil  in  the  souls  of  Nations. 
When  we  have  fondly  dreamed  of  Utopia  and  the  Millennium, 
when  we  have  begun  almost  to  believe  that  man  is  not,  after  all,  a 
tiger  half  tamed,  and  that  the  smell  of  blood  will  not  wake  the  sav- 
age within  him,  we  are  of  a  sudden  startled  from  the  delusive 
dream,  to  find  the  thin  mask  of  civilization  rent  in  twain  and  thrown 
contemptuously  away.  We  lie  down  to  sleep,  like  the  peasant  on 
the  lava-slopes  of  Vesuvius.  The  mountain  has  been  so  long  inert, 
that  we  believe  its  fires  extinguished.  Round  us  hang  the  cluster- 
ing grapes,  and  the  green  leaves  of  the  olive  tremble  in  the  soft 
night-air  over  us.  Above  us  shine  the  peaceful,  patient  stars.  The 
crash  of  a  new  eruption  wakes  us,  the  roar  of  the  subterranean  thun- 
ders, the  stabs  of  the  volcanic  lightning  into  the  shrouded  bosom 
of  the  sky ;  and  we  see,  aghast,  the  tortured  Titan  hurling  up  its 
fires  among  the  pale  stars,  its  great  tree  of  smoke  and  cloud,  the 
red  torrents  pouring  down  its  sides.  The  roar  and  the  shriekings 
of  Civil  War  are  all  around  us :  the  land  is  a  pandemonium :  man 
is  again  a  Savage.  The  great  armies  roll  along  their  hideous 
waves,  and  leave  behind  them  smoking  and  depopulated  deserts. 
The  pillager  is  in  every  house,  plucking  even  the  morsel  of  bread 
from  the  lips  of  the  starving  child.  Gray  hairs  are  dabbled  in 
blood,  and  innocent  girlhood  shrieks  in  vain  to  Lust  for  mercy. 
Laws,  Courts,  Constitutions,  Christianity,  Mercy,  Pity,  disappear. 
God  seems  to  have  abdicated,  and  Moloch  to  reign  in  His  stead ; 
while  Press  and  Pulpit  alike  exult  at  universal  murder,  and  urge 
the  extermination  of  the  Conquered,  by  the  sword  and  the  flaming 
torch ;  and  to  plunder  and  murder  entitles  the  human  beasts  of 
prey  to  the  thanks  of  Christian  Senates. 

Commercial  greed  deadens  the  nerves  of  sympathy  of  Nations, 
and  makes  them  deaf  to  the  demands  of  honor,  the  impulses  of 
generosity,  the  appeals  of  those  who  suffer  under  injustice.  Else- 
where, the  universal  pursuit  of  wealth  dethrones  God  and  pays 


KNIGHT  ROSE  CROIX.  299 

divine  honors  to  Mammon  and  Baalzebub.  Selfishness  rules  su- 
preme :  to  win  wealth  becomes  the  whole  business  of  life.  The  villa- 
nies  of  legalized  gaming  and  speculation  become  epidemic ;  treach- 
ery is  but  evidence  of  shrewdness ;  office  becomes  the  prey  of  suc- 
cessful faction;  the  Country,  like  Actaeon,  is  torn  by  its  own 
hounds,  and  the  villains  it  has  carefully  educated  to  their  trade, 
most  greedily  plunder  it,  when  it  is  in  extremis. 

By  what  right,  the  Voice  demands,  does  a  creature  always 
engaged  in  the  work  of  mutual  robbery  and  slaughter,  and  who 
makes  his  own  interest  his  God,  claim  to  be  of  a  nature  superior 
to  the  savage  beasts  of  which  he  is  the  prototype  ? 

Then  the  shadows  of  a  horrible  doubt  fall  upon  the  soul  that 
would  fain  love,  trust  and  believe ;  a  darkness,  of  which  this  that 
surrounded  you  was  a  symbol.  It  doubts  the  truth  of  Revelation, 
its  own  spirituality,  the  very  existence  of  a  beneficent  God.  It 
asks  itself  if  it  is  not  idle  to  hope  for  any  great  progress  of  Human- 
ity toward  perfection,  and  whether,  when  it  advances  in  one  re- 
spect, it  does  not  retrogress  in  some  other,  by  way  of  compensation  : 
whether  advance  in  civilization  is  not  increase  of  selfishness : 
whether  freedom  does  not  necessarily  lead  to  license  and  anarchy : 
whether  the  destitution  and  debasement  of  the  masses  does  not  in- 
evitably follow  increase  of  population  and  commercial  and  manu- 
facturing prosperity.  It  asks  itself  whether  man  is  not  the  sport 
of  a  blind,  merciless  Fate :  whether  all  philosophies  are  not  delu- 
sions, and  all  religions  the  fantastic  creations  of  human  vanity  and 
self-conceit ;  and,  above  all,  whether,  when  Reason  is  abandoned  as 
a  guide,  the  faith  of  Buddhist  and  Brahmin  has  not  the  same 
claims  to  sovereignty  and  implicit,  unreasoning  credence,  as  any 
other. 

He  asks  himself  whether  it  is  not,  after  all,  the  evident  and  pal- 
pable injustices  of  this  life,  the  success  and  prosperity  of  the  Bad, 
the  calamities,  oppressions,  and  miseries  of  the  Good,  that  are  the 
bases  of  all  beliefs  in  a  future  state  of  existence  ?  Doubting  man's 
capacity  for  indefinite  progress  here,  he  doubts  the  possibility  of  it 
anywhere ;  and  if  he  does  not  doubt  whether  God  exists,  and  is 
just  and  beneficent,  he  at  least  cannot  silence  the  constantly  recur- 
ring whisper,  that  the  miseries  and  calamities  of  men,  their  lives 
and  deaths,  their  pains  and  sorrows,  their  extermination  by  war 
and  epidemics,  are  phenomena  of  no  higher  dignity,  significance, 
and  importance,  in  the  eye  of  God,  than  what  things  of  the  same 
nature  occur  to  other  organisms  of  matter ;  and  that  the  fish  of 


300  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  ancient  seas,  destroyed  by  myriads  to  make  room  for  other  spe- 
cies, the  contorted  shapes  in  which  they  are  found  as  fossils 
testifying  to  their  agonies ;  the  coral  insects,  the  animals  and 
birds  and  vermin  slain  by  man,  have  as  much  right  as  he  to  clam- 
or at  the  injustice  of  the  dispensations  of  God,  and  to  demand  an 
immortality  of  life  in  a  new  universe,  as  compensation  for  their 
pains  and  sufferings  and  untimely  death  in  this  world. 

This  is  not  a  picture  painted  by  the  imagination.  Many  a 
thoughtful  mind  has  so  doubted  and  despaired.  How  many  of  us 
can  say  that  our  own  faith  is  so  w7ell  grounded  and  complete  that 
we  never  hear  those  painful  whisperings  within  the  soul?  Thrice 
blessed  are  they  who  never  doubt,  who  ruminate  in  patient  con- 
tentment like  the  kine,  or  doze  under  the  opiate  of  a  blind  faith ; 
on  whose  souls  never  rests  that  Awful  Shadow  which  is  the  ab- 
sence of  the  Divine  Light. 

To  explain  to  themselves  the  existence  of  Evil  and  Suffering, 
the  Ancient  Persians  imagined  that  there  were  two  Principles  or 
Deities  in  the  Universe,  the  one  of  Good  and  the  other  of  Evil,  con- 
stantly in  conflict  with  each  other  in  struggle  for  the  mastery,  and 
alternately  overcoming  and  overcome.  Over  both,  for  the  SAGES, 
was  the  One  Supreme ;  and  for  them  Light  was  in  the  end  to  pre- 
vail over  Darkness,  the  Good  over  the  Evil,  and  even'Ahriman  and 
his  Demons  to  part  with  their  wicked  and  vicious  natures  and 
share  the  universal  Salvation.  It  did  not  occur  to  them  that  the 
existence  of  the  Evil  Principle,  by  the  consent  of  the  Omnipotent 
Supreme,  presented  the  same  difficulty,  and  left  the  existence  of 
Evil  as  unexplained  as  before.  The  human  mind  is  always  con- 
tent, if  it  can  remove  a  difficulty  a  step  further  off.  It  cannot 
believe  that  the  world  rests  on  nothing,  but  is  devoutly  content 
when  taught  that  it  is  borne  on  the  back  of  an  immense  elephant, 
who  himself  stands  on  the  back  of  a  tortoise.  Given  the  tortoise, 
Faith  is  always  satisfied ;  and  it  has  been  a  great  source  of  happi- 
ness to  multitudes  that  they  could  believe  in  a  De\  il  who  could 
relieve  God  of  the  odium  of  being  the  Author  of  Sin. 

But  not  to  all  is  Faith  sufficient  to  overcome  this  great  dih. 
culty.  They  say,  with  the  Apostle,  "Lord!  I  believe!" — but  like 
him  they  are  constrained  to  add,  "Help  Thou  my  unbelief!" — Rea- 
son must,  for  these,  co-operate  and  coincide  \vith  Faith,  or  they 
remain  still  in  the  darkness  of  doubt, — most  miserable  of  all  con- 
ditions of  the  human  mind. 


KNIGHT   ROSE  CROIX.  30 1 

Those,  only,  who  care  for  nothing  beyond  the  interests  and  pur- 
suits of  this  life,  are  uninterested  in  these  great  Problems.  The 
animals,  also,  do  not  consider  them.  It  is  the  characteristic  of  an 
immortal  Soul,  that  it  should  seek  to  satisfy  itself  of  its  immortal- 
ity, and  to  understand  this  great  enigma,  the  Universe.  If  the 
Hottentot  and  the  Papuan  are  not  troubled  and  tortured  by  these 
doubts  and  speculations,  they  are  not,  for  that,  to  be  regarded  as 
either  wise  or  fortunate.  The  swine,  also,  are  indifferent  to  the 
great  riddles  of  the  Universe,  and  are  happy  in  being  wholly  un- 
aware that  it  is  the  vast  Revelation  and  Manifestation,  in  Time  and 
Space,  of  a  Single  Thought  of  the  Infinite  God. 

Exalt  and  magnify  Faith  as  we  will,  and  say  that  it  begins  where 
Reason  ends,  it  must,  after  all,  have  a  foundation, either  in  Reason, 
Analogy,  the  Consciousness,  or  human  testimony.  The  worship- 
per of  Brahma  also  has  implicit  Faith  in  what  seems  to  us  palpa- 
bly false  and  absurd.  His  faith  rests  neither  in  Reason,  Analogy, 
or  the  Consciousness,  but  on  the  testimony  of  his  Spiritual  teach- 
ers, and  of  the  Holy  Books.  The  Moslem  also  believes,  on  the 
positive  testimony  of  the  Prophet ;  and  the  Mormon  also  can 
say,  "/  believe  this,  because  it  is  impossible."  No  faith, however  ab- 
surd or  degrading,  has  ever  wanted  these  foundations,  testimony, 
and  the  books.  Miracles,  proven  by  unimpeachable  testimony 
have  been  used  as  a  foundation  for  Faith,  in  every  age ;  and  the 
modern  miracles  are  better  authenticated,  a  hundred  times,  than 
the  ancient  ones. 

So  that,  after  all,  Faith  must  flow  out  from  some  source  within 
us,  when  the  evidence  of  that  which  we  are  to  believe  is  not  pre- 
sented to  our  senses,  or  it  will  in  no  case  be  the  assurance  of  the 
truth  of  what  is  believed. 

The  Consciousness,  or  inhering  and  innate  conviction,  or  the 
instinct  divinely  implanted,  of  the-  verity  of  things,  is  the  highest 
possible  evidence,  if  not  the  only  real  proof,  of  the  verity  of  certain 
things,  but  only  of  truths  of  a  limited  class. 

What  we  call  the  Reason,  that  is,  our  imperfect  human  reason, 
not  only  may,  but  assuredly  will,  lead  us  away  from  the  Truth  in 
regard  to  things  invisible  and  especially  those  of  the  Infinite,  if 
we  determine  to  believe  nothing  but  that  which  it  can  demonstrate, 
or  not  to  believe  that  which  it  can  by  its  processes  of  logic  prove 
to  be  contradictory,  unreasonable,  or  absurd.  Its  tape-line  cannot 
measure  the  arcs  of  Infinity.  For  example,  to  the  Human  reason, 


3O2  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

an  Infinite  Justice  and  an  Infinite  Mercy  or  Love,  in  the  same  Be- 
ing, are  inconsistent  and  impossible.  One,  it  can  demonstrate, 
necessarily  excludes  the  other.  So  it  can  demonstrate  that  as  the 
Creation  had  a  beginning,  it  necessarily  follows  that  an  Eternity 
had  elapsed  before  the  Deity  began  to  create,  during  which  He 
was  inactive. 

When  we  gaze,  of  a  moonless  clear  night,  on  the  Heavens  glit- 
tering with  stars,  and  know  that  each  fixed  star  of  all  the  myriads 
is  a  Sun,  and  each  probably  possessing  its  retinue  of  worlds,  all 
peopled  with  living  beings,  we  sensibly  feel  our  own  unimportance 
in  the  scale  of  Creation,  and  at  once  reflect  that  much  of  what  has 
in  different  ages  been  religious  faith,  could  never  have  been  be- 
lieved, if  the  nature,  size,  and  distance  of  those  Suns,  and  of  our 
own  Sun,  Moon,  and  Planets,  had  been  known  to  the  Ancients  as 
they  are  to  us. 

To  them,  all  the  lights  of  the  firmament  were  created  only  to 
give  light  to  the  earth,  as  its  lamps  or  candles  hung  above  it.  The 
earth  was  supposed  to  be  the  only  inhabited  portion  of  the  Uni- 
verse. The  world  and  the  Universe  were  synonymous  terms.  Of 
the  immense  size  and  distance  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  men  had 
no  conception.  The  Sages  had,  in  Chaldsea,  Egypt,  India,  China, 
and  in  Persia,  and  therefore  the  sages  always  had,  an  esoteric 
creed,  taught  only  in  the  mysteries  and  unknown  to  the  vulgar.  No 
Sage,  in  either  country,  or  in  Greece  or  Rome,  believed  the  popular 
creed.  To  them  the  Gods  and  the  Idols  of  the  Gods  were  sym- 
bols, and  symbols  of  great  and  mysterious  truths. 

The  Vulgar  imagined  the  attention  of  the  Gods  to  be  continu- 
ally centred  upon  the  earth  and  man.  The  Grecian  Divinities  in- 
habited Olympus,  an  insignificant  mountain  of  the  Earth.  There 
was  the  Court  of  Zeus,  to  which  Neptune  came  from  the  Sea,  and 
Pluto  and  Persephone  from  the  glooms  of  Tartarus  in  the  unfath- 
omable depths  of  the  Earth's  bosom.  God  came  down  from 
Heaven  and  on  Sinai  dictated  laws  for  the  Hebrews  to  His  servant 
Moses.  The  Stars  were  the  guardians  of  mortals  whose  fates  and 
fortunes  were  to  be  read  in  their  movements,  conjunctions,  and 
oppositions.  The  Moon  was  the  Bride  and  Sister  of  the  Sun,  at 
the  same  distance  above  the  Earth,  and,  like  the  Sun,  made  for  the 
service  of  mankind  alone. 

If,  with  the  great  telescope  of  Lord  Rosse,  we  examine  the  vast 
nebul?e  of  Hercules,  Orion,  and  Andromeda,  and  find  them  re- 


KNIGHT  ROSE  CROIX.  303 

solvable  into  Stars  more  numerous  than  the  sands  on  the  sea- 
shore; if  we  reflect  that  each  of  these  Stars  is  a  Sun,  like  and 
even  many  times  larger  than  ours, — each,  beyond  a  doubt,  with  its 
retinue  of  worlds  swarming  with  life; — if  we  go  further  in  imagi- 
nation, and  endeavor  to  conceive  of  all  the  infinities  of  space, 
filled  with  similar  suns  and  worlds,  we  seem  at  once  to  shrink  intc 
an  incredible  insignificance. 

The  Universe,  which  is  the  uttered  Word  of  God,  is  infinite  in 
extent.  There  is  no  empty  space  beyond  creation  on  any  side. 
The  Universe,  which  is  the  Thought  of  God  pronounced,  never 
was  not,  since  God  never  was  inert ;  nor  WAS,  without  thinking  and 
creating.  The  forms  of  creation  change,  the  suns  and  worlds  live 
and  die  like  the  leaves  and  the  insects,  but  the  Universe  itself  is 
infinite  and  eternal,  because  God  Is,  Was,  and  Will  forever  Be,  and 
never  did  not  think  and  create. 

Reason  is  fain  to  admit  that  a  Supreme  Intelligence,  infinitely 
powerful  and  wise,  must  have  created  this  boundless  Universe ; 
but  it  also  tells  us  that  we  are  as  unimportant  in  it  as  the  zoophytes 
and  entozoa,  or  as  the  invisible  particles  of  animated  life  that  float 
upon  the  air  or  swarm  in  the  water-drop. 

The  foundations  of  our  faith,  resting  upon  the  imagined  inter- 
est of  God  in  our  race,  an  interest  easily  supposable  when  man 
believed  himself  the  only  intelligent  created  being,  and  therefore 
eminently  worthy  the  especial  care  and  watchful  anxiety  of  a  God 
who  had  only  this  earth  to  look  after,  and  its  house-keeping  alone 
to  superintend,  and  who  was  content  to  create,  in  all  the  infinite 
Universe,  only  one  single  being,  possessing  a  soul,  and  not  a  mere 
animal,  are  rudely  shaken  as  the  Universe  broadens  and  expands 
for  us ;  and  the  darkness  of  doubt  and  distrust  settles  heavy  upon 
the  Soul. 

The  modes  in  which  it  is  ordinarily  endeavored  to  satisfy  our 
doubts,  only  increase  them.  To  demonstrate  the  necessity  for  a 
cause  of  the  creation,  is  equally  to  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  a 
cause  for  that  cause.  The  argument  from  plan  and  design  only 
removes  the  difficulty  a  step  further  off.  We  rest  the  world  on 
the  elephant,  and  the  elephant  on  the  tortoise,  and  the  tortoise  on 
— nothing. 

To  tell  us  that  the  animals  possess  instinct  only  and  that  Rea- 
son belongs  to  us  alone,  in  no  way  tends  to  satisfy  us  of  the  radi- 
cal difference  between  us  and  them.  For  if  the  mental  phenomena 


304  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

exhibited  by  animals  that  think,  dream,  remember,  argue  from 
cause  to  effect,  plan,  devise,  combine,  and  communicate  their 
thoughts  to  each  other,  so  as  to  act  rationally  in  concert, — if  their 
love,  hate,  and  revenge,  can  be  conceived  of  as  results  of  the  or- 
ganization of  matter,  like  color  and  perfume,  the  resort  to  the 
hypothesis  of  an  immaterial  Soul  to  explain  phenomena  of  the 
same  kind,  only  more  perfect,  manifested  by  the  human  being,  is 
supremely  absurd.  That  organized  matter  can  think  or  even  feel, 
at  all,  is  the  great  insoluble  mystery.  "Instinct"  is  but  a  word 
without  a  meaning,  or  else  it  means  inspiration.  It  is  either  the 
animal  itself,  or  God  in  the  animal,  that  thinks,  remembers,  and 
reasons ;  and  instinct,  according  to  the  common  acceptation  of  the 
term,  would  be  the  greatest  and  most  wonderful  of  mysteries, — 
no  less  a  thing  than  the  direct,  immediate,  and  continual  prompt- 
ings of  the  Deity, — for  the  animals  are  not  machines,  or  automata 
moved  by  springs,  and  the  ape  is  but  a  dumb  Australian. 

Must  we  alzi'ays  remain  in  this  darkness  of  uncertainty,  of 
doubt?  Is  there  no  mode  of  escaping  from  the  labyrinth  except 
by  means  of  a  blind  faith,  which  explains  nothing,  and  in  many 
creeds,  ancient  and  modern,  sets  Reason  at  defiance,  and  leads  to 
the  belief  either  in  a  God  without  a  Universe,  a  Universe  without 
a  God,  or  a  Universe  which  is  itself  a  God? 

We  read  in  the  Hebrew  Chronicles  that  Schlomoh  the  wise 
King  caused  to  be  placed  in  front  of  the  entrance  to  the  Temple 
two  huge  columns  of  bronze,  one  of  which  was  called  YAKAYIN 
and  the  other  BAHAZ  ;  and  these  words  are  rendered  in  our  ver- 
sion Strength  and  Establishment.  The  Masonry  of  the  Blue 
Lodges  gives  no  explanation  of  these  symbolic  columns ;  nor  do 
the  Hebrew  Books  advise  us  that  they  were  symbolic.  If  not  so 
intended  as  symbols,  they  were  subsequently  understood  to  be 
such. 

But  as  we  are  certain  that  everything  within  the  Temple  was 
symbolic,  and  that  the  whole  structure  was  intended  to  represent 
the  Universe,  we  may  reasonably  conclude  that  the  columns  of  the 
portico  also  had  a  symbolic  signification.  It  would  be  tedious  to 
repeat  all  the  interpretations  which  fancy  or  dullness  has  found 
for  them. 

The  key  to  their  true  meaning  is  not  undiscoverable.  The  per- 
fect and  eternal  distinction  of  the  two  primitive  terms  of  the  cre- 
ative syllogism,  in  order  to  attain  to  the  demonstration  of  their 


KNIGHT   ROSE    CROIX  305 

harmony  by  the  analogy  of  contraries,  is  the  second  grand  prin- 
ciple of  that  occult  philosophy  veiled  under  the  name  "Kabalah," 
and  indicated  by  all  the  sacred  hieroglyphs  of  the  Ancient  Sanctu- 
aries, and  of  the  rites,  so  little  understood  by  the  mass  of  the 
Initiates,  of  the  Ancient  and  Modern  Free-Masonry. 

The  Sohar  declares  that  everything  in  the  Universe  proceeds  by 
the  mystery  of  "the  Balance,"  that  is,  of  Equilibrium.  Of  the 
Sephiroth,  or  Divine  Emanations,  Wisdom  and  Understanding, 
Severity  and  Benignity,  or  Justice  and  Mercy,  and  Victory  and 
Glory,  constitute  pairs. 

Wisdom,  or  the  Intellectual  Generative  Energy,  and  Under- 
standing, or  the  Capacity  to  be  impregnated  by  the  Active  Energy 
and  produce  intellection  or  thought,  are  represented  symbolically 
in  the  Kabalah  as  male  and  female.  So  also  are  Justice  and 
Mercy.  Strength  is  the  intellectual  Energy  or  Activity ;  Estab- 
lishment or  Stability  is  the  intellectual  Capacity  to  produce,  a 
passivity.  They  are  the  POWER  of  generation  and  the  CAPACITY 
of  production.  By  WISDOM,  it  is  said,  God  creates,  and  by  UN- 
DERSTANDING establishes.  These  are  the  two  Columns  of  the 
Temple,  contraries  like  the  Man  and  Woman,  like  Reason  and 
Faith,  Omnipotence  and  Liberty,  Infinite  Justice  and  Infinite 
Mercy,  Absolute  Power  or  Strength  to  do  even  what  is  most  un- 
just and  unwise,  and  Absolute  Wisdom  that  makes  it  impossible  to 
do  it ;  Right  and  Duty.  They  were  the  columns  of  the  intellectual 
and  moral  world,  the  monumental  hieroglyph  of  the  antinomy 
necessary  to  the  grand  law  of  creation. 

There  must  be  for  every  Force  a  Resistance  to  support  it,  to 
every  light  a  shadow,  for  every  Royalty  a  Realm  to  govern,  for 
every  affirmative  a  negative. 

For  the  Kabalists,  Light  represents  the  Active  Principle,  and 
Darkness  or  Shadow  is  analogous  to  the  Passive  Principle.  There- 
fore it  was  that  they  made  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  emblems  of  the 
two  Divine  Sexes  and  the  two  creative  forces  ;  therefore,  that  they 
ascribed  to  woman  the  Temptation  and  the  first  sin,  and  then  the 
first  labor,  the  maternal  labor  of  the  redemption,  because  it  is 
from  the  bosom  of  the  darkness  itself  that  \ve  see  the  Light  born 
again.  The  Void  attracts  the  Full :  and  so  it  is  that  the  abyss  of 
poverty  and  misery,  the  Seeming  Evil,  the  seeming  empty  noth- 
ingness of  life,  the  temporary  rebellion  of  the  creatures,  eternally 
attracts  the  overflowing  ocean  of  being,  of  riches,  of  pity,  and  of 


306  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

love.     Christ  completed  the  Atonement  on  the  Cross  by  descend- 
ing into  Hell. 

o 

Justice  and  Mercy  are  contraries.  If  each  be  infinite,  their  co- 
existence seems  impossible,  and  being  equal,  one  cannot  even 
annihilate  the  other  and  reign  alone.  The  mysteries  of  the  Divine 
Nature  are  beyond  our  finite  comprehension;  but  so  indeed  are 
the  mysteries  of  our  own  finite  nature ;  and  it  is  certain  that  in 
all  nature  harmony  and  movement  are  the  result  of  the  equilibrium 
of  opposing  or  contrary  forces. 

The  analogy  of  contraries  gives  the  solution  of  the  most  inter- 
esting and  most  difficult  problem  of  modern  philosophy, — the 
definite  and  permanent  accord  of  Reason  and  Faith,  of  Author- 
ity and  Liberty  of  examination,  of  Science  and  Belief,  of  Perfec- 
tion in  God  and  Imperfection  in  Man.  If  science  or  knowledge 
is  the  Sun,  Belief  is  the  Man ;  it  is  a  reflection  of  the  day  in  the 
night.  Faith  is  the  veiled  Isis,  the  Supplement  of  Reason,  in  the 
shadows  which  precede  or  follow  Reason.  It  emanates  from  the 
Reason,  but  can  never  confound  it  nor  be  confounded  with  it.  The 
encroachments  of  Reason  upon  Faith,  or  of  Faith  on  Reason,  are 
eclipses  of  the  Sun  or  Moon ;  when  they  occur,  they  make  useless 
both  the  Source  of  Light  and  its  reflection,  at  once. 

Science  perishes  by  systems  that  are  nothing  but  beliefs ;  and 
Faith  succumbs  to  reasoning.  For  the  two  Columns  of  the  Tem- 
ple to  uphold  the  edifice,  they  must  remain  separated  and  be 
parallel  to  each  other.  As  soon  as  it  is  attempted  by  violence  to 
bring  them  together,  as  Samson  did,  they  are  overturned,  and  the 
whole  edifice  falls  upon  the  head  of  the  rash  blind  man  or  the 
revolutionist  whom  personal  or  national  resentments  have  in  ad- 
vance devoted  to  death. 

Harmony  is  the  result  of  an  alternating  preponderance  of 
forces.  Whenever  this  is  wanting  in  government,  government  is 
a  failure,  because  it  is  either  Despotism  or  Anarchy.  All  theoret- 
ical governments,  however  plausible  the  theory,  end  in  one  or  the 
other.  Governments  that  are  to  endure  are  not  made  in  the  closet 
of  Locke  or  Shaftesbury,  or  in  a  Congress  or  a  Convention.  In  a 
Republic,  forces  that  seem  contraries,  that  indeed  are  contraries, 
alone  give  movement  and  life.  The  Spheres  are  held  in  their 
orbits  and  made  to  revolve  harmoniously  and  unerringly,  by  the 
concurrence,  which  seems  to  be  the  opposition,  of  two  contrary 
forces.  If  the  centripetal  force  should  overcome  the  centrifugal. 


KNIGHT   ROSE   CROIX.  307 

and  the  equilibrium  of  forces  cease,  the  rush  of  the  Spheres  to  the 
Central  Sun  would  annihilate  the  system.  Instead  of  consolida- 
tion, the  whole  would  be  shattered  into  fragments. 

Man  is  a  free  agent,  though  Omnipotence  is  above  and  all 
around  him.  To  be  free  to  do  good,  he  must  be  free  to  do  evil. 
The  Light  necessitates  the  Shadow.  A  State  is  free  like  an  indi- 
vidual in  any  government  worthy  of  the  name.  The  State  is  less 
potent  than  the  Deity,  and  therefore  the  freedom  of  the  individual 
citizen  is  consistent  with  its  Sovereignty.  These  are  opposites, 
but  not  antagonistic.  So,  in  a  union  of  States,  the  freedom  of  the 
States  is  consistent  with  the  Supremacy  of  the  Nation.  When 
either  obtains  the  permanent  mastery  over  the  other,  and  they 
cease  to  be  in  equilibria,  the  encroachment  continues  with  a  ve- 
locity that  is  accelerated  like  that  of  a  falling  body,  until  the 
feebler  is  annihilated,  and  then,  there  being  no  resistance  to  sup- 
port the  stronger,  it  rushes  into  ruin. 

So,  when  the  equipoise  of  Reason  and  Faith,  in  the  individual 
or  the  Nation,  and  the  alternating  preponderance  cease,  the  result 
is,  according  as  one  or  the  other  is  permanent  victor,  Atheism  or 
Superstition,  disbelief  or  blind  credulity ;  and  the  Priests  either 
of  Unfaith  or  of  Faith  become  despotic. 

''Whomsoever  God  loveth,  him  he  chasteneth,"  is  an  expression 
that  formulates  a  whole  dogma.  The  trials  of  life  are  the  bless- 
ings of  life,  to  the  individual  or  the  Nation,  if  either  has  a  Soul 
that  is  truly  worthy  of  salvation.  "Light  and  darkness,"  said 
ZOROASTER,  "are  the  ivorld's  eternal  ways,"  The  Light  and  the 
Shadow  are  everywhere  and  always  in  proportion ;  the  Light  being 
the  reason  of  being  of  the  Shadow.  It  is  by  trials  only,  by  the 
agonies  of  sorrow  and  the  sharp  discipline  of  adversities,  that  men 
and  Nations  attain  initiation.  The  agonies  of  the  garden  of  Geth- 
semane  and  those  of  the  Cross  on  Calvary  preceded  the  Resurrec- 
tion and  were  the  means  of  Redemption.  It  is  with  prosperity 
that  God  afflicts  Humanity. 

The  Degree  of  Rose  >J<  is  devoted  to  and  symbolizes  the  final 
triumph  of  truth  over  falsehood,  of  liberty  over  slavery,  of  light 
over  darkness,  of  life  over  death,  and  of  good  over  evil.  The 
great  truth  it  inculcates  is,  that  notwithstanding  the  existence  of 
Evil,  God  is  infinitely  wise,  just,  and  good :  that  though  the  affairs 
of  the  world  proceed  by  no  rule  of  right  and  wrong  known  to  us 
in  the  narrowness  of  our  views,  yet  all  is  right,  for  it  is  the  work  of 


308  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

God ;  and  all  evils,  all  miseries,  all  misfortunes,  are  but  as  drops  in 
the  vast  current  that  is  sweeping  onward,  guided  by  Him,  to  a 
great  and  magnificent  result :  that,  at  the  appointed  time,  He  will 
redeem  and  regenerate  the  world,  and  the  Principle,  the  Power,  and 
the  existence  of  Evil  will  then  cease;  that  this  will  be  brought 
about  by  such  means  and  instruments  as  He  chooses  to  employ; 
whether  by  the  merits  of  a  Redeemer  that  has  already  appeared,  or 
a  Messiah  that  is  yet  waited  for,  by  an  incarnation  of  Himself, 
or  by  an  inspired  prophet,  it  does  not  belong  to  us  as  Masons  to 
decide.  Let  each  judge  and  believe  for  himself. 

In  the  mean  time,  we  labor  to  hasten  the  coming  of  that  day. 
The  morals  of  antiquity,  of  the  law  of  Moses  and  of  Christianity, 
are  ours.  We  recognize  every  teacher  of  Morality,  every  Reformer, 
as  a  brother  in  this  great  work.  The  Eagle  is  to  us  the  symbol  of 
Liberty,  the  Compasses  of  Equality,  the  Pelican  of  Humanity,  and 
our  order  of  Fraternity.  Laboring  for  these,  with  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Charity  as  our  armor,  we  will  wait  with  patience  for  the  final 
triumph  of  Good  and  the  complete  manifestation  of  the  Word  of 
God. 

No  one  Mason  has  the  right  to  measure  for  another,  within  the 
walls  of  a  Masonic  Temple,  the  degree  of  veneration  which  he  shall 
feel  for  any  Reformer,  or  the  Founder  of  any  Religion.  We  teach 
a  belief  in  no  particular  creed,  as  we  teach  unbelief  in  none.  What- 
ever higher  attributes  the  Founder  of  the  Christian  Faith  may,  in 
our  belief,  have  had  or  not  have  had,  none  can  deny  that  He  taught 
and  practised  a  pure  and  elevated  morality,  even  at  the  risk  and  to 
the  ultimate  loss  of  His  life.  He  was  not  only  the  benefactor  of  a 
disinherited  people,  but  a  model  for  mankind.  Devotedly  He  loved 
the  children  of  Israel.  To  them  He  came,  and  to  them  alone  He 
preached  that  Gospel  which  His"  disciples  afterward  carried  among 
foreigners.  He  would  fain  have  freed  the  chosen  People  from  their 
spiritual  bondage  of  ignorance  and  degradation.  As  a  lover  of  all 
mankind,  laying  down  His  life  for  the  emancipation  of  His  Breth- 
ren, He  should  be  to  all,  to  Christian,  to  Jew,  and  to  Mahometan, 
an  object  of  gratitude  and  veneration. 

The  Roman  world  felt  the  pangs  of  approaching  dissolution. 
Paganism,  its  Temples  shattered  by  Socrates  and  Cicero,had  spoken 
its  last  word.  The  God  of  the  Hebrews  was  unknown  beyond  the 
limits  of  Palestine.  The  old  religions  had  failed  to  give  happiness 
arid  peace  to  the  world.  The  babbling  and  wrangling  philosophers 


KNIGHT   ROSE   CROIX.  $Cf) 

had  confounded  all  men's  ideas,  until  they  doubted  of  everything 
and  had  faith  in  nothing :  neither  in  God  nor  in  his  goodness  and 
mercy,  nor  in  the  virtue  of  man,  nor  in  themselves.  Mankind  was 
divided  into  two  great  classes, — the  master  and  the  slave ;  the  pow- 
erful and  the  abject,  the  high  and  the  low,  the  tyrants  and  the 
mob;  and  even  the  former  were  satiated  with  the  servility  of  the 
latter,  sunken  by  lassitude  and  despair  to  the  lowest  depths  of  deg- 
radation. 

When,lo,a  voice,  in  the  inconsiderable  Roman  Province  of  Judea 
proclaims  a  new  Gospel — a  new  "God's  Word,"  to  crushed,  suffer- 
ing bleeding  humanity.  Liberty  of  Thought,  Equality  of  all  men  in 
the  eye  of  God,  universal  Fraternity !  a  new  doctrine,  a  new 
religion ;  the  old  Primitive  Truth  uttered  once  again ! 

Man  is  once  more  taught  to  look  upward  to  his  God.  No  longer 
to  a  God  hid  in  impenetrable  mystery,  and  infinitely  remote  from 
human  sympathy,  emerging  only  at  intervals  from  the  darkness  to 
smite  and  crush  humanity :  but  a  God,  good,  kind,  beneficent,  and 
merciful :  a  Father,  loving  the  creatures  He  has  made,  with  a  love 
immeasurable  and  exhaustless ;  Who  feels  for  us,  and  sympathizes 
with  us,  and  sends  us  pain  and  want  and  disaster  only  that  they 
may  serve  to  develop  in  us  the  virtues  and  excellences  that  befit  us 
to  live  with  Him  hereafter. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  "Son  of  man,"  is  the  expounder  of  the 
new  Law  of  Love.  He  calls  to  Him  the  humble,  the  poor,  the  Pariahs 
of  the  world.  The  first  sentence  that  He  pronounces  blesses  the 
world,  and  announces  the  new  gospel :  "Blessed  are  they  that  mourn 
for  they  shall  be  comforted."  He  pours  the  oil  of  consolation  and 
peace  upon  every  crushed  and  bleeding  heart.  Every  sufferer  is 
His  proselyte.  He  shares  their  sorrows,  and  sympathizes  with  all 
their  afflictions. 

He  raises  up  the  sinner  and  the  Samaritan  woman,  and  teaches 
them  to  hope  for  forgiveness.  He  pardons  the  woman  taken  in 
adultery.  He  selects  his  disciples  not  among  the  Pharisees  or  the 
Philosophers,  but  among  the  low  and  humble,  even  of  the  fishermen 
of  Galilee.  He  heals  the  sick  and  feeds  the  poor.  He  lives  among 
the  destitute  and  the  friendless.  "Suffer  little  children,"  He  said, 
"to  come  unto  me ;  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  !  Blessed 
are  the  humble-minded,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven ;  the 
meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  Earth  :  the  merciful,  for  they  shall 
obtain  mercy ;  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God ;  the  peace- 


31O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

makers,  for  they  shall  be  called  the  children  of  God !  First  be  rec- 
onciled to  thy  brother,  and  then  come  and  offer  thy  gift  at  the  altar. 
Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from  him  that  would  borrow  of 
thee  turn  not  away !  Love  your  enemies  ;  bless  them  that  curse  you ; 
do  good  to  them  that  hate  you ;  and  pray  for  them  which  despite- 
f ully  use  you  and  persecute  you !  All  things  whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  also  unto  them ;  for  this  is  the 
law  and  the  Prophets !  He  that  taketh  not  his  cross,  and  followeth 
after  Me,  is  not  worthy  of  Me.  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto 
you,  that  ye  love  one  another :  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also  love 
one  another :  by  this  shall  all  know  that  ye  are  My  disciples. 
Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life 
for  his  friend." 

The  Gospel  of  Love  He  sealed  with  His  life.  The  cruelty  of 
the  Jewish  Priesthood,  the  ignorant  ferocity  of  the  mob,  and  the 
Roman  indifference  to  barbarian  blood,  nailed  Him  to  the  cross, 
and  He  expired  uttering  blessings  upon  humanity. 

Dying  thus,  He  bequeathed  His  teachings  to  man  as  an  ines- 
timable inheritance.  Perverted  and  corrupted,  they  have  served  as 
a  basis  for  many  creeds,  and  been  even  made  the  warrant  for  intol- 
erance and  persecution.  We  here  teach  them  in  their  purity. 
They  are  our  Masonry ;  for  to  them  good  men  of  all  creeds  can 
subscribe. 

That  God  is  good  and  merciful,  and  loves  and  sympathizes  with 
the  creatures  He  has  made ;  that  His  finger  is  visible  in  all  the 
movements  of  the  moral,  intellectual,  and  material  universe ;  that 
we  are  His  children,  the  objects  of  His  paternal  care  and  regard ; 
that  all  men  are  our  brothers,  whose  wants  we  are  to  supply,  their 
errors  to  pardon,  their  opinions  to  tolerate,  their  injuries  to  for- 
give ;  that  man  has  an  immortal  soul,  a  free  will,  a  right  to  free- 
dom of  thought  and  action ;  that  all  men  are  equal  in  God's  sight ; 
that  we  best  serve  God  by  humility,  meekness,  gentleness,  kind- 
ness, and  the  other  virtues  which  the  lowly  can  practise  as  well  as 
the  lofty;  this  is  "the  new  Law,"  the  "WORD,"  for  which  the 
world  had  waited  and  pined  so  long;  and  every  true  Knight  of 
the  Rose  *&  will  revere  the  memory  of  Him  who  taught  it,  and 
look  indulgently  even  on  those  who  assign  to  Him  a  character  far 
above  his  own  conceptions  or  belief,  even  to  the  extent  of  deeming 
Him  Divine. 

Hear  Philo,  the  Greek  Jew.    "The  contemplative  soul,  une- 


KNIGHT   ROSE   CKOIX.  311 

qually  guided,  sometimes  toward  abundance  and  sometimes  to- 
ward barrenness,  though  ever  advancing,  is  illuminated  by  the 
primitive  ideas,  the  rays  that  emanate  from  the  Divine  Intelli- 
gence, whenever  it  ascends  toward  the  Sublime  Treasures.  When, 
on  the  contrary,  it  descends,  and  is  barren,  it  falls  within  the  do- 
main of  those  Intelligences  that  are  termed  Angels.  .  .  for,  when 
the  soul  is  deprived  of  the  light  of  God,  which  leads  it  to  the 
knowledge  of  things,  it  no  longer  enjoys  more  than  a  feeble  and 
secondary  light,  which  gives  it,  not  the  understanding  of  things, 
but  that  of  words  only,  as  in  this  baser  world.  .  .  ." 

"...  Let  the  narrow-souled  withdraw,  having  their  ears  sealed 
up !  We  communicate  the  divine  mysteries  to  those  only  who 
have  received  the  sacred  initiation,  to  those  who  practise  true  piety, 
and  who  are  not  enslaved  by  the  empty  pomp  of  words,  or  the 
doctrines  of  the  pagans.  ..." 

" .  .  .  O,  ye  Initiates,  ye  whose  ears  are  purified,  receive  this  in 
your  souls,  as  a  mystery  never  to  be  lost !  Reveal  it  to  no  Profane ! 
Keep  and  contain  it  within  yourselves,  as  an  incorruptible  treas- 
ure, not  like  gold  or  silver,  but  more  precious  than  everything 
besides ;  for  it  is  the  knowledge  of  the  Great  Cause,  of  Nature,  and 
of  that  which  is  born  of  both.  And  if  you  meet  an  Initiate,  be- 
siege him  with  your  prayers,  that  he  conceal  from  you  no  new 
mysteries  that  he  may  know,  and  rest  not  until  you  have  obtained 
them !  For  me,  although  I  was  initiated'  in  the  Great  Mysteries 
by  Moses,  the  Friend  of  God,  yet,  having  seen  Jeremiah,  I  recog- 
nized him  not  only  as  an  Initiate,  but  as  a  Hierophant ;  and  I  fol- 
low his  school." 

We,  like  him,  recognize  all  Initiates  as  our  Brothers.  We  be- 
long to  no  one  creed  or  school.  In  all  religions  there  is  a  basis  of 
Truth ;  in  all  there  is  pure  Morality.  All  that  teach  the  cardinal 
trnets  of  Masonry  we  respect ;  all  teachers  and  reformers  of  man- 
kind we  admire  and  revere. 

Masonry  also  has  her  mission  to  perform.  With  her  traditions 
reaching  back  to  the  earliest  times,  and  her  symbols  dating  further 
back  than  even  the  monumental  history  of  Egypt  extends,  she  in- 
vites all  men  of  all  religions  to  enlist  under  her  banners  and  to 
war  against  evil,  ignorance,  and  wrong.  You  are  now  her  knight, 
and  to  her  service  your  sword  is  consecrated.  May  you  prove  a 
worthy  soldier  in  a  worthy  cause! 

31 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


COUNCIL  OF  KADOSH. 


XIX. 
GRAND    PONTIFF. 

THE  true  Mason  labors  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  to  come 
after  him,  and  for  the  advancement  and  improvement  of  his  race. 
That  is  a  poor  ambition  which  contents  itself  within  the  limits  of 
a  single  life.  All  men  who  deserve  to  live,  desire  to  survive  their 
funerals,  and  to  live  afterward  in  the  good  that  they  have  done 
mankind,  rather  than  in  the  fad.ng  characters  written  in  men's 
memories.  Most  men  desire  to  leave  some  work  behind  them  that 
may  outlast  their  own  day  and  brief  generation.  That  is  an  in- 
stinctive impulse,  given  by  God,  and  often  found  in  the  rudest 
human  heart ;  the  surest  proof  of  the  soul's  immortality,  and  of 
the  fundamental  difference  between  man  and  the  wisest  brutes. 
To  plant  the  trees  that,  after  we  are  dead,  shall  shelter  our  children, 
is  as  natural  as  to  love  the  shade  of  those  our  fathers  planted. 
The  rudest  unlettered  husbandman,  painfully  conscious  of  his  own 
inferiority,  the  poorest  widowed  mother,  giving  her  life-blood  to 
those  who  pay  only  for  the  work  of  her  needle,  will  toil  and  stint 
themselves  to  educate  their  child,  that  he  may  take  a  higher  sta- 
tion in  the  world  than  they ; — and  of  such  are  the  world's  greatest 
benefactors. 

In  his  influences  that  survive  him,  man  becomes  immortal,  be- 
fore the  general  resurrection.  The  Spartan  mother,  who,  giving 
her  son  his  shield,  said,  "WITH  IT,  OR  UPON  IT  !"  afterward  shared 
the  government  of  Lacedjemon  with  the  legislation  of  Lycurgus : 
for  she  too  made  a  law,  that  lived  after  her ;  and  she  inspired  the 
Spartan  soldiery  that  afterward  demolished  the  walls  of  Athens, 
and  aided  Alexander  to  conquer  the  Orient.  The  widow  who  gave 
Marion  the  fiery  arrows  to  burn  her  own  house,  that  it  might  no 
longer  shelter  the  enemies  of  her  infant  country,  the  house  where 
she  had  lain  upon  her  husband's  bosom,  and  where  her  children 
had  been  born,  legislated  more  effectually  for  her  State  than  Locke 
or  Shaftesbury,  or  than  many  a  Legislature  has  done,  since  that 
State  won  its  freedom. 

It  was  of  slight  importance  to  the  Kings  of  Egypt  and  the 
312 


GRAND  PONTIFF.  313 

Monarchs  of  Assyria  and  Phoenicia,  that  the  son  of  a  Jewish  wo- 
man, a  foundling,  adopted  by  the  daughter  of  Sesostris  Ramses, 
slew  an  Egyptian  that  oppressed  a  Hebrew  slave,  and  fled  into  the 
desert,  to  remain  there  forty  years%  But  Moses,  who  might  other- 
wise have  become  Regent  of  Lower  Egypt,  known  to  us  only  by  a 
tablet  on  a  tomb  or  monument,  became  the  deliverer  of  the  Jews, 
and  led  them  forth  from  Egypt  to  the  frontiers  of  Palestine,  and 
made  for  them  a  law,  out  of  which  grew  the  Christian  faith ;  and 
so  has  shaped  the  destinies  of  the  world.  He  and  the  old  Roman 
lawyers,  with  Alfred  of  England,  the  Saxon  Thanes  and  Norman 
Barons,  the  old  judges  and  chancellors,  and  the  makers  of  the 
canons,  lost  in  the  mists  and  shadows  of  the  Past, — these  are  our 
legislators ;  and  we  obey  the  laws  that  they  enacted. 

Napoleon  died  upon  the  barren  rock  of  his  exile.  His  bones, 
borne  to  France  by  the  son  of  a  King,  rest  in  the  Hopital  des  In- 
valides,  in  the  great  city  on  the  Seine.  His  Thoughts  still  govern 
France.  He,  and  not  the  People,  dethroned  the  Bourbon,  and 
drove  the  last  King  of  the  House  of  Orleans  into  exile.  He,  in 
his  coffin,  and  not  the  People,  voted  the  crown  to  the  Third  Napo- 
leon; and  he,  and  not  the  Generals  of  France  and  England,  led 
their  united  forces  against  the  grim  Northern  Despotism. 

Mahomet  announced  to  the  Arabian  idolaters  the  new  creed, 
"There  is  but  one  God,  andMahomet,  likeMoses  and  Christ,  is  His 
apostle."  For  many  years  unaided,  then  with  the  help  of  his  fam- 
ily and  a  few  friends,  then  with  many  disciples,  and  last  of  all 
with  an  army,  he  taught  and  preached  the  Koran.  The  religion 
of  the  wild  Arabian  enthusiast  converting  the  fiery  Tribes  of  the 
Great  Desert,  spread  over  Asia,  built  up  the  Saracenic  dynasties, 
conquered  Persia  and  India,  the  Greek  Empire,  Northern  Africa, 
and  Spain,  and  dashed  the  surges  of  its  fierce  soldiery  against  the 
battlements  of  Northern  Christendom.  The  law  of  Mahomet  still 
governs  a  fourth  of  the  human  race ;  and  Turk  and  Arab,  Moor 
and  Persian  and  Hindu,  still  obey  the  Prophet,  and  pray  with  their 
faces  turned  toward  Mecca ;  and  he,  and  not  the  living,  rules  and 
reigns  in  the  fairest  portions  of  the  Orient. 

Confucius  still  enacts  the  law  for  China;  and  the  thoughts  and 
ideas  of  Peter  the  Great  govern  Russia.  Plato  and  the  other  great 
Sages  of  Antiquity  still  reign  as  the  Kings  of  Philosophy,  and 
have  dominion  over  the  human  intellect.  The  great  Statesmen 
of  the  Past  still  preside  in  the  Councils  of  Nations,  Burke  still 


314  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

lingers  in  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  Berryer's  sonorous  tones 
will  long  ring  in  the  Legislative  Chambers  of  France.  The  in- 
fluences of  Webster  and  Calhoun,  conflicting,  rent  asunder  the 
American  States,  and  the  doctrine  of  each  is  the  law  and  the  ora- 
cle speaking  from  the  Holy  of  Holies  for  his  own  State  and  all 
consociated  with  it:  a  faith  preached  and  proclaimed  by  each  at 
the  cannon's  mouth  and  consecrated  by  rivers  of  blood. 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  when  Tamerlane  had  builded  his  pyr- 
amid of  fifty  thousand  human  skulls,  and  wheeled  away  with  his 
vast  armies  from  the  gates  of  Damascus,  to  find  new  conquests, 
and  build  other  pyramids,  a  little  boy  was  playing  in  the  streets 
of  Mentz,  son  of  a  poor  artisan,  whose  apparent  importance  in  the 
scale  of  beings  was,  compared  with  that  of  Tamerlane,  as  that  of 
a  grain  of  sand  to  the  giant  bulk  of  the  earth ;  but  Tamerlane 
and  all  his  shaggy  legions,  that  swept  over  the  East  like  a  hurri- 
cane, have  passed  away,  and  become  shadows ;  while  printing,  the 
wonderful  invention  of  John  Faust,  the  boy  of  Mentz,  has  exerted 
a  greater  influence  on  man's  destinies  and  overturned  more  thrones 
and  dynasties  than  all  the  victories  of  all  the  blood-stained  con- 
querors from  Nimrod  to  Napoleon. 

Long  ages  ago,  the  Temple  built  by  Solomon  and  our  Ancient 
Brethren  sank  into  ruin,  when  the  Assyrian  Armies  sacked  Jeru- 
salem. The  Holy  City  is  a  mass  of  hovels  cowering  under  the 
dominion  of  the  Crescent ;  and  the  Holy  Land  a  desert.  The 
Kings  of  Egypt  and  Assyria,  who  were  contemporaries  of  Solomon, 
are  forgotten,  and  their  histories  mere  fables.  The  Ancient  Ori- 
ent is  a  shattered  wreck,  bleaching  on  the  shores  of  Time.  The 
Wolf  and  the  Jackal  howl  among  the  ruins  of  Thebes  and  of 
Tyre,  and  the  sculptured  images  of  the  Temples  and  Palaces  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh  are  dug  from  their  ruins  and  carried  into 
strange  lands.  But  the  quiet  and  peaceful  Order,  of  which  the 
Son  of  a  poor  Phrenician  Widow  was  one  of  the  Grand  Masters, 
with  the  Kings  of  Israel  and  Tyre,  has  continued  to  increase  in 
stature  and  influence,  defying  the  angry  waves  of  time  and  the 
storms  of  persecution.  Age  has  not  weakened  its  wide  founda- 
tions, nor  shattered  its  columns,  nor  marred  the  beauty  of  its  har- 
monious proportions.  Where  rude  barbarians,  in  the  time  of  Sol- 
omon, peopled  inhospitable  howling  wildernesses,  in  France  and 
Britain,  and  in  that  New  World,  not  known  to  Jew  or  Gentile, 
until  the  glories  of  the  Orient  had  faded,  that  Order  has  builded 


GRAND  PONTIFF.  315 

new  Temples,  and  teaches  to  its  million  of  Initiates  those  lessons 
of  peace,  good-will,  and  toleration,  of  relk.ncc  on  God  and  confi- 
dence in  man,  which  it  learned  when  Hebrew  and  Gitletaite 
worked  side  by  side  on  the  slopes  of  Lebanon,  and  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah  and  the  Phoenician  Worshippc"  of  Bel  sat  with  the  hum- 
ble artisan  in  Council  at  Jerusalem. 

It  is  the  Dead  that  govern.  The  Li>.  :ng  only  obey.  And  if 
the  Soul  sees,  after  death,  what  passes  on  Jiis  earth,  and  watches 
over  the  welfare  of  those  it  loves,  then  must  its  greatest  happi- 
ness consist  in  seeing  the  current  of  its  beneficent  influences 
widening  out  from  ?ge  to  age,  as  rivulets  widen  into  rivers,  and 
aiding  to  shape  the  destinies  of  individuals,  families,  States,  the 
World;  and  its  bitterest  punishment,  in  seeing  its  evil  influences 
causing  mischief  and  misery,  and  cursing  and  afflicting  men,  long 
after  the  frame  it  dwelt  in  has  become  dust,  and  when  both  name 
and  memory  are  forgotten. 

We  know  not  who  among  the  Dead  control  our  destinies.  The 
universal  human  race  is  linked  and  bound  together  by  those  influ- 
ences and  sympathies,  which  in  the  truest  sense  do  make  men's 
fates.  Humanity  is  the  unit,  of  which  the  man  is  but  a  fraction. 
What  other  men  in  the  Past  have  done,  said,  thought,  makes  the 
great  iron  network  of  circumstance  that  environs  and  controls  us 
all.  We  take  our  faith  on  trust.  We  think  and  believe  as  the  Old 
Lords  of  Thought  command  us ;  and  Reason  is  powerless  before 
Authority. 

We  would  make  or  annul  a  particular  contract ;  but  the 
Thoughts  of  the  dead  Judges  of  England,  living  when  their  ashes 
have  been  cold  for  centuries,  stand  between  us  and  that  which  we 
would  do,  and  utterly  forbid  it.  We  would  settle  our  estate  in  a 
particular  way;  but  the  prohibition  of  the  English  Parliament, 
its  uttered  Thought  when  the  first  or  second  Edward  reigned, 
comes  echoing  down  the  long  avenues  of  time,  and  tells  us  we 
shall  not  exercise  the  power  of  disposition  as  we  wish.  We  would 
gain  a  particular  advantage  of  another ;  and  the  thought  of  the 
old  Roman  lawyer  who  died  before  Justinian,  or  that  of  Rome's 
great  orator  Cicero,  annihilates  the  act,  or  makes  the  intention  in- 
effectual. This  act,  Moses  forbids;  that.  Alfred.  We  would  sell 
our  land  ;  but  certain  marks  on  a  perishable  paper  tell  us  that  our 
father  or  remote  ancestor  ordered  otherwise ;  and  the  arm  of  tin 
dead,  emerging  from  the  grave,  with  peremptory  gesture  prohibits 


316  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

the  alienation.  About  to  sin  or  err,  the  thought  or  wish  of  our 
dead  mother,  told  us  when  we  were  children,  by  words  that  died 
upon  the  air  in  the  utterance,  and  many  a  long  year  were  forgot- 
ten, flashes  on  our  memory,  and  holds  us  back  with  a  power  that 
is  resistless. 

Thus  we  obey  the  dead ;  and  thus  shall  the  living,  when  we  are 
dead,  for  weal  or  woe,  obey  us.  The  Thoughts  of  the  Past  are  the 
Laws  of  the  Present  and  the  Future.  That  which  we  say  and  do, 
if  its  effects  last  not  beyond  our  lives,  is  unimportant.  That 
which  shall  live  when  we  are  dead,  as  part  of  the  great  body  of 
law  enacted  by  the  dead,  is  the  only  act  worth  doing,  the  only 
Thought  worth  speaking.  The  desire  to  do  something  that  shall 
benefit  the  world,  when  neither  praise  nor  obloquy  will  reach  us 
where  we  sleep  soundly  in  the  grave,  is  the  noblest  ambition  en- 
tertained by  man. 

It  is  the  ambition  of  a  true  and  genuine  Mason.  Knowing  the 
slow  processes  by  which  the  Deity  brings  about  great  results,  he 
does  not  expect  to  reap  as  well  as  sow,  in  a  single  lifetime.  It  is 
the  inflexible  fate  and  noblest  destiny,  with  rare  exceptions,  of  the 
great  and  good,  to  work,  and  let  others  reap  the  harvest  of  their 
labors.  He  who  does  good,  only  to  be  repaid  in  kind,  or  in  thanks 
and  gratitude,  or  in  reputation  and  the  world's  praise,  is  like  him 
who  loans  his  money,  that  he  may,  after  certain  months,  receive  it 
back  with  interest.  To  be  repaid  for  eminent  services  with  slan- 
der, obloquy,  or  ridicule,  or  at  best  with  stupid  indifference  or  cold 
ingratitude,  as  it  is  common,  so  it  is  no  misfortune,  except  to  those 
who  lack  the  wit  to  see  or  sense  to  appreciate  the  service,  or  the 
nobility  of  soul  to  thank  and  reward  with  eulogy,  the  benefactor 
of  his  kind.  Kis  influences  live,  and  the  great  Future  will  obey ; 
whether  it  recognize  or  disown  the  lawgiver. 

Miltiades  was  fortunate  that  he  was  exiled ;  and  Aristides  that 
he  was  ostracized,  because  men  wearied  of  hearing  him  called  "The 
Just."  Not  the  Redeemer  was  unfortunate ;  but  those  only  who 
repaid  Him  for  the  inestimable  gift  He  offered  them,  and  for  a  life 
passed  in  toiling  for  their  good,  by  nailing  Him  upon  the  cross,  as 
though  He  had  been  a  slave  or  malefactor.  The  persecutor  dies 
and  rots,  and  Posterity  utters  his  name  with  execration :  but  his 
victim's  memory  he  has  unintentionally  made  glorious  and  im- 
mortal. 

If  not  for  slander  and  persecution,  the  Mason  who  would  bene- 


GRAND  PONTIFF.  JI7 

fit  his  race  must  look  for  apathy  and  cold  indifference  in  those 
whose  good  he  seeks,  in  those  who  ought  to  seek  the  good  of 
others.  Except  when  the  sluggish  depths  of  the  Human  Mind 
are  broken  up  and  tossed  as  with  a  storm,  when  at  the  appointed 
time  a  great  Reformer  comes,  and  a  new  Faith  springs  up  and 
grows  with  supernatural  energy,  the  progress  of  Truth  is  slower 
than  the  growth  of  oaks;  and  he  who  plants  need  not  expect  to 
gather.  The  Redeemer,  at  His  death,  had  twelve  disciples,  and 
one  betrayed  and  one  deserted  and  denied  Him.  It  is  enough  for 
us  to  know  that  the  fruit  will  come  in  its  due  season.  When,  or 
who  shall  gather  it,  it  does  not  in  the  least  concern  us  to  know. 
It  is  our  business  to  plant  the  seed.  It  is  God's  right  to  give  the 
fruit  to  whom  He  pleases ;  and  if  not  to  us,  then  is  our  action  by 
so  much  the  more  noble. 

To  sow,  that  others  may  reap ;  to  work  and  plant  for  those  who 
are  to  occupy  the  earth  when  we  are  dead;  to  project  our  influ- 
ences far  into  the  future,  and  live  beyond  our  time ;  to  rule  as  the 
Kings  of  Thought,  over  men  who  are  yet  unborn ;  to  bless  with 
the  glorious  gifts  of  Truth  and  Light  and  Liberty  those  who  will 
neither  know  the  name  of  the  giver,  nor  care  in  what  grave  his 
unregarded  ashes  repose,  is  the  true  office  of  a  Mason  and  the 
proudest  destiny  of  a  man. 

All  the  great  and  beneficent  operations  of  Nature  are  produced 
by  slow  and  often  imperceptible  degrees.  The  work  of  destruction 
and  devastation  only  is  violent  and  rapid.  The  Volcano  and  the 
Earthquake,  the  Tornado  and  the  Avalanche,  leap  suddenly  into 
full  life  and  fearful  energy,  and  smite  with  an  unexpected  blow. 
Vesuvius  buried  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum  in  a  night;  and  Lis- 
bon fell  prostrate  before  God  in  a  breath,  when  the  earth  rocked 
and  shuddered ;  the  Alpine  village  vanishes  and  is  erased  at  one 
bound  of  the  avalanche ;  and  the  ancient  forests  fall  like  grass  be- 
fore the  mower,  when  the  tornado  leaps  upon  them.  Pestilence 
slays  its  thousands  in  a  day ;  and  the  storm  in  a  night  strews  the 
sand  with  shattered  navies. 

The  Gourd  of  the  Prophet  Jonah  grew  up,  and  was  withered,  in 
a  night.  But  many  years  ago,  before  the  Norman  Conqueror 
stamped  his  mailed  foot  on  the  neck  of  prostrate  Saxon  England, 
some  wandering  barbarian,  of  the  continent  then  unknown  to  the 
world,  in  mere  idleness,  with  hand  or  foot,  covered  an  acorn  with 
a  little  earth,  and  passed  on  regardless,  on  his  journey  to  the  dim 


318  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Past.  He  died  and  was  forgotten;  but  the  acorn  lay  there  still, 
the  mighty  force  within  it  acting  in  the  darkness.  A  tender  shoot 
stole  gently  up ;  and  fed  by  the  light  and  air  and  frequent  dews, 
put  forth  its  little  leaves,  and  lived,  because  the  elk  or  buffalo 
chanced  not  to  place  his  foot  upon  and  crush  it.  The  years 
marched  onward,  and  the  shoot  became  a  sapling,  and  its  green 
leaves  went  and  came  with  Spring  and  Autumn.  And  still  the 
years  came  and  passed  away  again,  and  William,  the  Norman  Bas- 
tard, parcelled  England  out  among  his  Barons,  and  still  the  sapling 
grew,  and  the  dews  fed  its  leaves,  and  the  birds  builded  their  nests 
among  its  small  limbs  for  many  generations.  And  still  the  years 
came  and  went,  and  the  Indian  hunter  slept  in  the  shade  of  the 
sapling,  and  Richard  Lion-Heart  fought  at  Acre  and  Ascalon,  and 
John's  bold  Barons  wrested  from  him  the  Great  Charter ;  and  lo ! 
the  sapling  had  become  a  tree ;  and  still  it  grew,  and  thrust  its 
great  arms  wider  abroad,  and  lifted  its  head  still  higher  toward 
the  Heavens  ;  strong-rooted,  and  defiant  of  the  storms  that  roared 
and  eddied  through  its  branches ;  and  when  Columbus  ploughed 
with  his  keels  the  unknown  Western  Atlantic,  and  Cortez  and 
Pizarro  bathed  the  cross  in  blood  ;  and  the  Puritan,  the  Huguenot, 
the  Cavalier,  and  the  follower  of  Penn  sought  a  refuge  and  a  rest- 
ing-place beyond  the  ocean,  the  Great  Oak  still  stood,  firm-rooted, 
vigorous,  stately,  haughtily  domineering  over  all  the  forest,  heed- 
less of  all  the  centuries  that  had  hurried  past  since  the  wild  Indian 
planted  the  little  acorn  in  the  forest ; — a  stout  and  hale  old  tree, 
with  wide  circumference  shading  many  a  rood  of  ground ;  and  fit 
to  furnish  timbers  for  a  ship,  to  carry  the  thunders  of  the  Great 
Republic's  guns  around  the  world.  And  yet,  if  one  had  sat  and 
watched  it  even  instant,  from  the  moment  A'hen  the  feeble  shoot 
first  pushed  its  way  to  the  light  until  the  eagles  built  among  its 
branches,  he  would  never  have  seen  the  tree  3r  sapling  grow. 

Many  long  centuries  ago,  before  the  Chaldsean  Shepherds 
watched  the  Stars,  or  Shufu  built  the  Pyramids,  one  could  have 
sailed  in  a  seventy-four  where  now  a  thousand  islands  gem  the  sur- 
face of  the  Indian  Ocean ;  and  the  deep-sea  lead  would  nowhere 
have  found  any  bottom.  But  below  these  waves  were  myriads 
upon  myriads,  beyond  the  power  of  Arithmetic  to  number,  of 
minute  existences,  each  a  perfect  living  creature,  made  by  the  Al- 
mighty Creator,  and  fashioned  by  Him  for  the  work  it  had  to  do. 
There  they  toiled  beneath  the  waters,  each  doing  its  allotted  work. 


«RAND  PONTIFF.  519 

and  wholly  ignorant  of  the  result  which  God  intended.  They 
lived  and  died,  incalculable  in  numbers  and  almost  infinite  in  the 
succession  of  their  generations,  each  adding  his  mite  to  the  gigan- 
tic work  that  went  on  there  under  God's  direction.  Thus  hath  He 
chosen  to  create  great  Continents  and  Islands ;  and  still  the  coral- 
insects  live  and  work,  as  when  they  made  the  rocks  that  underlie 
the  valley  of  the  Ohio. 

Thus  God  hath  chosen  to  create.  Where  now  is  firm  land,  once 
chafed  and  thundered  the  great  primeval  ocean.  For  ages  upon 
ages  the  minute  shields  of.  infinite  myriads  of  infusoria,  and  the 
stony  stems  of  encrinites  sunk  into  its  depths,  and  there,  under 
the  vast  pressure  of  its  waters,  hardened  into  limestone.  Raised 
slowly  from  the  Profound  by  His  hand,  its  quarries  underlie  the 
soil  of  all  the  continents,  hundreds  of  feet  in  thickness ;  and  we, 
of  these  remains  of  the  countless  dead,  build  tombs  and  palaces, 
as  the  Egyptians,  whom  we  call  ancient,  built  their  pyramids. 

On  all  the  broad  lakes  and  oceans  the  Great  Sun  looks  earnestly 
and  lovingly,  and  the  invisible  vapors  rise  ever  up  to  meet  him. 
No  eye  but  God's  beholds  them  as  they  rise.  There,  in  the  upper 
atmosphere,  they  are  condensed  to  mist,  and  gather  into  clouds. 
and  float  and  swim  around  in  the  ambient  air.  They  sail  with  its 
currents,  and  hover  over  the  ocean,  and  roll  in  huge  masses  round 
the  stony  shoulders  of  great  mountains.  Condensed  still  more  by 
change  of  temperature,  they  drop  upon  the  thirsty  earth  in  gentle 
showers,  or  pour  upon  it  in  heavy  rains,  or  storm  against  its  bosom 
at  the  angry  Equinoctial.  The  shower,  the  rain,  and  the  storm 
pass  away,  the  clouds  vanish,  and  the  bright  stars  again  shine 
clearly  upon  the  glad  earth.  The  rain-drops  sink  into  the  ground, 
and  gather  in  subterranean  reservoirs,  and  run  in  subterranean 
channels,  and  bubble  up  in  springs  and  fountains ;  and  from  the 
mountain-sides  and  heads  of  valleys  the  silver  threads  of  water 
begin  their  long  journey  to  the  ocean.  Uniting,  they  widen  into 
brooks  and  rivulets,  then  into  streams  and  rivers  ;  and,  at  last,  a 
Nile,  a  Ganges,  a  Danube,  an  Amazon,  or  a  Mississippi  rolls  be- 
tween its  banks,  mighty,  majestic,  and  resistless,  creating  vast  allu- 
vial valleys  to  be  the  granaries  of  the  world,  ploughed  by  the 
thousand  keels  of  commerce  and  serving  as  great  highways,  and 
as  the  impassable  boundaries  of  -rival  nations ;  ever  returning  to 
the  ocean  the  drops  that  rose  from  it  in  vapor,  and  descended  in 
rain  and  snow  and  hail  upon  the  level  plains  and  lofty  moun- 


J2O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

tains ;  and  causing  him  to  recoil  for  many  a  mile  before  the  head- 
long rush  of  their  great  tide. 

So  it  is  with  the  aggregate  of  Human  endeavor.  As  the  invis- 
ible particles  of  vapor  combine  and  coalesce  to  form  the  mists  and 
clouds  that  fall  in  rain  on  thirsty  continents,  and  bless  the  great 
green  forests  and  wide  grassy  prairies,  the  waving  meadows  and 
the  fields  by  which  men  live ;  as  the  infinite  myriads  of  drops  that 
the  glad  earth  drinks  are  gathered  into  springs  and  rivulets  and 
rivers,  to  aid  in  levelling  the  mountains  and  elevating  the  plains, 
and  to  feed  the  large  lakes  and  restless  oceans ;  so  all  Human 
Thought,  and  Speech  and  Action,  all  that  is  done  and  said  and 
thought  and  suffered  upon  the  Earth  combine  together,  and  flow 
onward  in  one  broad  resistless  current  toward  those  great  results 
to  which  they  are  determined  by  the  will  of  God. 

We  build  slowly  and  destroy  swiftly.  Our  Ancient  Brethren 
who  built  the  Temples  at  Jerusalem,  with  many  myriad  blows 
felled,  hewed,  and  squared  the  cedars,  and  quarried  the  stones,  and 
carved  the  intricate  ornaments,  which  were  to  be  the  Temples. 
Stone  after  stone,  by  the  combined  effort  and  long  toil  of  Appren- 
tice, Fellow-Craft,  and  Master,  the  walls  arose;  slowly  the  roof 
was  framed  and  fashioned ;  and  many  years  elapsed,  before,  at 
length,  the  Houses  stood  finished,  all  fit  and  ready  for  the  Worship 
of  God,  gorgeous  in  the  sunny  splendors  of  the  atmosphere  of 
Palestine.  So  they  were  built.  A  single  motion  of  the  arm  of  a 
rude,  barbarous  Assyrian  Spearman,  or  drunken  Roman  or  Gothic 
Legionary  of  Titus,  moved  by  a  senseless  impulse  of  the  brutal 
will,  flung  in  the -blazing  brand;  and,  with  no  further  human 
agency,  a  few  short  hours  sufficed  to  consume  and  melt  each  Tem- 
ple to  a  smoking  mass  of  black  unsightly  ruin. 

Be  patient,  therefore,  my  Brother,  and  wait! 

Yhe  issues  are  with  God:  To  do, 
Of  right  belongs  to  us. 

Therefore  faint  not,  nor  be  weary  in  well-doing !  Be  not  dis- 
couraged at  men's  apathy,  nor  disgusted  with  their  follies  nor 
tired  of  their  indifference !  Care  not  for  returns  and  results ;  but 
see  only  what  there  is  to  do,  and  do  it,  leaving  the  results  to  God ! 
Soldier  of  the  Cross !  Sworn  Knight  of  Justice,  Truth,  and  Tol- 
eration! Good  Knight  and  True!  be  patient  and  work! 

The  Apocalypse,  that  sublime  Kabalistic  and  prophetic   Sum- 


GRAND  PONTIFF.  321 

mary  of  all  the  occult  figures,  divides  its  images  into  three  Sep- 
tenaries,  after  each  of  which  there  is  silence  in  Heaven.  There 
are  Seven  Seals  to  be  opened,  that  is  to  say,  Seven  mysteries  to 
know,  and  Seven  difficulties  to  overcome,  Seven  trumpets  to  sound, 
and  Seven  cups  to  empty. 

The  Apocalypse  is,  to  those  who  receive  the  nineteenth  Degree, 
the  Apotheosis  of  that  Sublime  Faith  which  aspires  to  God  alone, 
and  despises  all  the  pomps  and  works  of  Lucifer.  LUCIFER,  the 
Light-bearer!  Strange  and  mysterious  name  to  give  to  the  Spirit 
of  Darkness!  Lucifer,  the  Son  of  the  Morning!  Is  it  he  who 
bears  the  Light,  and  with  its  splendors  intolerable  blinds  feeble, 
sensual,  or  selfish  Souls?  Doubt  it  not!  for  traditions  are  full  of 
Divine  Revelations  and  Inspirations :  and  Inspiration  is  not  of 
one  Age  nor  of  one  Creed.  Plato  and  Philo,  also,  were  inspired. 

The  Apocalypse,  indeed,  is  a  book  as  obscure  as  the  Sohar. 

It  is  written  hieroglyphically  with  numbers  and  images ;  and 
the  Apostle  often  appeals  to  the  intelligence  of  the  Initiated. 
"Let  him  who  hath  knowledge,  understand !  let  him  who  under- 
stands, calculate !"  he  often  says,  after  an  allegory  or  the  mention 
of  a  number.  Saint  John,  the  favorite  Apostle,  and  the  Depositary 
of  all  the  Secrets  of  the  Saviour,  therefore  did  not  write  to  be  un- 
derstood by  the  multitude. 

The  Sephar  Yezirah,  the  Sohar,  and  the  Apocalypse  are  the 
completest  embodiments  of  Occultism.  They  contain  more  mean- 
ings than  words ;  their  expressions  are  figurative  as  poetry  and 
exact  as  numbers.  The  Apocalypse  sums  up,  completes,  and  sur- 
passes all  the  Science  of  Abraham  and  of  Solomon.  The  visions 
of  Ezekiel,  by  the  river  Chebar,  and  of  the  new  Symbolic  Temple, 
are  equally  mysterious  expressions,  veiled  by  figures  of  the  enig- 
matic dogmas  of  the  Kabalah,  and  their  symbols  are  as  little  un- 
derstood by  the  Commentators,  as  those  of  Free  Masonry. 

The  Septenary  is  the  Crown  of  the  Numbers,  because  it  unites 
the  Triangle  of  the  Idea  to  the  Square  of  the  Form. 

The  more  the  great  Hierophants  were  at  pains  to  conceal  their 
absolute  Science,  the  more  they  sought  to  add  grandeur  to  and 
multiply  its  symbols.  The  huge  pyramids,  with  their  triangular 
sides  of  elevation  and  square  bases,  represented  their  Metaphysics, 
founded  upon  the  knowledge  of  Nature.  That  knowledge  of  Na- 
ture had  for  its  symbolic  key  the  gigantic  form  of  that  huge 
Sphinx,  which  has  hollowed  its  deep  bed  in  the  sand,  while  keep- 


322  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

ing  \vatch  at  the  feet  of  the  Pyramids.  The  Seven  grand  monu- 
ments called  the  Wonders  of  the  World,  were  the  magnificent 
Commentaries  on  the  Seven  lines  that  composed  the  Pyramids, 
and  on  the  Seven  mystic  gates  of  Thebes. 

The  Septenary  philosophy  of  Initiation  among  the  Ancients 
may  be  summed  up  thus  : 

Three  Absolute  Principles  which  are  but  One  Principle :  four 
elementary  forms.which  are  but  one ;  all  forming  a  Single  Whole, 
compounded  of  the  Idea  and  the  Form. 

The  three  Principles  were  these : 

i°.  BEING  is  BEING. 

In  Philosophy,  identity  of  the  Idea  and  of  Being  or  Verity ;  in 
Religion,  the  first  Principle,  THE  FATHER. 
2°.  BEING  is  REAL. 

In  Philosophy,  identity  of  Knowing  and  of  Being  or  Reality ; 
in  Religion,  the  LOGOS  of  Plato,  the  Demiourgos,  the  WORD. 
3°.  BEING  is  LOGIC. 

In  Philosophy,  identity  of  the  Reason  and  Reality ;  in  Religion, 
Providence,  the  Divine  Action  that  makes  real  the  Good,  that 
which  in  Christianity  we  call  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 

The  union  of  all  the  Seven  colors  is  the  White,  the  analogous 
symbol  of  the  GOOD:  the  absence  of  all  is  the  Black,  the  analogous 
symbol  of  the  EVIL.  There  are  three  primary  colors,  Red,  Yellow, 
and  Blue;  and  four  secondary,  Orange,  Green,  Indigo,  and  Vio- 
let; and  all  these  God  displays  to  man  in  the  rainbow ;  and  they 
have  their  analogies  also  in  the  moral  and  intellectual  world.  The 
same  number,  Seven,  continually  reappears  in  the  Apocalypse, 
compounded  of  three  and  four ;  and  these  numbers  relate  to  the 
last  Seven  of  the  Sephiroth,  three  answering  to  BENIGNITY  or 
MERCY,  SEVERITY  or  JUSTICE,  and  BEAUTY  or  HARMONY;  and 
four  to  Ketzach,  Hdd,  Ycsod,  and  Malakoth,  VICTORY,  GLORY, 
STABILITY,  and  DOMINATION.  The  same  numbers  also  represent 
the  first  three  Sephiroth,  K ETHER,  KHOKMAH,  and  BAINAH,  or 
Will,  Wisdom,  and  Understanding,  which,  with  DAATH  or  Intel- 
lection or  Thought,  are  also  four,  DAATH  not  being  regarded  as  a 
Sephirah,  not  as  the  Deity  acting,  or  as  a  potency,  energy,  or  at- 
tribute, but  as  the  Divine  Action. 

The  Sephiroth  are  commonly  figured  in  the  Kabalah  as  consti- 
tuting a  human  form,  the  ADAM  KADMON  or  MACROCOSM.  Thus 
arranged,  the  universal  law  of  Equipoise  is  three  times  exempli- 


GRAND  PONTIFF. 

fied.  From  that  of  the  Divine  Intellectual,  Active,  Masculine 
ENERGY,  and  the  Passive  CAPACITY  to  produce  Thought,  the 
action  of  THINKING  results.  From  that  of  BENIGNITY  and  SE- 
VERITY, HARMONY  flows ;  and  from  that  of  VICTORY  or  an  Infi- 
nite overcoming1,  and  GLORY,  which,  being  Infinite,  would  seem  to 
forbid  the  existence  of  obstacles  or  opposition,  result';  STABILITY 
or  PERMANENCE,  which  is  the  perfect  DOMINION  of  the  Infinite 
WILL. 

The  last  nine  SepV.ir,?th  are  included  in,  at  the  same  time  that 
they  have  flowed  forth  from,  the  first  of  all,  KETIIER,  or  the 
CROWN.  Each  also,  in  succession  flowed  from,  and  yet  still  re- 
mains included  in,  the  one  preceding  it.  The  Will  of  God  includes 
His  Wisdom,  and  His  Wisdom  is  His  Will  specially  developed  and 
acting.  This  Wisdom  is  the  LOGOS  that  creates,  mistaken  and 
personified  by  Simon  Magus  and  the  succeeding  Gnostics.  By 
means  of  its  utterance,  the  letter  YUD,  it  creates  the  worlds,  first 
in  the  Divine  Intellect  as  an  Idea,  which  invested  with  form  be- 
came the  fabricated  World,  the  Universe  of  material  reality.  YUD 
and  HE,  two  letters  of  the  Ineffable  Name  of  the  Manifested 
Deity,  represent  the  Male  and  the  Female,  the  Active  and  the 
Passive  in  Equilibrium,  and  the  VAV  completes  the  Trinity  and 
the  Triliteral  Name  in"1,  the  Divine  Triangle,  which  with  the  repe- 
tition of  the  He  becomes  the  Tetragrammaton. 

Thus  the  ten  Sephiroth  contain  all  the  Sacred  Numbers,  three, 
five,  seven,  and  nine,  and  the  perfect  Number  Ten,  and  correspond 
with  the  Tetractys  of  Pythagoras. 

BEING  Is  BEING,  pPntf  IffK  TTIK,  Ahayah  Asar  Ahayah.  This 
is  the  Principle,  the  "BEGINNING." 

In  the  Beginning  was,  that  is  to  say,  IS,  WAS,  and  WILL  BE, 
the  WORD,  that  is  to  say,  the  REASON  that  Speaks. 
Ev  anffl  TJV  '0  Aofo:,  \ 

The  Word  is  the  reason  of  belief,  and  in  it  also  is  the  expression 
of  the  Faith  which  makes  Science  a  living  thing.  The  Word, 
Jofoc,  is  the  Source  of  Logic.  Jesus  is  the  Word  Incarnate.  The 
accord  of  the  Reason  with  Faith,  of  Knowledge  with  Belief,  of 
Authority  with  Liberty,  has  become  in  modern  times  the  verita- 
ble enigma  of  the  Sphinx. 

Tt  is  WISDOM  that,  in  the  Kabalistic  Books  of  the  Proverbs  and 
Ecclesiasticus,  is  the  Creative  Agent  of  God.  Elsewhere  in  the 
Hebrew  writings  it  is  mrP  *O"J,  Debar  laharah,  the  WORD  of  God 


324  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

It  is  by  His  uttered  Word  that  God  reveals  Himself  to  us;  not 
alone  in  the  visible  and  invisible  but  intellectual  creation,  but  also 
in  our  convictions,  consciousness,  and  instincts.  Hence  it  is  that 
certain  beliefs  are  universal.  The  conviction  of  all  men  that  God 
is  good  led  to  a  belief  in  a  Devil,  the  fallen  Lucifer  or  Light- 
bearer,  Shaitan  the  Adversary,  Ahriman  and  Tuphon,  as  an  at- 
tempt to  explain  the  existence  of  Evil,  and  make  it  consistent  with 
the  Infinite  Power,  Wisdom,  and  Benevolence  of  God. 

Nothing  surpasses  and  nothing  equals,  as  a  Summary  of  all  the 
doctrines  of  the  Old  World,  those  brief  words  engraven  by 
HERMES  on  a  Stone,  and  known  under  the  name  of  "The  Tablet 
of  Emerald:"  the  Unity  of  Being  and  the  Unity  of  the  Harmo- 
nies, ascending  and  descending,  the  progressive  and  proportional 
scale  of  the  Word ;  the  immutable  law  of  the  Equilibrium,  and 
the  proportioned  progress  of  the  universal  analogies ;  the  relation 
of  the  Idea  to  the  Word,  giving  the  measure  of  the  relation  be- 
tween the  Creator  and  the  Created,  the  necessary  mathematics  of 
the  Infinite,  proved  by  the  measures  of  a  single  corner  of  the 
Finite ; — all  this  is  expressed  by  this  single  proposition  of  the 
Great  Egyptian  Hierophant : 

"What  is  Superior  is  as  that  which  is  Inferior,  and  what  is 
Below  is  as  that  which  is  Above,  to  form  the  Marvels  of  the 
Unity." 


XX. 


GRAND  MASTER  OF  ALL  SYMBOLIC 
LODGES. 

THE  true  Mason  is  a  practical  Philosopher,  who,  under  religious 
emblems,  in  all  ages  adopted  by  wisdom,  builds  upor.  plans  traced 
by  nature  and  reason  the  moral  edifice  of  knowledge.  He  ought 
to  find,  in  the  symmetrical  relation  of  all  the  parts  of  this  rational 
edifice,  the  principle  and  rule  of  all  his  duties,  the  source  of  all 
his  pleasures.  He  improves  his  moral  nature,  becomes  a  better  man, 
and  finds  in  the  reunion  of  virtuous  men,  assembled  with  pure 
views,  the  means  of  multiplying  his  acts  of  beneficence.  Masonry 
and  Philosophy,  without  being  one  and  the  same  thing,  have  the 
same  object,  and  propose  to  themselves  the  same  end,  the  worship 
of  the  Grand  Architect  of  the  Universe,  acquaintance  and  familiar- 
ity with  the  wonders  of  nature,  and  the  happiness  of  humanity 
attained  by  the  constant  practice  of  all  the  virtues. 

As  Grand  Master  of  all  Symbolic  Lodges,  it  is  your  especial  duty 
to  aid  in  restoring  Masonry  to  its  primitive  purity.  You  have  be- 
come an  instructor.  Masonry  long  wandered  in  error.  Instead 
of  improving,  it  degenerated  from  its  primitive  simplicity,  and  re- 
trograded toward  a  system,  distorted  by  stupidity  and  ignorance, 
which,  unable  to  construct  a  beautiful  machine,  made  a  complica- 
ted one.  Less  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  its  organization  was 
simple,  and  altogether  moral,  its  emblems,  allegories,  and  ceremo- 
nies easy  to  be  understood,  and  their  purpose  and  object  readily  to 
be  seen.  It  was  then  confined  to  a  very  small  number  of  Degrees. 
Its  constitutions  were  like  those  of  a  Society  of  Essenes,  written 
in  the  first  century  of  our  era.  There  could  be  seen  the  primitive 
Giristianity,  organized  into  Masonry,  the  school  of  Pythagoras 
without  incongruities  or  absurdities;  a  Masonry  simple  and  signifi- 
cant, in  which  it  was  not  necessary  to  torture  the  mind  to  discover 
reasonable  interpretations ;  a  Masonry  at  once  religious  and  philo- 
sophical, worthy  of  a  good  citizen  and  an  enlightened  philanthro- 
pist. 

Innovators  and  inventors  overturned  that  primitive  simplicity. 

22  325 


326  MORAL6   AND  DOGMA. 

Ignorance  engaged  in  the  work  of  making  Degrees,  and  trifles  and 
gewgaws  and  pretended  mysteries,  absurd  or  hideous,  usurped  the 
place  of  Masonic  Truth.  The  picture  of  a  horrid  vengeance,  the 
poniard  and  the  bloody  head,  appeared  in  the  peaceful  Temple  of 
Masonry,  without  sufficient  explanation  of  their  symbolic  meaning. 
Oaths  out  of  all  proportion  with  their  object,  shocked  the  candi- 
date, and  then  became  ridiculous,  and  were  wholly  disregarded. 
Acolytes  were  exposed  to  tests,  and  compelled  to  perform  acts, 
which,  if  real,  would  have  been  abominable ;  but  being  mere  chi- 
meras, were  preposterous,  and  excited  contempt  and  laughter  only. 
Eight  hundred  Degrees  of  one  kind  and  another  were  invented : 
Infidelity  and  even  Jesuitry  were  taught  under  the  mask  of 
Masonry.  The  rituals  even  of  the  respectable  Degrees,  copied  and 
mutilated  by  ignorant  men,  became  nonsensical  and  trivial ;  and 
the  words  so  corrupted  that  it  has  hitherto  been  found  impossible 
to  recover  many  of  them  at  all.  Candidates  were  made  to  degrade 
themselves,  and  to  submit  to  insults  not  tolerable  to  a  man  of 
spirit  and  honor. 

Hence  it  was  that,  practically,  the  largest  portion  of  the  Degrees 
claimed  by  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite,  and  before 
it  by  the  Rite  of  Perfection,  fell  into  disuse,  were  merely  commu- 
nicated, and  their  rituals  became  jejune  and  insignificant.  These 
Rites  resembled  those  old  palaces  and  baronial  castles,  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  which,  built  at  different  periods  remote  from  one 
another,  upon  plans  and  according  to  tastes  that  greatly  varied, 
formed  a  discordant  and  incongruous  whole.  Judaism  and  chiv- 
alry, superstition  and  philosophy,  philanthropy  and  insane  hatred 
and  longing  for  vengeance,  a  pure  morality  and  unjust  and  illegal 
revenge,  were  found  strangely  mated  and  standing  hand  in  hand 
within  the  Temples  of  Peace  and  Concord ;  and  the  whole  system 
was  one  grotesque  commingling  of  incongruous  things,  of  contrasts 
and  contradictions,  of  shocking  and  fantastic  extravagances,  of-  parts 
repugnant  to  good  taste,  and  fine  conceptions  overlaid  and  disfigured 
by  absurdities  engendered  by  ignorance,  fanaticism, and  a  senseless 
mysticism. 

An  empty  and  sterile  pomp,  impossible  indeed  to  be  carried  out, 
and  to  which  no  meaning  whatever  was  attached,  with  far-fetched 
explanations  that  were  either  so  many  stupid  platitudes  or  them- 
selves needed  an  interpreter ;  lofty  titles,  arbitrarily  assumed,  and 
to  which  the  inventors  had  not  condescended  to  attach  any  expla- 


GRAND  MASTER  OF  ALL  SYMBOLIC  LODGES. 

nation  that  should  acquit  them  of  the  folly  of  assuming  temporal 
rank,  power,  and  titles  of  nobility,  made  the  world  laugh,  and  the 
Initiate  feel  ashamed. 

Some  of  these  titles  we  retain ;  but  they  have  with  us  meanings 
entirely  consistent  with  that  Spirit  of  Equality  which  is  the  foun- 
dation and  peremptory  law  of  its  being  of  all  Masonry.  The 
Knight,  with  us,  is  he  who  devotes  his  hand,  his  heart,  his  brain, 
to  the  Science  of  Masonry, and  professes  himself  the  Sworn  Soldier 
of  Truth:  the  Prince  is  he  who  aims  to  be  Chief  [Princeps],  first, 
leader,  among  his  equals,  in  virtue  and  good  deeds :  the  Sovereign 
is  he  who,  one  of  an  order  whose  members  are  all  Sovereigns,  is 
Supreme  only  because  the  law  and  constitutions  are  so,  which  he 
administers,  and  by  which  he,  like  every  other  brother,  is  governed. 
The  titles,  Puissant,  Potent,  Wise,  and  Venerable,  indicate  that 
power  of  Virtue,  Intelligence,  and  Wisdom,  which  those  ought  to 
strive  to  attain  who  are  placed  in  high  office  by  the  suffrages  of 
their  brethren:  and  all  our  other  titles  and  designations  have  an 
esoteric  meaning,  consistent  with  modesty  and  equality,  and  which 
those  who  receive  them  should  fully  understand.  As  Master  of  a 
Lodge  it  is  your  duty  to  instruct  your  Brethren  that  they  are  all 
so  many  constant  lessons,  teaching  the  lofty  qualifications  which 
are  required  of  those  who  claim  them,  and  not  merely  idle  gew- 
gaws worn  in  ridiculous  imitation  of  the  times  when  the  Nobles 
and  Priests  were  masters  and  the  people  slaves:  and  that,  in  all 
true  Masonry,  tfie  Knight,  the  Pontiff,  the  Prince,  and  the  Sov- 
ereign are  but  the  first  among  their  equals :  and  the  cordon,  the 
clothing,  and  the  jewel  but  symbols  and  emblems  of  the  virtues 
required  of  all  good  Masons. 

The  Mason  kneels,  no  longer  to  present  his  petition  for  admittance 
or  to  receive  the  answer,  no  longer  to  a  man  as  his  superior,  who 
is  but  his  brother,  but  to  his  God ;  to  whom  he  appeals  for  the  rec- 
titude of  his  intentions,  and  whose  aid  he  asks  to  enable  him  to 
keep  his  vows.  No  one  is  degraded  by  bending  his  knee  to  God 
at  the  altar,  or  to  receive  the  honor  of  Knighthood  as  Bayard  and 
Du  Guesclin  knelt.  To  kneel  for  other  purposes,  Masonry  does 
not  require.  God  gave  to  man  a  head  to  be  borne  erect,  a  port  up- 
right and  majestic.  We  assemble  in  our  Temples  to  cherish  and 
inculcate  sentiments  that  conform  to  that  loftiness  of  bearing  which 
the  just  and  upright  man  is  entitled  to  maintain,  and  we  do  not 
require  those  who  desire  to  be  admitted  among  us,  ignominious!}' 


3^  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

to  bow  the  head.  We  respect  man,  because  we  respect  ourselves 
that  he  may  conceive  a  lofty  idea  of  his  dignity  as  a  human  being 
free  and  independent.  If  modesty  is  a  virtue,  humility  and  obsequi- 
ousness to  man  are  base:  for  there  is  a  noble  pride  which  is  the 
most  real  and  solid  basis  of  virtue.  Man  should  humble  himself 
before  the  Infinite  God ;  but  not  before  his  erring  and  imperfect 
brother. 

As  Master  of  a  Lodge,  you  will  therefore  be  exceedingly  careful 
that  no  Candidate,  in  any  Degree,  be  required  to  submit  to  any 
degradation  whatever ;  as  has  been  too  much  the  custom  in  some 
of  the  Degrees  :  and  take  it  as  a  certain  and  inflexible  rule,  to  which 
there  is  no  exception,  that  real  Masonry  requires  of  no  man  any- 
thing to  which  a  Knight  and  Gentleman  cannot  honorably,  and 
without  feeling  outraged  or  humiliated,  submit. 

The  Supreme  Council  for  the  Southern  Jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States  at  length  undertook  the  indispensable  and  long-delayed  task 
of  revising  and  reforming  the  work  and  rituals  of  the  thirty  Degrees 
under  its  jurisdiction.  Retaining  the  essentials  of  the  Degrees  and 
all  the  means  by  which  the  members  recognize  one  another,  it  has 
sought  out  and  developed  the  leading  idea  of  each  Degree,  rejected 
the  puerilities  and  absurdities  with  which  many  of  them  were  dis- 
figured, and  made  of  them  a  connected  system  of  moral,  religious, 
and  philosophical  instruction.  Sectarian  of  no  creed,  it  has  yet 
thought  it  not  improper  to  use  the  old  allegories^  based  on  occur- 
rences detailed  in  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  books,  and  drawn 
from  the  Ancient  Mysteries  of  Egypt,  Persia,  Greece,  India,  the 
Druids  and  the  Essenes,  as  vehicles  to  communicate  the  Great  Ma- 
sonic Truths ;  as  it  has  used  the  legends  of  the  Crusades,  and  the 
ceremonies  of  the  orders  of  Knighthood. 

It  no  longer  inculcates  a  criminal  and  wicked  vengeance.  It 
has  not  allowed  Masonry  to  play  the  assassin :  to  avenge  the  death 
either  of  Hiram,  of  Charles  the  ist,  or  of  Jaques  De  Molay  and  the 
Templars.  The  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite  of  Masonry 
has  now  become,  what  Masonry  at  first  was  meant  to  be,  a  Teacher 
of  Great  Truths,  inspired  by  an  upright  and  enlightened  reason,  a 
firm  and  constant  wisdom,  and  an  affectionate  and  liberal  philan- 
thropy. 

It  is  no  longer  a  system,  over  the  composition  and  arrangement 
of  the  different  parts  of  which. want  of  reflection, chance,  ignorance, 
and  perhaps  motives  still  more  ignoble  presided  :  a  system  unsuited 


GRAND   MASTER  OF  ALL  SYMBOLIC  LODGES.  329 

to  our  habits,  our  manners,  our  ideas,  or  the  world-wide  philan- 
thropy and  universal  toleration  of  Masonry ;  or  to  bodies  small  in 
number,  whose  revenues  should  be  devoted  to  the  relief  of  the  un- 
fortunate, and  not  to  empty  show ;  no  longer  a  heterogeneous 
aggregate  of  Degrees,  shocking  by  its  anachronisms  and  contra- 
dictions, powerless  to  disseminate  light,  information,  and  moral 
and  philosophical  ideas. 

As  Master,  you  will  teach  those  who  are  under  you, and  to  whom 
you  will  owe  your  office,  that  the  decorations  of  many  of  the  De- 
grees are  to  be  dispensed  with,  whenever  the  expense  would  inter- 
fere with  the  duties  of  charity,  relief,  and  benevolence ;  and  to  be 
indulged  in  only  by  wealthy  bodies  that  will  thereby  do  no  wrong 
to  those  entitled  to  their  assistance.  The  essentials  of  all  the  De- 
grees may  be  procured  at  slight  expense;  and  it  is  at  the  option 
of  every  Brother  to  procure  or  not  to  procure,  as  he  pleases,  the 
dress,  decorations,  and  jewels  of  any  Degree  other  than  the  I4th, 
i8th,  3Oth,  and  32d. 

We  teach  the  truth  of  none  of  the  legends  we  recite.  They  are  to 
us  but  parables  and  allegories,  involving  and  enveloping  Masonic 
instruction  ;  and  vehicles  of  useful  and  interesting  information. 
They  represent  the  different  phases  of  the  human  mind,  its  efforts 
and  struggles  to  comprehend  nature,  God,  the  government  of  the 
Universe,  the  permitted  existence  of  sorrow  and  evil.  To  teach 
us  wisdom,  and  the  folly  of  endeavoring  to  explain  to  ourselves 
that  which  we  are  not  capable  of  understanding,  we  reproduce  the 
speculations  of  the  Philosophers,  the  Kabalists,  the  Mystagogues 
and  the  Gnostics.  Every  one  being  at  liberty  to  apply  our  symbols 
and  emblems  as  he  thinks  most  consistent  with  truth  and  reason 
and  with  his  own  faith,  we  give  them  such  an  interpretation  only 
as  maybe  accepted  byall.  Our  Degrees  maybe  conferred  in  France 
or  Turkey,  at  Pekin,  Ispahan,  Rome,  or  Geneva,  in  the  city  of  Penn 
or  in  Catholic  Louisiana,  upon  the  subject  of  an  absolute  govern- 
ment or  the  citizen  of  a  Free  State,  upon  Sectarian  or  Theist.  To 
honor  the  Deity,  to  regard  all  men  as  our  Brethren,  as  children, 
equally  dear  to  Him,  of  the  Supreme  Creator  of  the  Universe,  and 
to  make  himself  useful  to  society  and  himself  by  his  labor,  are  its 
teachings  to  its  Initiates  in  all  the  Degrees. 

Preacher  of  Liberty,  Fraternity,  and  Equality,  it  desires  them  to 
be  attained  by  making  men  fit  to  receive  them,  and  by  the  moral 
power  of  an  intelligent  and  enlightened  People.  It  lays  no  plots 


3JO  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

and  conspiracies.    It  hatches  no  premature  revolutions ;  it  encour- 
ages no  people  to  revolt  against  the  constituted  authorities;  but 
recognizing  the  great  truth  that  freedom  follows  fitness  for  free 
dom  as  the  corollary  follows  the  axiom,  it  strives  to  prepare  men 
to  govern  themselves. 

Where  domestic  slavery  exists,  it  teaches  the  master  humanity 
and  the  alleviation  of  the  condition  of  his  slave,  and  moderate  cor- 
rection and  gentle  discipline ;  as  it  teaches  them  to  the  master  of 
the  apprentice:  and  as  it  teaches  to  the  employers  of  other  men, 
in  mines,  manufactories,  and  workshops,  consideration  and  human- 
ity for  those  who  depend  upon  their  labor  for  their  bread,  and  to 
whom  want  of  employment  is  starvation,  and  overwork  is  fever, 
consumption,  and  death. 

As  Master  of  a  Lodge,  you  are  to  inculcate  these  duties  on  your 
brethren.  Teach  the  employed  to  be  honest,  punctual,  and  faithful 
as  well  as  respectful  and  obedient  to  all  proper  orders :  but  also 
teach  the  employer  that  every  man  or  woman  who  desires  to  work, 
has  a  right  to  have  work  to  do ;  and  that  they,  and  those  who  from 
sickness  or  feebleness,  loss  of  limb  or  of  bodily  vigor,  old  age  or 
infancy,  are  not  able  to  work,  have  a  right  to  be  fed,  clothed,  and 
sheltered  from  the  inclement  elements :  that  he  commits  an  awful 
sin  against  Masonry  and  in  the  sight  of  God,  if  he  closes  his  work- 
shops or  factories,  or  ceases  to  work  his  mines,  when  they  do  not 
yield  him  what  he  regards  as  sufficient  profit,  and  so  dismisses  his 
workmen  and  workwomen  to  starve ;  or  when  he  reduces  the  wages 
of  man  or  woman  to  so  low  a  standard  that  they  and  their  families 
cannot  be  clothed  and  fed  and  comfortably  housed  ;  or  by  overwork 
must  give  him  their  blood  and  life  in  exchange  for  the  pittance 
of  their  wages :  and  that  his  duty  as  a  Mason  and  Brother  per- 
emptorily requires  him  to  continue  to  employ  those  who  else  will 
be  pinched  with  hunger  and  cold,  or  resort  to  theft  and  vice :  and 
to  pay  them  fair  wages,  though  it  may  reduce  or  annul  his  profits  or 
even  eat  into  his  capital ;  for  God  hath  but  loaned  him  his  wealth, 
and  made  him  His  almoner  and  agent  to  invest  it. 

Except  as  mere  symbols  of  the  moral  virtues  and  intellectual 
qualities,  the  tools  and  implements  of  Masonry  belong  exclusively 
to  the  first  three  Degrees.  They  also,  however,  serve  to  remind  the 
Mason  who  has  advanced  further,  that  his  new  rank  is  based  upon 
the  humble  labors  of  the  symbolic  Degrees,  as  they  are  improperly 
termed,  inasmuch  as  all  the  Degree?  are  symbolic. 


GRAND   MASTER  OF  ALL  SYMBOLIC   LODGES.  33! 

Thus  the  Initiatesare  inspired  with  a  just  idea  of  Masonry,  to  wit, 
that  it  is  essentially  WORK;  both  teaching  and  practising  LABOR; 
and  that  it  is  altogether  emblematic.  Three  kinds  of  work  are  nec- 
essary to  the  preservation  and  protection  of  man  and  society :  man- 
ual labor,  specially  belonging  to  the  three  blue  Degrees;  labor  in 
arms,  symbolized  by  the  Knightly  or  chivalric  Degrees ;  and  intel- 
lectual labor,  belonging  particularly  to  the  Philosophical  Degrees. 

We  have  preserved  and  multiplied  such  emblems  as  have  a  true 
and  profound  meaning.  We  reject  many  of  the  old  and  senseless 
explanations.  We  have  not  reduced  Masonry  to  a  cold  metaphy- 
sics that  exiles  everything  belonging  to  the  domain  of  the  imagina- 
tion. Tli'v.-  ignorant,  and  those  /za/^-wise  in  reality,  but  over-wise 
in  their  own  conceit,  may  assail  our  symbols  with  sarcasms ;  but 
they  are  nevertheless  ingenious  veils  that  cover  the  Truth,  respected 
by  all  who  know  the  means  by  which  the  heart  of  man  is  reached 
and  his  feelings  enlisted.  The  Great  Moralists  often  had  recourse 
to  allegories,  in  order  to  instruct  men  without  repelling  them. 
But  we  have  been  careful  not  to  allow  our  emblems  to  be  too  ob- 
scure, so  as  to  require  far-fetched  and  forced  interpretations.  In 
our  days,  and  in  the  enlightened  land  in  which  we  live,  we  do  not 
need  to  wrap  ourselves  in  veils  so  strange  and  impenetrable,  as  to 
prevent  or  hinder  instruction  instead  of  furthering  it ;  or  to  induce 
the  suspicion  that  we  have  concealed  meanings  which  we  commu- 
nicate only  to  the  most  reliable  adepts,  because  they  are  contrary 
to  good  order  or  the  well-being  of  society. 

The  Duties  of  the  Gass  of  Instructors,  that  is,  the  Masons  of  the 
Degrees  from  the  4th  to  the  8th,  inclusive,  are,  particularly,  to  per- 
fect the  younger  Masons  in  the  words,  signs  and  tokens  and  other 
work  of  the  Degrees  they  have  received ;  to  explain  to  them  the 
meaning  of  the  different  emblems,  and  to  expound  the  moral  in- 
struction which  they  convey.  And  upon  their  report  of  proficiency 
alone  can  their  pupils  be  allowed  to  advance  and  receive  .in  in- 
crease of  wages. 

The  Directors  of  the  Work,  or  those  of  the  Qth,  loth.and  I  ith  De- 
grees are  to  report  to  the  Chapters  upon  the  regularity, activity  and 
proper  direction  of  the  work  of  bodies  in  the  lower  Degrees,  and 
what  is  needed  to  be  enacted  for  their  prosperity  and  usefulness. 
In  the  Symbolic  Lodges,  they  are  particularly  charged  to  stimulate 
the  zeal  of  the  workmen,  to  induce  them  to  engage  in  new  labors 
and  enterprises  for  the  good  of  Masonry,  their  country  and  mankind, 
and  to  give  them  fraternal  advice  when  they  fall  short  of  their 


jjj  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

duty ;  or,  in  cases  that  require  it,  to  invoke  against  them  the  rigor 
of  Masonic  law. 

The  Architects,  or  those  of  the  I2th,  I3th,  and  I4th,  should  be 
selected  from  none  but  Brothers  well  instructed  in  the  preceding 
Degrees ;  zealous,  and  capable  of  discoursing  upon  that  Masonry ; 
illustrating  it,  and  discussing  the  simple  questions  of  moral  phil- 
osophy. And  one  of  them,  at  every  communication,  should  be  pre- 
pared with  a  lecture,  communicating  useful  knowledge  or  giving 
good  advice  to  the  Brethren. 

The  Knights,  of  the  I5th  and  i6th  Degrees,  wear  the  sword. 
They  are  bound  to  prevent  and  repair,  as  far  as  may  be  in  their 
power,  all  injustice,  both  in  the  world  and  in  Masonry ;  to  protect 
the  weak  and  to  bring  oppressors  to  justice.  Their  works  and  lec- 
tures must  be  in  this  spirit.  They  should  inquire  whether  Masonry 
fulfills,  as  far  as  it  ought  and  can,  its  principal  purpose,  which  is 
to  succor  the  unfortunate.  That  it  may  do  so,  they  should  pre- 
pare propositions  to  be  offered  in  the  Blue  Lodges  calculated  to 
attain  that  end,  to  put  an  end  to  abuses,  and  to  prevent  or  correct 
negligence.  Those  in  the  Lodges  who  have  attained  the  rank  of 
Knights,  are  most  fit  to  be  appointed  Almoners,  and  charged  to 
ascertain  and  make  known  who  need  and  are  entitled  to  the  charity 
of  the  Order. 

In  the  higher  Degrees  those  only  should  be  received  who  have 
sufficient  reading  and  information  to  discuss  the  great  questions 
of  philosophy.  From  them  the  Orators  of  the  Lodges  should  be 
selected,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Councils  and  Chapters.  They  are 
charged  to  suggest  such  measures  as  are  necessary  to  make  Masonry 
entirely  faithful  to  the  spirit  of  its  institution,  both  as  to  its  charita- 
ble purposes,  and  the  diffusion  of  light  and  knowledge;  such  as 
are  needed  to  correct  abuses  that  have  crept  in,  and  offences  against 
the  rules  and  general  spirit  of  the  Order ;  and  such  as  will  tend  to 
make  it,  as  it  was  meant  to  be,  the  great  Teacher  of  Mankind. 

As  Master  of  a  Lodge,  Council,  or  Chapter,it  will  be  your  duty  to 
impress  upon  the  minds  of  your  Brethren  these  views  of  the  general 
plan  and  separate  parts  of  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite  ; 
of  its  spirit  and  design ;  its  harmony  and  regularity ;  of  the  duties 
of  the  officers  and  members ;  and  of  the  particular  lessons  inten- 
ded to  be  taught  by  each  Degree. 

Especially  you  are  not  to  allow  any  assembly  of  the  body  over 
which  you  may  preside,  to  close,  without  recalling  to  the  minds  of 


GKANU  MASTER  OF  ALL  SYMBOLIC  LODGES.  333 

the  Brethren  the  Masonic  virtues  and  duties  which  are  represented 
upon  the  Tracing  Board  of  this  Degree.  That  is  an  imperative 
duty.  Forget  not  that,  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago,  ZORO- 
ASTER said :  "Be  good, be  kind, be  humane, and  charitable;  love  your 
fclloivs;  console  t\ie  afflicted;  pardon  .those  who  hare  done  you 
wrong."  Nor  that  more  than  two  thousand  three  hundred  years  ago 
GONFUCIUS  repeated,  also  quoting  the  language  of  those  who  had 
lived  before  himself:  "Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself:  Do  not  to  oth- 
ers what  thou  wouldst  not  wish  should  be  done  to  thyself:  Forgive 
injuries.  Forgive  your  enemy,  be  reconciled  to  him,  give  him  as- 
sistance, invoke  God  in  his  behalf!" 

Let  not  the  morality  of  your  Lodge  be  inferior  to  that  of  the 
Persian  or  the  Chinese  Philosopher. 

Urge  upon  your  Brethren  the  teaching  and  the  unostentatious 
practice  of  the  morality  of  the  Lodge,  without  regard  to  mes, 
places,  religions,  or  peoples. 

Urge  them  to  love  one  another,  to  be  devoted  to  one  another,  to 
be  faithful  to  the  country,  the  government,  and  the  laws:  5or  to 
serve  the  country  is  to  pay  a  dear  and  sacred  debt : 

To  respect  all  forms  of  worship,  to  tolerate  all  political  ,nd 
religious  opinions ;  not  to  blame,  and  still  less  to  condemn  the 
religion  of  others :  not  to  seek  to  make  converts ;  but  to  be  content 
if  they  have  the  religion  of  Socrates  ;  a  veneration  for  the  Creator, 
the  religion  of  good  works,  and  grateful  acknowledgment  of  God's 
blessings : 

To  fraternize  with  all  men ;  to  assist  all  who  are  unfortunate ; 
and  to  cheerfully  postpone  their  own  interests  to  that  of  the  Order: 

To  make  it  the  constant  rule  of  their  lives,  to  think  well,  to  speak 
well,  and  to  act  well: 

To  place  the  sage  above  the  soldier,  the  noble,  or  the  prince : 
and  take  the  wise  and  good  as  their  models : 

To  see  that  their  professions  and  practice,  their  teachings  and 
conduct,  do  always  agree : 

To  make  this  also  their  motto:  Do  that  which  thou  oughtest 
to  do  ;  let  the  result  be  what  it  will. 

Such,  my  Brother,  are  some  of  the  duties  of  that  office  which 
you  have  sought  to  be  qualified  to  exercise.  May  you  perform  them 
well ;  and  in  so  doing  gain  honor  for  yourself,  and  advance  the 
great  cause  of  Masonry,  Humanity,  and  Progress. 


XXI. 


NOACHITE,  OR  PRUSSIAN  KNIGHT. 

You  are  especially  charged  in  this  Degree  to  be  modest  and 
humble,  and  not  vain-glorious  nor  filled  with  self-conceit.  Be  not 
wiser  in  your  own  opinion  than  the  Deity,  nor  find  fault  with  His 
works,  nor  endeavor  to  improve  upon  what  He  has  done.  Be  mod- 
est also  in  your  intercourse  with  your  fellows,  and  slow  to  enter- 
tain evil  thoughts  of  them,  and  reluctant  to  ascribe  to  them  evil 
intentions.  A  thousand  presses,  flooding  the  country  with  their 
evanescent  leaves,  are  busily  and  incessantly  engaged  in  maligning 
the  motives  and  conduct  of  men  and  parties,  and  in  making  one 
man  think  worse  of  another ;  while,  alas,  scarcely  one  is  found 
that  ever,  even  accidentally,  labors  to  make  man  think  better  of 
nis  fellow. 

Slander  and  calumny  were  never  so  insolently  licentious  in  any 
country  as  they  are  this  day  in  ours.  The  most  retiring  disposition, 
the  most  unobtrusive  demeanor,  is  no  shield  against  their  poi- 
soned arrows.  The  most  eminent  public  service  only  makes  their 
vituperation  and  invective  more  eager  and  more  unscrupulous, 
when  he  who  has  done  such  service  presents  himself  as  a  candidate 
for  the  people's  suffrages. 

The  evil  is  wide-spread  and  universal.  No  man,  no  woman,  no 
household,  is  sacred  or  safe  from  this  new  Inquisition.  No  act  is  so 
pure  or  so  praiseworthy,  that  the  unscrupulous  vender  of  lies  who 
lives  by  pandering  to  a  corrupt  and  morbid  public  appetite  will 
not  proclaim  it  as  a  crime.  No  motive  is  so  innocent  or  so  laud- 
able, that  he  will  not  hold  it  up  as  villainy.  Journalism  pries 
into  the  interior  of  private  houses,  gloats  over  the  details  of  do- 
mestic tragedies  of  sin  and  shame,  and  deliberately  invents  and 
industriously  circulates  the  most  unmitigated  and  baseless  false- 
hoods, to  coin  money  for  those  who  pursue  it  as  a  trade,  or  to 
effect  a  temporary  result  in  the  wars  of  faction. 

We  need  not  enlarge  upon  these  evils.   They  are  apparent  to  all 
and  lamented  over  by  all,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  a  Mason  to  do  all 
334 


NOACHITE,  OR  PRUSSIAN    KNIGHT.  335 

in  his  power  to  lessen,  if  not  to  remove  them.  With  the  errors 
and  even  sins  of  other  men,  that  do  not  personally  affect  us  or  ourr<, 
and  need  not  our  condemnation  to  be  odious,  we  have  nothing  to 
do;  and  the  journalist  has  no  patent  that  makes  him  the  Censor 
of  Morals.  There  is  no  obligation  resting  on  us  to  trumpet  forth 
our  disapproval  of  every  wrongful  or  injudicious  or  improper  act 
that  every  other  man  commits.  One  would  be  ashamed  to  stand 
on  the  street  corners  and  retail  them  orally  for  pennies. 

One  ought,  in  truth,  to  write  or  speak  against  no  other  one  in  this 
world.  Each  man  in  it  has  enough  to  do,  to  watch  and  keep  guard 
over  himself.  Each  of  us  is  sick  enough  in  this  great  Lazaretto : 
and  journalism  and  polemical  writing  constantly  remind  us  of  a 
scene  once  witnessed  in  a  little  hospital ;  where  it  was  horrible  to 
hear  how  the  patients  mockingly  reproached  each  other  with  their 
disorders  and  infirmities  :  how  one,  who  was  wasted  by  consumption, 
jeered  at  another  who  was  bloated  by  dropsy :  how  one  laughed  at 
another's  cancer  of  the  face ;  and  this  one  again  at  his  neighbor's 
lock-jaw  or  squint ;  until  at  last  the  delirious  fever-patient  sprang 
out  of  his  bed,  and  tore  away  the  coverings  from  the  wounded 
bodies  of  his  companions,  and  nothing  was  to  be  seen  but  hideous 
misery  and  mutilation.  Such  is  the  revolting  work  in  which  jour- 
nalism and  political  partisanship,  and  half  the  world  outside  of 
Masonry,  are  engaged. 

Very  generally,  the  censure  bestowed  upon  men's  acts,  by  those 
who  have  appointed  and  commissioned  themselves  Keepers  of  the 
Public  Morals,  is  undeserved.  Often  it  is  not  only  undeserved, 
but  praise  is  deserved  instead  of  censure,  and,  when  the  latter 
is  not  undeserved,  it  is  always  extravagant,  and  therefore  un- 
just. 

A  Mason  will  wonder  what  spirit  they  are  endowed  withal,  that 
can  basely  libel  at  a  man,  even,  that  is  fallen.  If  they  had  any 
nobility  of  soul,  they  would  with  him  condole  his  disasters,  and 
drop  some  tears  in  pity  of  his  folly  and  wretchedness :  and  if  they 
were  merely  human  and  not  brutal,  Nature  did  grievous  wrong  to 
human  bodies,  to  curse  them  with  souls  so  cruel  as  to  strive  to  add 
to  a  wretchedness  already  intolerable.  When  a  Mason  hears  of 
any  man  that  hath,  fallen  into  public  disgrace,  he  should  have  a 
mind  to  commiserate  his  mishap,  and  not  to  make  him  more  dis- 
consolate. To  envenom  a  name  by  libels,  that  already  is  openly 
tainted,  is  to  add  stripes  with  an  iron  rod  to  one  that  is  flayed  with 


JJu  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

whipping;  and  to  every  well-tempered  mind  will  seem  most  inhu- 
man and  unmanly. 

Even  the  man  who  does  wrong  and  commits  errors  often  has  a 
quiet  home,  a  fireside  of  his  own,  a  gentle,  loving  wife  and  innocent 
children,  who  perhaps  do  not  know  of  his  past  errors  and  lapses 
— past  and  long  repented  of ;  or  if  they  do,  they  love  him  the  better, 
because,  being  mortal,  he  hath  erred,  and  being  in  the  image  of 
God,  he  hath  repented.  That  every  blow  at  this  husband  and 
father  lacerates  the  pure  and  tender  bosoms  of  that  wife  and  those 
daughters,  is  a  consideration  that  doth  not  stay  the  hand  of  the 
brutal  journalist  and  partisan  :  but  he  strikes  home  at  these  shrink- 
ing, quivering,  innocent,  tender  bosoms ;  and  then  goes  out  upon 
the  great  arteries  of  cities,  where  the  current  of  life  pulsates,  and 
holds  his  head  erect,  and  calls  on  his  fellows  to  laud  him  and 
admire  him,  for  the  chivalric  act  he  hath  done,  in  striking 
his  dagger  through  one  heart  into  another  tender  and  trusting 
one. 

If  you  seek  for  high  and  strained  carriages,  you  shall,  for  the 
most  part,  meet  with  them  in  low  men.  Arrogance  is  a  weed  that 
ever  grows  on  a  dunghill.  It  is  from  the  rankness  of  that  soil  that 
she  hath  her  height  and  spreadings.  To  be  modest  and  unaffected 
with  our  superiors  is  duty ;  with  our  equals,  courtesy ;  with  our  in- 
feriors, nobleness.  There  is  no  arrogance  so  great  as  the  proclaim- 
ing of  other  men's  errors  and  faults,  by  those  who  understand 
nothing  but  the  dregs  of  actions,  and  who  make  it  their  business 
to  besmear  deserving  fames.  Public  reproof  is  like  striking  a  deer 
in  the  herd :  it  not  only  wounds  him,  to  the  loss  of  blood,  but 
betrays  him  to  the  hound,  his  enemy. 

The  occupation  of  the  spy  hath  ever  been  held  dishonorable, 
and  it  is  none  the  less  so,  now  that  with  rare  exceptions  editors 
and  partisans  have  become  perpetual  spies  upon  the  actions  of 
other  men.  Their  malice  makes  them  nimble-eyed,  apt  to  note  a 
fault  and  publish  it,  and,  with  a  strained  construction,  to  deprave 
even  those  things  in  which  the  doer's  intents  were  honest.  Like 
the  crocodile,  they  slime  the  way  of  others,  to  make  them  fall : 
and  when  that  has  happened,  they  feed  their  insulting  envy  on  the 
life-blood  of  the  prostrate.  They  set  the  vices  of  .other  men  on  high, 
for  the  gaze  of  the  world,  and  place  their  virtues  under-ground, 
that  none  may  note  them.  If  thev  cannot  wound  upon  proofs,  they 
will  do  it  upon  likelihoods :  and  if  not  upon  them,  they  manufac- 


NOACHITE,  OR  PRUSSIAN    KNIGHT.  337 

hire  lies,  as  God  created  the  world,  out  of  nothing:  and  so  corrupt 
the  fair  tempter  of  men's  reputations ;  knowing  that  the  multitude 
will  believe  them,  because  affirmations  are  apter  to  win  belief,  than 
negatives  to  uncredit  them ;  and  that  a  lie  travels  faster  than  an 
eagle  flies,  while  the  contradiction  limps  after  it  at  a  snail's  pace, 
and,  halting,  never  overtakes  it.  Nay,  it  is  contrary  to  the  morality 
of  journalism,  to  allow  a  lie  to  be  contradicted  in  the  place  that 
spawned  it.  And  even  if  that  great  favor  is  conceded,  a  slander 
once  raised  will  scarce  ever  die,  or  fail  of  finding  many  that  will 
allow  it  both  a  harbor  and  trust. 

This  is,  beyond  any  other,  the  age  of  falsehood.  Once,  to  be 
suspected  of  equivocation  was  enough  to  soil  a  gentleman's  escut- 
cheon ;  but  now  it  has  become  a  strange  merit  in  a  partisan  or 
statesman,  always  and  scrupulously  to  tell  the  truth.  Lies  are  part 
of  the  regular  ammunition  of  all  campaigns  and  controversies, 
valued  according  as  they  are  profitable  and  effective  ;  and  are  stored 
up  and  have  a  market  price,  like  saltpetre  and  sulphur ;  being  even 
more  deadly  than  they. 

If  men  weighed  the  imperfections  of  humanity,  they  would 
breathe  less  condemnation.  Ignorance  gives  disparagement  a 
louder  tongue  than  knowledge  does.  Wise  men  had  rather  know, 
than  tell.  Frequent  dispraises  are  but  the  faults  of  uncharitable 
wit :  and  it  is  from  where  there  is  no  j  udgment,  that  the  heaviest 
judgment  comes;  for  self-examination  would  make  all  judgments 
charitable.  If  we  even  do  know  vices  in  men,  we  can  scarce  show 
ourselves  in  a  nobler  virtue  than  in  the  charity  of  concealing  them  : 
if  that  be  not  a  flattery  persuading  to  continuance.  And  it  is 
the  basest  office  man  can  fall  into,  to  make  his  tongue  the  defamer 
of  the  worthy  man. 

There  is  but  one  rule  for  the  Mason  in  this  matter.  If  there  be 
virtues,  and  he  is  called  upon  to  speak  of  him  who  owns  them,  let 
him  tell  them  forth  impartially.  And  if  there  be  vices  mixed  with 
them,  let  him  be  content  the  world  shall  know  them  by  some  other 
tongue  than  his.  For  if  the  evil-doer  deserve  no  pity,  his  wife,  his 
parents,  or  his  children,  or  other  innocent  persons  who  love  him 
may ;  and  the  bravo's  trade,  practised  by  him  who  stabs  the  de- 
fenceless for  a  price  paid  by  individual  or  party,  is  really  no  more 
respectable  now  than  it  was  a  hundred  years  ago,  in  Venice.  Where 
we  want  experience.  Charity  bids  us  think  the  best,  and  leave  what 
we  know  not  to  the  Searcher  of  Hearts :  for  mistakes,  suspicions, 


338  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

and  envy  often  injure  a  clear  fame ;  and  there  is  least  danger  in  a 
charitable  construction.  » 

And,  finally,  the  Mason  should  be  humble  and  modest  toward 
the  Grand  Architect  of  the  Universe,  and  not  impugn  His  Wisdom, 
nor  set  up  his  own  imperfect  sense  of  Right  against  His  Providence 
and  dispensations,  nor  attempt  too  rashly  to  explore  the  Mysteries 
of  God's  Infinite  Essence  and  inscrutable  plans,  and  of  that  Great 
Nature  which  we  are  not  made  capable  to  understand. 

Let  him  steer  far  away  from  all  those  vain  philosophies,  which 
endeavor  to  account  for  all  that  is,  without  admitting  that  there  is 
a  God,  separate  and  apart  from  the  Universe  which  is  his  work: 
which  erect  Universal  Nature  into  a  God,  and  worship  it  alone : 
which  annihilate  Spirit,  and  believe  no  testimony  except  that  of 
the  bodily  senses :  which,  by  logical  formulas  and  dextrous  colloca- 
tion of  words,  make  the  actual,  living,  guiding,  and  protecting  God 
fade  into  the  dim  mistiness  of  a  mere  abstraction  and  unreality, 
itself  a  mere  logical  formula. 

Nor  let  him  have  any  alliance  with  those  theonsts  who  chide  the 
delays  of  Providence  and  busy  themselves  to  hasten  the  slow  march 
which  it  has  imposed  upon  events :  who  neglect  the  practical,  to 
struggle  after  impossibilities :  who  are  wiser  than  Heaven ;  know 
the  aims  and  purposes  of  the  Deity,  and  can  see  a  short  and 
more  direct  means  of  attaining  them,  than  it  pleases  Him  to  em- 
ploy :  who  would  have  no  discords  in  the  great  harmony  of  the 
Universe  of  things ;  but  equal  distribution  of  property,  no  subjec- 
tion of  one  man  to  the  will  of  another,  no  compulsory  labor,  and 
still  no  starvation,  nor  destitution,  nor  pauperism. 

Let  him  not  spend  his  life,  as  they  do,  in  building  a  new  Tower 
of  Babel ;  in  attempting  to  change  that  which  is  fixed  by  an  in- 
flexible law  of  God's  enactment:  but  let  him,  yielding  to  the 
Superior  Wisdom  of  Providence,  content  to  believe  that  the  march 
of  events  is  rightly  ordered  by  an  Infinite  Wisdom,  and  leads, 
though  we  cannot  see  it,  to  a  great  and  perfect  result, — let  him 
be  satisfied  to  follow  the  path  pointed  out  by  that  Providence,  and 
to  labor  for  the  good  of  the  human  race  in  that  mode  in  which 
God  has  chosen  to  enact  that  that  good  shall  be  effected:  and 
above  all,  let  him  build  no  Tower  of  Babel,  under  the  belief  that 
by  ascending  he  will  mount  so  high  that  God  will  disappear  or  be  su- 
perseded by  a  great  monstrous  aggregate  of  material  forces,  or  mere 
glittering,  logical  formula;  but,  evermore,  standing  humbly  and 


NOACBITE,  OR  PRUSSIAN   KNIGHT. 


339 


reverently  upon  the  earth  and  looking  with  awe  and  confidence 
toward  Heaven,  let  him  be  satisfied  that  there  is  a  real  God;  a 
person,  and  not  a  formula;  a  Father  and  a  protector,  who  loves, 
and  sympathizes,  and  compassionates ;  and  that  the  eternal  ways 
by  which  He  rules  the  world  are  infinitely  wise,  no  matter  how 
far  they  may  be  above  the  feeble  comprehension  and  limited  vision 
of  man. 


XXII. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE   ROYAL  AXE 


PRINCE    OF    LIBANUS. 

SYMPATHY  with  the  great  laboring  classes,  respect  for  labor  itself, 
and  resolution  to  do  some  good  ivork  in  our  day  and  generation, 
these  are  the  lessons  of  this  Degree,  and  they  are  purely  Masonic. 
Masonry  has  made  a  working-man  and  his  associates  the  Heroes 
of  her  principal  legend,  and  himself  the  companion  of  Kings. 
The  idea  is  as  simple  and  true  as  it  is  sublime.  From  first  to  last, 
Masonry  is  work.  It  venerates  the  Grand  Architect  of  the  Uni- 
verse. It  commemorates  the  building  of  a  Temple.  Its  princi- 
pal emblems  are  the  working  tools  of  Masons  and  Artisans.  It 
preserves  the  name  of  the  first  worker  in  brass  and  iron  as  one  of 
its  pass-words.  When  the  Brethren  meet  together,  they  are  at 
labor.  The  Master  is  the  overseer  who  sets  the  craft  to  work  and 
gives  them  proper  instruction.  Masonry  is  the  apotheosis  of  WORK. 

It  is  the  hands  of  brave,  forgotten  men  that  have  made  this  great, 
populous,  cultivated  world  a  world  for  us.  It  is  all  work,  and 
forgotten  work.  The  real  conquerors,  creators,  and  eternal  propri- 
etors of  every  great  and  civilized  land  are  all  the  heroic  souls  that 
ever  were  in  it,  each  in  his  degree :  all  the  men  that  ever  felled  a 
forest-tree  or  drained  a  marsh,  or  contrived  a  wise  scheme,  or  did 
or  said  a  true  or  valiant  thing  therein.  Genuine  work  alone,  done 
faithfully,  is  eternal,  even  as  the  Almighty  Founder  and  World- 
builder  Himself.  All  work  is  noble :  a  life  of  ease  is  not  for  any 
man,  nor  for  any  God.  The  Almighty  Maker  is  not  like  one  who. 
in  old  immemorial  ages,  having  made  his  machine  of  a  Universe, 
sits  ever  since,  and  sees  it  go.  Out  of  that  belief  comes  Atheism. 
The  faith  in  an  Invisible,  Unnameable.  Directing  Deity,  present 
everywhere  in  all  that  we  see.  and  work,  and  suffer,  is  the  essence 
of  all  faith  whatsoever. 

The  life  of  all  Gods  figures  itself  to  us  as  a  Sublime  Earnestness, 
34o 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  ROYAL  AXE.  34! 

— of  Infinite  battle  against  Infinite  labor.  Our  highest  religion 
is  named  the  Worship  of  Sorrow.  For  the  Son  of  Man  there  is  no 
noble  crown,  well-worn,  or  even  ill-worn,  but  is  a  crown  of  thorns. 
Man's  highest  destiny  is  not  to  be  happy,  to  love  pleasant  things 
and  find  them.  His  only  true  «;mappiness  should  be  that  he 
cannot  work,  and  get  his  destiny  as  a  man  fulfilled.  The  day  passes 
swiftly  over,  our  life  passes  swiftly  over,  and  the  night  cometh, 
wherein  no  man  can  work.  That  night  once  come,  our  happiness 
and  unhappiness  are  vanished,  and  become  as  things  that  never 
were.  But  our  work  is  not  abolished,  and  has  not  vanished.  It 
remains,  or  the  want  of  it  remains,  for  endless  Times  and  Eterni- 
ties. 

Whatsoever  of  morality  and  intelligence ;  what  of  patience,  per- 
severance, faithfulness,  of  method,  insight,  ingenuity,  energy ;  in 
a  word,  whatsoever  of  STRENGTH  a  man  has  in  him,  will  lie  written 
in  the  WORK  he  does.  To  work  is  to  try  himself  against  Nature  and 
her  unerring,  everlasting  laws :  and  they  will  return  true  verdict 
as  to  him.  The  noblest  Epic  is  a  mighty  Empire  slowly  built  to- 
gether, a  mighty  series  of  heroic  deeds,  a  mighty  conquest  over 
chaos.  Deeds  are  greater  than  words.  They  have  a  life,  mute, 
but  undeniable ;  and  grow.  They  people  the  vacuity  of  Time,  and 
make  it  green  and  worthy. 

Labor  is  the  truest  emblem  of  God,  the  Architect  and  Eter- 
nal Maker ;  nobleJLabor,  which  is  yet  to  be  the  King  of  this  Earth, 
and  sit  on  the  highest  Throne.  Men  without  duties  to  do,  are 
like  trees  planted  on  precipices ;  from  the  roots  of  which  all  the 
earth  has  crumbled.  Nature  owns  no  man  who  is  not  also  a  Mar- 
tyr. She  scorns  the  man  who  sits  screened  from  all  work,  from 
want,  danger,  hardship,  the  victory  over  which  is  work ;  and  has 
all  his  work  and  battling  done  by  other  men ;  and  yet  there  are 
men  who  pride  themselves  that  they  and  theirs  have  done  no  work 
time  out  of  mind.  So  neither  have  the  swine. 

The  chief  of  men  is  he  who  stands  in  the  van  of  men,  fronting 
the  peril  which  frightens  back  all  others,  and  if  not  vanquished 
would  devour  them.  Hercules  was  worshipped  for  twelve  labors. 
The  Czar  of  Russia  became  a  toiling  shipwright,  and  worked  with 
his  axe  in  the  docks  of  Saardam ;  and  something  came  of  that. 
Cromwell  worked,  and  Napoleon  ;  and  effected  somewhat. 

There  is  a  perennial  nobleness  and  even  sacredness  in  work.  Re 
he  never  so  benighted  and  forgetful  o*  his  high  calling,  there  is 
23 


342  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

always  hope  in  a  man  who  actually  and  earnestly  works :  in  Idleness 
alone  is  there  perpetual  Despair.  Man  perfects  himself  by  working. 
Jungles  are  cleared  away.  Fair  seed-fields  rise  instead,  and  stately 
cities ;  and  withal,  the  man  himself  first  ceases  to  be  a  foul  un- 
wholesome jungle  and  desert  thereby.  Even  in  the  meanest  sort 
of  labor,  the  whole  soul  of  man  is  composed  into  a  kind  of  real 
harmony,  the  moment  he  begins  to  work.  Doubt,  Desire,  Sorrow, 
Remorse,  Indignation,  and  even  Despair  shrink  murmuring  far  off 
into  their  caves,  whenever  the  man  bends  himself  resolutely  against 
his  task.  Labor  is  life.  From  the  inmost  heart  of  the  worker  rises 
his  God-given  Force,  the  Sacred  Celestial  Life-essence,  breathed 
into  him  by  Almighty  God ;  and  awakens  him  to  all  nobleness, 
as  soon  as  work  fitly  begins.  By  it  man  learns  Patience,  Courage, 
Perseverance,  Openness  to  light,  readiness  to  own  himself  mistaken, 
resolution  to  do  better  and  improve.  Onl>  by  labor  will  man  contin- 
ually learn  the  virtues.  There  is  no  Religion  in  stagnation  and 
inaction ;  but  only  in  activity  and  exertion.  There  was  the  deep- 
est truth  in  that  saying  of  the  old  monks,  "laborare  est  orare."  "He 
prayeth  best  who  loveth  best  all  things  both  great  and  small ;"  and 
can  man  love  except  by  working  earnestly  to  benefit  that  being 
whom  he  loves? 

"Work ;  and  therein  have  well-being,"  is  the  oldest  of  Gospels ; 
unpreached,  inarticulate,  but  ineradicable,  and  Enduring  forever. 
To  make  Disorder,  wherever  found,  an  eternal  enemy ;  to  attack 
and  subdue  him,  and  make  order  of  him,  the  subject  not  of  Chaos, 
but  of  Intelligence  and  Divinity,  and  of  ourselves ;  to  attack  igno- 
rance, stupidity  and  brute-mindedness,  wherever  found,  to  smite 
it  wisely  and  umveariedly,  to  rest  not  while  we  live  and  it  lives,  in 
the  name  of  God,  this  is  our  duty  as  Masons  ;  commanded  us  by  the 
Highest  God.  Even  He,  with  his  unspoken  voice,  more  awful  than 
the  thunders  of  Sinai,  or  the  syllabled  speech  of  the  Hurricane, 
speaks  to  us.  The  Unborn  Ages :  the  old  Graves,  with  their  long- 
moldering  dust  speak  to  us.  The  deep  Death-Kingdoms,  the  Stars 
in  their  never-resting  course,  all  Space  and  all  Time,  silently  and 
continually  admonish  us  that  we  too  must  work  while  it  is  called 
to-day.  Labor,  wide  as  the  Earth,  has  its  summit  in  Heaven. 
To  toil,  whether  with  the  sweat  of  the  brow,  or  of  the  brain  or 
heart,  is  worship, — the  noblest  thing  yet  discovered  beneath  the 
Stars.  Let  the  weary  cease  to  think  that  labor  is  a  curse  and 
doom  pronounced  by  Deity.  Without  it  there  could  be  no  true 


IINIGHT  OF  THE  ROYAL  AXE.  343 

excellence  in  human  nature.  Without  it,  and  pain,  and  sorrow, 
where  would  be  the  human  virtues?  Where  Patience,  Perseverance, 
Submission,  Energy,  Endurance,  Fortitude,  Bravery,  Disinteres- 
tedness, Self-Sacrifice,  the  noblest  excellencies  of  the  Soul  ? 

Let  him  who  toils  complain  not,  nor  feel  humiliated !  Let  him 
look  up,  and  see  his  fellow-workmen  there,  in  God's  Eternity ; 
they  alone  surviving  there.  Even  in  the  weak  human  memory 
they  long  survive,  as  Saints,  as  Heroes,  and  as  Gods :  they  alone 
survive,  and  people  the  unmeasured  solitudes  of  Time. 

To  the  primeval  man,  whatsoever  good  came,  descended  on  him 
(as  in  mere  fact,  it  ever  does)  direct  from  God ;  whatsoever  duty 
lay  visible  for  him,  this  a  Supreme  God  had  prescribed.  For  the 
primeval  man,  in  whom  dwelt  Thought,  this  Universe  was  all  a 
Temple,  life  everywhere  a  Worship. 

Duty  is  with  us  ever;  and  evermore  forbids  us  to  be  idle.  To  work 
with  the  hands  or  brain,  according  to  our  acquirements  and  our 
capacities,  to  do  that  which  lies  before  us  to  do,  is  more  honorable 
than  rank  and  title.  Ploughers,  spinners  and  builders,  inventors, 
and  men  of  science,  poets,  advocates,  and  writers,  all  stand  upon 
one  common  level,  and  form  one  grand,  innumerable  host,  march- 
ing ever  onward  since  the  beginning  of  the  world :  each  entitled 
to  our  sympathy  and  respect,  each  a  man  and  our  brother. 

It  was  well  to  give  the  earth  to  man  as  a  dark  mass,  whereon  to 
labor.  It  was  well  to  provide  rude  and  unsightly  materials  in  the 
ore-bed  and  the  forest,  for  him  to  fashion  into  splendor  and  beauty. 
It  was  well,  not  because  of  that  splendor  and  beauty ;  but  because 
the  act  creating  them  is  better  than  the  things  themselves ;  be- 
cause exertion  is  nobler  than  enjoyment ;  because  the  laborer  is 
greater  and  more  worthy  of  honor  than  the  idler.  Masonry  stands 
up  for  the  nobility  of  labor.  It  is  Heaven's  great  ordinance  for 
human  improvement.  It  has  been  broken  down  for  ages ;  and 
Masonry  desires  to  build  it  up  again.  It  has  been  broken  down, 
because  men  toil  only  because  they  must,  submitting  to  it  as.  in 
some  sort,  a  degrading  necessity ;  and  desiring  nothing  so  much 
on  earth  as  to  escape  from  it.  They  fulfill  the  great  law  of  labor 
in  the  letter,  but  break  it  in  the  spirit:  they  fulfill  it  with  the 
muscles,  but  break  it  with  the  mind. 

Masonry  teaches  that  every  idler  ought  to  hasten  to  some  field 
of  labor,  manual  or  mental,  as  a  chosen  and  coveted  theatre  of 
improvement ;  but  he  is  not  impelled  to  do  so,  under  the  teachings 


344  MORALS    AND    DOOM  A. 

of  an  imperfect  civilization.  On  the  contrary,  he  sits  down,  folds 
his  hands,  and  blesses  and  glorifies  himself  in  his  idleness.  It  is 
time  that  this  opprobrium  of  toil  were  done  away.  To  be  ashamed 
of  toil;  of  the  dingy  workshop  and  dusty  labor-field;  of  the  hard 
hand,  stained  with  service  more  honorable  than  that  of  war;  of 
the  soiled  and  weather-stained  garments,  on  which  Mother  Nature 
has  stamped,  midst  sun  and  rain,  midst  fire  and  steam,  her  own  her- 
aldic honors  ;  to  be  ashamed  of  these  tokens  and  titles,  and  envi- 
ous of  the  flaunting  robes  of  imbecile  idleness  and  vanity,  is  treason 
to  Nature,  impiety  to  Heaven,  a  breach  of  Heaven's  great  Ordi- 
nance. TOIL,  of  bjain,  heart,  or  hand,  is  the  only  true  manhood 
and  genuine  nobility. 

Labor  is  a  more  beneficent  ministration  than  man's  ignorance 
comprehends,  or  his  complainings  will  admit.  Even  when  its  end 
is  hidden  from  him,  it  is  not  mere  blind  drudgery.  It  is  all  a 
training,  a  discipline,  a  development  of  energies,  a  nurse  of  virtues, 
a  school  of  improvement.  From  the  poor  boy  who  gathers  a  few 
sticks  for  his  mother's  hearth,  to  the  strong  man  who  fells  the  oak 
or  guides  the  ship  or  the  steam-car,  every  human  toiler,  with  every 
weary  step  and  every  urgent  task,  is  obeying  a  wisdom  far  above 
his  own  wisdom,  and  fulfilling  a  design  far  beyond  his  own  design. 

The  great  law  of  human  industry  is  this :  that  industry,  working 
either  with  the  hand  or  the  mind,  the  application  of  our  powers 
to  some  task,  to  the  achievement  of  some  result,  lies  at  the  foun- 
dation of  all  human  improvement.  We  are  not  sent  into  the  world 
like  animals,  to  crop  the  spontaneous  herbage  of  the  field,  and 
then  to  lie  down  in  indolent  repose :  but  we  are  sent  to  dig 
the  soil  and  plough  the  sea ;  to  do  the  business  of  cities  and  the 
work  of  manufactories.  The  world  is  the  great  and  appointed 
school  of  industry.  In  an  artificial  state  of  society,  mankind  is 
divided  into  the  idle  and  the  laboring  classes ;  but  such  was  not 
the  design  of  Providence. 

Labor  is  man's  great  function,  his  peculiar  distinction  and  his 
privilege.  From  being  an  animal,  that  eats  and  drinks  and  sleeps 
only,  to  become  a  worker,  and  with  the  hand  of  ingenuity  to  pour 
his  own  thoughts  int©  the  moulds  of  Nature,  fashioning  them  into 
forms  of  grace  and  fabrics  of  convenience,  and  converting  them 
to  purposes  of  improvement  and  happiness,  is  the  greatest  possible 
step  in  privilege. 

The  Earth  and  the  Atmosphere  are  man's  laboratory.    With 


KNIGHT   OF    THE    ROYAL    AXE.  345 

spade  and  plough,  with  mining-shafts  and  furnaces  and  forges, 
with  fire  and  steam;  midst  the  noise  and. whirl  of  swift  and  bright 
machinery,  and  abroad  in  the  silent  fields,  man  was  made  to  be 
ever  working,  ever  experimenting.  And  while  he  and  all  his  dwell- 
ings of  care  and  toil  are  borne  onward  with  the  circling  skies,  and 
the  splendors  of  Heaven  are  around  him,  and  their  infinite  depths 
image  and  invite  his  thought,  still  in  all  the  worlds  of  philosophy, 
in  the  universe  of  intellect,  man  must  be  a  worker.  He  is  nothing,  he 
can  be  nothing,  can  achieve  nothing,  fulfill  nothing,  without  work- 
ing. Without  it,  he  can  gain  neither  lofty  improvement  nor  tolerable 
happiness.  The  idle  must  hunt  down  the  hours  as  their  prey.  To 
them  Time  is  an  enemy,  clothed  with  armor ;  and  they  must  kill 
him,  or  themselves  die.  It  never  yet  did  answer,  and  it  never  will 
answer,  for  any  man  to  do  nothing,  to  be  exempt  from  all  care  and 
effort,  to  lounge,  to  walk,  to  ride,  and  to  feast  alone.  No  man  can 
live  in  that  way.  God  made  a  law  against  it:  which  no  human 
pov.-'er  can  annul,  no  human  ingenuity  evade. 

The  idea  that  a  property  is  to  be  acquired  in  the  course  of  ten 
or  twenty  years,  which  shall  suffice  for  the  rest  of  life ;  that  by 
some  prosperous  traffic  or  grand  speculation,  all  the  labor  of  a 
whole  life  is  to  be  accomplished  in  a  brief  portion  of  it;  that  by 
dexterous  management,  a  large  part  of  the  term  of  human  existence 
is  to  be  exonerated  from  the  cares  of  industry  and  self-denial,  is 
founded  upon  a  grave  mistake,  upon  a  misconception  of  the  true 
nature  and  design  of  business,  and  of  the  conditions  of  human 
well-being.  The  desire  of  accumulation  for  the  sake  of  securing  a 
life  of  ease  and  gratification,  of  escaping  from  exertion  and  self- 
denial,  is  wholly  wrong,  though  very  common. 

It  is  better  for  the  Mason  to  live  while  he  lives, and  enjoy  life  as  it 
passes :  to  live  richer  and  die  poorer.  It  is  best  of  all  for  him  to 
banish  from  the  mind  that  empty  dream  of  future  indolence  and 
indulgence ;  to  address  himself  to  the  business  of  'ife,  as  the  scliDol 
of  his  earthly  education  ;  to  settle  it  with  himself  now  that  independ- 
ence, if  he  gains  it,  is  not  to  give  him  exemption  from  employment. 
It  is  best  for  him  to  know,  that,  in  order  to  be  a  happy  man,  he 
must  always  be  a  laborer,  with  the  mind  or  the  body,  or  with 
both :  and  that  the  reasonable  exertion  of  his  powers,  bodily  and 
mental,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  mere  drudgery,  but  as  a  good  dis- 
cipline, a  wise  ordination,  a  training  in  this  primary  school  of  our 
being,  for  nobler  endeavors,  and  spheres  of  higher  activity  hereafter. 


346  MORALS   AND   DOGMA, 

There  are  reasons  why  a  Mason  may  lawfully  and  even  earnestly 
desire  a  fortune.  If  he  can  fill  some  fine  palace,  itself  a  work  of 
art,  with  the  productions  of  lofty  genius ;  if  he  can  be  the  friend 
and  helper  of  humble  worth ;  if  he  can  seek  it  out,  where  failing 
health  or  adverse  fortune  presses  it  hard,  and  soften  or  stay  the 
bitter  hours  that  are  hastening  it  to  madness  or  to  the  grave ;  if 
he  can  stand  between  the  oppressor  and  his  prey,  and  bid  the  fetter 
and  the  dungeon  give  up  their  victim  ;  if  he  can  build  up  great  insti- 
tutions of  learning,  and  academies  of  art ;  if  he  can  open  fountains 
of  knowledge  for  the  people,  and  conduct  its  streams  in  the  right 
channels;  if  he  can  do  better  for  the  poor  than  to  bestow  alms 
upon  them — even  to  think  of  them,  and  devise  plans  for  their  ele- 
vation in  knowledge  and  virtue,  instead  of  forever  opening  the  old 
reservoirs  and  resources  for  their  improvidence  ;  if  he  has  sufficient 
heart  and  soul  to  do  all  this,  or  part  of  it ;  if  wealth  would  be 
to  him  the  handmaid  of  exertion,  facilitating  effort,  and  giving 
success  to  endeavor ;  then  may  he  lawfully,  and  yet  warily  and 
modestly,  desire  it.  But  if  it  is  to  do  nothing  for  him,  but  to  min- 
ister ease  and  indulgence,  and  to  place  his  children  in  the  same 
bad  school,  then  there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  desire  it. 

What  is  there  glorious  in  the  world,  that  is  not  the  product  of 
labor,  either  of  the  body  or  of  the  mind  ?  What  is  history,  but  its 
record?  What  are  the  treasures  of  genius  and  art,  but  its  work? 
What  are  cultivated  fields,  but  its  toil?  The  busy  marts,  the  ris- 
ing cities,  the  enriched  empires  of  the  world  are  but  the  great 
treasure-houses  of  labor  The  pyramids  of  Egypt,  the  castles  and 
towers  and  temples  of  Europe,  the  buried  cities  of  Italy  and 
Mexico,  the  canals  and  railroads  of  Christendom,  are  but  tracks, 
all  round  the  world,  of  the  mighty  footsteps  of  labor.  Without  it 
antiquity  would  not  have  been.  Without  it,  there  would  be  no 
memory  of  the  past,  and  no  hope  for  the  future. 

Even  utter  indolence  reposes  on  treasures  that  labor  at  some 
time  gained  and  gathered.  He  that  does  nothing,  and  yet  does 
not  starve,  has  still  his  significance ;  for  he  is  a  standing  proof  that 
somebody  has  at  some  time  worked.  But  not  to  such  does  Masonry 
do  honor.  It  honors  the  Worker,  the  Toiler;  him  who  produces 
and  not  alone  consumes ;  him  who  puts  forth  his  hand  to  add  to 
the  treasury  of  human  comforts,  and  not  alone  to  take  away.  It 
honors  him  who  goes  forth  amid  the  struggling  elements  to  fight 
his  battle,  and  who  shrinks  not,  with  cowardly  effeminacy,  behind 


KNIGHT    OF    THE    ROYAL    AXE.  347 

pillows  of  ease.  It  honors  the  strong  muscle,  and  the  manly  nerve, 
and  the  resolute  and  brave  heart,  the  sweating  brow,  and  the  toil- 
ing brain.  It  honors  the  great  and  beautiful  offices  of  humanity, 
manhood's  toil  and  woman's  task;  paternal  industry  and  mater- 
nal watching  and  weariness ;  wisdom  teaching  and  patience  learn- 
ing; the  brow  of  care  that  presides  over  the  State,  and  many- 
handed  labor  that  toils  in  workshop,  field,  and  study,  beneath  its 
mild  and  beneficent  sway. 

God  has  not  made  a  world  of  rich  men ;  but  rather  a  world  of 
poor  men ;  or  of  men,  at  least,  who  must  toil  for  a  subsistence. 
That  is,  then,  the  best  condition  for  man,  and  the  grand  sphere  of 
human  improvement.  If  the  whole  world  could  acquire  wealth, 
(and  one  man  is  as  much  entitled  to  it  as  another,  when  he  is 
born)  ;  if  the  present  generation  could  lay  up  a  complete  provision 
for  the  next,  as  some  men  desire  to  do  for  their  children ;  the 
world  would  be  destroyed  at  a  single  blow.  All  industry  would 
cease  with  the  necessity  for  it ;  all  improvement  would  stop 
with  the  demand  for  exertion ;  the  dissipation  of  fortunes,  the 
mischiefs  of  which  are  now  countervailed  by  the  healthful  tone  of 
society,  would  breed  universal  disease,  and  break  out  into  universal 
license ;  and  the  world  would  sink,  rotten  as  Herod,  into  the  grave 
of  its  own  loathsome  vices. 

Almost  all  the  noblest  things  that  have  been  achieved  in  the 
world,  have  been  achieved  by  poor  men ;  poor  scholars,  poor  pro- 
fessional men,  poor  artisans  and  artists,  poor  philosophers,  poets, 
and  men  of  genius.  A  certain  staidness  and  sobriety,  a  certain 
moderation  and  restraint,  a  certain  pressure  of  circumstances,  are 
good  for  man.  His  body  was  not  made  for  luxuries.  It  sickens, 
sinks,  and  dies  under  them.  His  mind  was  not  made  for  indul- 
gence. It  grows  weak,  effeminate,  and  dwarfish,  under  that  condi- 
tion. And  he  who  pampers  his  body  with  luxuries  and  his  mind 
with  indulgence,  bequeaths  the  consequences  to  the  minds  and  bod- 
ies of  his  descendants,  without  the  wealth  which  was  their  cause. 
For  wealth,  without  a  law  of  entail  to  help  it,  has  always  lacked 
the  energy  even  to  keep  its  own  treasures.  They  drop  from  its 
imbecile  hand.  The  third  generation  almost  inevitably  goes  clown 
the  rolling  wheel  of  fortune,  and  there  learns  the  energy  necessary 
to  rise  again,  if  it  rises  at  all;  heir,  as  it  is,  to  the  bodily  diseases, 
and  mental  weaknesses,  and  the  soul's  vices  of  its  ancestors,  and 
not  heir  to  their  wealth.  And  yet  we  are.  almost  all  of  us,  anxious 


34$  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

to  put  our  children,  or  to  insure  that  our  grand-children  shall  be 
put,  on  this  road  to  indulgence,  luxury,  vice,  degradation,  and 
ruin ;  this  heirship  of  hereditary  disease,  soul  malady,  and  mental 
leprosy. 

If  wealth  were  employed  in  promoting  mental  culture  at  home 
and  works  of  philanthropy  abroad ;  if  it  were  multiplying  studies 
of  art,  and  building  up  institutions  of  learning  around  us;  if  it 
were  in  every  way  raising  the  intellectual  character  of  the  world, 
Jhere  could  scarcely  be  too  much  of  it.  But  if  the  utmost  aim, 
effort,  and  ambition  of  wealth  -be,  to  procure  rich  furniture/  and 
provide  costly  entertainments,  and  build  luxurious  houses,  and 
minister  to  vanity,  extravagance,  and  ostentation,  there  could 
scarcely  be  too  little  of  it.  To  a  certain  extent  it  may  laudably  be 
the  minister  of  elegancies  and  luxuries,  and  the  servitor  of  hospi- 
tality and  physical  enjoyment:  but  just  in  proportion  as  its 
tendencies,  divested  of  all  higher  aims  and  tastes,  are  running  that 
way,  they  are  running  to  peril  and  evil. 

Nor  does  that  peril  attach  to  individuals  and  families  alone.  It 
stands,  a  fearful  beacon,  in  the  experience  of  Cities,  Republics,  and 
Empires.  The  lessons  of  past  times,  on  this  subject,  are  emphatic 
and  solemn.  The  history  of  wealth  has  always  been  a  history  of 
corruption  and  downfall.  The  people  never  existed  that  could 
stand  the  trial.  Boundless  profusion  is  too  little  likely  to  spread 
for  any  people  the  theatre  of  manly  energy,  rigid  self-denial,  and 
lofty  virtue.  You  do  not  look  for  the  bone  and  sinew  and 
strength  of  a  country,  its  loftiest  talents  and  virtues,  its  martyrs 
to  patriotism  or  religion,  its  men  to  meet  the  days  of  peril  and 
disaster,  among  the  children  of  ease,  indulgence,  and  luxury. 

In  the  great  march  of  the  races  of  men  over  the  earth,  we 
have  always  seen  opulence  and  luxury  sinking  before  poverty  and 
toil  and  hardy  nurture.  That  is  the  law  which  has  presided  over 
the  great  processions  of  empire.  Sidon  and  Tyre,  whose  mer- 
chants possessed  the  wealth  of  princes  ;  Babylon  and  Palmyra, 
the  seats  of  Asiatic  luxury  ;  Rome,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  a  world, 
overwhelmed  by  her  own  vices  more  than  by  the  hosts  of  her  ene- 
mies ;  all  these,  and  many  more,  are  examples  of  the  destructive 
tendencies  of  immense  and  unnatural  accumulation :  and  men 
must  become  more  generous  and  benevolent,  not  more  selfish  and 
effeminate,  as  they  become  more  rich,  or  the  history  of  modern 
wealth  will  follow  in  the  sad  train  of  all  past  examples. 


KNIGHT    OF    THE    ROYAL    AXE.  349 

All  men  desire  distinction,  and  feel  the  need  of  some  ennobling 
object  in  life.  Those  persons  are  usually  most  happy  and  satisfied 
in  their  pursuits,  who  have  the  loftiest  ends  in  view.  Artists, 
mechanicians,  and  inventors,  all  who  seek  to  find  principles  or  de- 
velop beauty  in  their  work,  seem  most  to  enjoy  it.  The  farmer 
who  labors  for  the  beautifying  and  scientific  cultivation  of  his 
estate,  is  more  happy  in  his  labors  than  one  who  tills  his  own  land 
for  a  mere  subsistence.  This  is  one  of  the  signal  testimonies 
which  all  human  employments  give  to  the  high  demands  of  our 
nature.  To  gather  wealth  never  gives  such  satisfaction  as  to  bring 
the  humblest  piece  of  machinery  to  perfection :  at  least,  when 
wealth  is  sought  for  display  and  ostentation,  or  mere  luxury,  and 
ease,  and  pleasure;  and  not  for  ends  of  philanthropy,  the  relief 
of  kindred,  or  the  payment  of  just  debts,  or  as  a  means  to  attain 
some  other  great  and  noble  object. 

With  the  pursuits  of  multitudes  is  connected  a  painful  conviction 
that  they  neither  supply  a  sufficient  object,  nor  confer  any  satis- 
factory honor.  Why  work,  if  the  world  is  soon  not  to  know  that 
such  a  being  ever  existed ;  and  when  one  can  perpetuate  his  name 
neither  on  canvas  nor  on  marble,  nor  in  books,  nor  by  lofty  elo- 
quence, nor  statesmanship? 

The  answer  is,  that  every  man  has  a  work  to  do  in  himself,  greater 
and  sublimer  than  any  work  of  genius ;  and  works  upon  a  nobler 
material  than  wood  or  marble — upon  his  own  soul  and  intellect, 
and  may  so  attain  the  highest  nobleness  and  grandeur  known  on 
earth  orinHeaven  ;  mayso  be  the  greatest  of  artists, and  of  authors, 
and  his  life,  which  is  far  more  than  speech,  may  be  eloquent. 

The  great  author  or  artist  only  portrays  what  every  man  should 
be.  He  conceives,  what  we  should  do.  He  conceives,  and  represents 
moral  beauty,  magnanimity,  fortitude,  love,  devotion,  forgiveness, 
the  soul's  greatness.  He  portrays  virtues,  commended  to  our 
admiration  and  imitation.  To  embody  these  portraitures  in  our 
lives  is  the  practical  realization  of  those  great  ideals  of  art.  The 
magnanimity  of  Heroes,  celebrated  on  the  historic  or  poetic  page ; 
the  constancy  and  faith  of  Truth's  martyrs ;  the  beauty  of  love 
and  piety  glowing  on  the  canvas ;  the  delineations  of  Truth  and 
Right,  that  flash  from  the  lips  of  the  Eloquent,  are,  in  their  essence 
only  that  which  every  man  may  feel  and  practise  in  the  daily 
walks  of  life.  The  work  of  virtue  is  nobler  than  any  work  of 
genius ;  for  it  is  a  nobler  thing  to  be  a  hero  than  to  describe  one. 


35°  MORALS    AND    DOGMA. 

to  endure  martyrdom  than  to  paint  it,  to  do  right  than  to  plead 
for  it.  Action  is  greater  than  writing.  A  good  man  is  a  nobler 
object  of  contemplation  than  a  great  author.  There  are  but  two 
things  worth  living  for:  to  do  what  is  worthy  of  being  written; 
and  to  write  what  is  worthy  of  being  read;  and  the  greater  of 
these  is  the  doing. 

Every  man  has  to  do  the  noblest  thing  that  any  man  can  do  or 
describe.  There  is  a  wide  field  for  the  courage,  cheerfulness,  en- 
ergy, and  dignity  of  human  existence.  Let  therefore  no  Mason 
deem  his  life  doomed  to  mediocrity  or  meanness,  to  vanity  or  un- 
profitable toil,  or  to  any  ends  less  than  immortal.  No  one  can 
truly  say  that  the  grand  prizes  of  life  are  for  others,  and  he  can 
do  nothing.  No  matter  how  magnificent  and  noble  an  act  the 
author  can  describe  or  the  artist  paint,  it  will  be  still  nobler  for 
you  to  go  and  do  that  which  one  describes,  or  be  the  model  which 
the  other  draws. 

The  loftiest  action  that  ever  was  described  is  not  more  magnani- 
mous than  that  which  we  may  find  occasion  to  do,  in  the  daily  walks 
of  life  ;  in  temptation,  in  distress,  in  bereavement,  in  the  solemn  ap- 
proach to  death.  In  the  great  Providence  of  God,  in  the  great  ordi- 
nances of  our  being,  there  is  opened  to  every  man  a  sphere  for  the 
noblest  action.  It  is  not  even  in  extraordinary  situations,  where  all 
eyes  are  upon  us,  where  all  our  energy  is  aroused,  and  all  our  vigi- 
lance is  awake,  that  the  highest  efforts  of  virtue  are  usually  demand- 
ed of  us;  but  rather  in. silence  and  seclusion,  amidst  our  occupa- 
tions and  our  homes ;  in  wearing  sickness,  that  makes  no  complaint ; 
in  sorely-tried  honesty,  that  asks  no  praise ;  in  simple  disinterest- 
edness, hiding  the  hand  that  resigns  its  advantage  to  another. 

Masonry  seeks  to  ennoble  common  life.  Its  work  is  to  go  down 
into  the  obscure  and  unsearched  records  of  daily  conduct  and 
feeling ;  and  to  portray,  not  the  ordinary  virtue  of  an  extraordi- 
nary life ;  but  the  more  extraordinary  virtue  of  ordinary  life.  What 
is  done  and  borne  in  the  shades  of  privacy,  in  the  hard  and  beaten 
path  of  daily  care  and  toil,  full  of  uncelebrated  sacrifices ;  in  the 
suffering,  and  sometimes  insulted  suffering,  that  wears  to  the 
world  a  cheerful  brow ;  in  the  long  strife  of  the  spirit,  resisting 
pain,  penury,  and  neglect,  carried  on  in  the  inmost  depths  of  the 
heart ; — what  is  done,  and  borne,  and  wrought,  and  won  there,  is 
a  higher  glory,  and  shall  inherit  a  brighter  crown. 

On  the  volume  of  Masonic  life  one  bright  word  is  written,  from 


KNIGHT  OK  THE  ROYAL  AXE.  351 

which  on  every  side  blazes  an  ineffable  splendor.    That  word  is 
DUTY. 

To  aid  in  securing  to  all  labor  permanent  employment  and  its 
just  reward:  to  help  to  hasten  the  coming  of  that  time  when  no 
one  shall  suffer  from  hunger  or  destitution,  because,  though  will- 
ing and  able  to  work,  he  can  find  no  employment,  or  because  he 
has  been  overtaken  by  sickness  in  the  midst  of  his  labor,  are  part 
of  your  duties  as  a  Knight  of  the  Royal  Axe.  And  if  we  can  succeed 
in  making  some  small  nook  of  God's  creation  a  little  more  fruitful 
and  cheerful,  a  little  better  and  more  worthy  of  Him, — or  in  mak- 
ing some  one  or  two  human  hearts  a  little  wiser,  and  more  manful 
and  hopeful  and  happy,  we  shall  have  done  work,  worthy  of  Ma- 
sons, and  acceptable  to  our  Father  in  Heaven. 


XXIII. 


CHIEF  OF  THE   TABERNACLE. 

AMONG  most  of  the  Ancient  Nations  there  was,  in  addition  to 
their  public  worship,  a  private  one  styled  the  Mysteries ;  to  which 
those  only  were  admitted  who  had  been  prepared  by  certain  cere- 
monies called  initiations. 

The  most  widely  disseminated  of  the  ancient  worships  were 
those  of  Isis,  Orpheus,  Dionusos,  Ceres,  and  Mithras.  Many  bar- 
barous nations  received  the  knowledge  of  the  Mysteries  in  honor 
of  these  divinities  from  the  Egyptians,  before  they  arrived  in 
Greece;  and  even  in  the  British  Isles  the  Druids  celebrated  those 
of  Dionusos,  learned  by  them  from  the  Egyptians. 

The  Mysteries  of  Eleusis,  celebrated  at  Athens  in  honor  of  Ceres, 
swallowed  up,  as  it  were,  all  the  others.  All  the  neighboring  na- 
tions neglected  their  own,  to  celebrate  those  of  Eleusis ;  and  in  a 
little  while  all  Greece  and  Asia  Minor  were  filled  with  the  Initi- 
ates. They  spread  into  the  Roman  Empire,  and  even  beyond  its 
limits,  "those  holy  and  august  Eleusinian  Mysteries,"  said  Cicero, 
"in  which  the  people  of  the  remotest  lands  are  initiated."  Zosi- 
mus  says  that  they  embraced  the  whole  human  race ;  and  Aristides 
termed  them  the  common  temple  of  the  whole  world. 

There  were,  in  the  Eleusinian  feasts,  two  sorts  of  Mysteries,  the 
great,  and  the  little.  The  latter  were  a  kind  of  preparation  for 
the  former;  and  everybody  was  admitted  to  them.  Ordinarily 
there  was  a  novitiate  of  three,  and  sometimes  of  four  years. 

Clemens  of  Alexandria  says  that  what  was  taught  in  the  great 
Mysteries  concerned  the  Universe,  and  was  the  completion  and 
perfection  of  all  instruction ;  wherein  things  were  seen  as  they 
were,  and  nature  and  her  works  were  made  known. 

The  ancients  said  that  the  Initiates  would  be  more  happy  after 
death  than  other  mortals ;  and  that,  while  the  souls  of  the  Profane 
on  leaving  their  bodies,  would  be  plunged  in  the  mire,  and  remain 
buried  in  darkness,  those  of  the  Initiates  would  fly  to  the  Fortu- 
nate Isles,  the  abode  of  the  Gods. 
352 


CHIEF  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 

Plato  said  that  the  object  of  the  Mysteries  was  to  re-establish 
the  soul  in  its  primitive  purity,  and  in  that  state  of  perfection 
which  it  had  lost.  Epictetus  said,  "whatever  is  met  with  therein 
has  been  instituted  by  our  Masters,  for  the  instruction  of  man  and 
the  correction  of  morals." 

Proclus  held  that  initiation  elevated  the  soul,  from  a  material, 
sensual,  and  purely  human  life,  to  a  communion  and  celestial  in- 
tercourse with  the  Gods ;  and  that  a  variety  of  things,  forms,  and 
species  were  shown  Initiates,  representing  the  first  generation  of 
the  Gods. 

Purity  of  morals  and  elevation  of  soul  were  required  of  the  Initi- 
ates. Candidates  were  required  to  be  of  spotless  reputation  and 
irreproachable  virtue.  Nero,  after  murdering  his  mother,  did  not 
dare  to  be  present  at  the  celebration  of  the  Mysteries :  and  Antony 
presented  himself  to  be  initiated,  as  the  most  infallible  mode  of 
proving  his  innocence  of  the  death  of  Avidius  Cassius. 

The  Initiates  were  regarded  as  the  only  fortunate  men.  "It  is 
upon  us  alone,"  says  Aristophanes,  "shineth  the  beneficent  day- 
star.  We  alone  receive  pleasure  from  the  influence  of  his  rays ; 
we,  who  are  initiated,  and  who  practise  toward  citizen  and  strax- 
ger  every  possible  act  of  justice  and  piety."  And  it  is  therefore 
not  surprising  that,  in  time,  initiation  came  to  be  considered  as 
necessary  as  baptism  afterward  was  to  the  Christians ;  and 
that  not  to  have  been  admitted  to  the  Mysteries  was  held  a 
dishonor. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  says  the  great  orator,  philosopher,  and  moral- 
ist, Cicero,  "that  Athens,  among  many  excellent  inventions,  divine 
and  very  useful  to  the  human  family,  has  produced  none  compar- 
able to  the  Mysteries,  which  for  a  wild  and  ferocious  life  have 
substituted  humanity  and  urbanity  of  manners.  It  is  with  good 
reason  they  use  the  term  initiation;  for  it  is  through  them  that 
we  in  reality  have  learned  the  first  principles  of  life;  and  they 
not  only  teach  us  to  live  in  a  manner  more  consoling  and  agree- 
able, but  they  soften  the  pains  of  death  by  the  hope  of  a  better 
life  hereafter." 

Where  the  Mysteries  originated  is  not  known.  It  is  supposed 
that  they  came  from  India, by  the  way  of  Chaldasa,  into  Egypt,  and 
thence  were  carried  into  Greece.  Wherever  they  arose,  they  were 
practised  among  all  the  ancient  nations;  and,  as  was  usual,  the 
Thracians,  Cretans,  and  Athenians  each  claimed  the  honor  of  in- 


354  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

vention,  and  each  insisted  that  they  had  borrowed  nothing  from 
any  other  people. 

In  Egypt  and  the  East,  all  religion,  even  in  its  most  poetical 
forms,  was  more  or  less  a  mystery ;  and  the  chief  reason  why,  in 
Greece,  a  distinct  name  and  office  were  assigned  to  the  Mysteries, 
was  because  the  superficial  popular  theology  left  a  want  unsatis- 
fied, which  religion  in  a  wider  sense  alone  could  supply.  They 
were  practical  acknowledgments  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  popular 
religion  to  satisfy  the  deeper  thoughts  and  aspirations  of  the  mind. 
The  vagueness  of  symbolism  might  perhaps  reach  what  a  more 
palpable  and  conventional  creed  could  not.  The  former,  by  its 
indefiniteness,  acknowledged  the  abstruseness  of  its  subject;  it 
treated  a  mysterious  subject  mystically ;  it  endeavored  to  illustrate 
what  it  could  not  explain ;  to  excite  an  appropriate  feeling,  if  it 
could  not  develop  an  adequate  idea ;  and  made  the  image  a  mere 
subordinate  conveyance  for  the  conception,  which  itself  never 
became  too  obvious  or  familiar. 

The  instruction  now  conveyed  by  books  and  letters  was  of  old 
conveyed  by  symbols ;  and  the  priest  had  to  invent  or  to  perpetu- 
ate a  display  of  rites  and  exhibitions,  which  were  not  only  more 
attractive  to  the  eye  than  words,  but  often  to  the  mind  more  sug- 
gestive and  pregnant  with  meaning. 

Afterward,  the  institution  became  rather  moral  and  political, 
than  religious.  The  civil  magistrates  shaped  the  ceremonies  to 
political  ends  in  Egypt ;  the  sages  who  carried  them  from  that 
country  to  Asia,  Greece,  and  the  North  of  Europe,  were  all  kings 
or  legislators.  The  chief  magistrate  presided  at  those  of  Eleusis, 
represented  by  an  officer  styled  King:  and  the  Priest  played  but 
a  subordinate  part. 

The  Powers  revered  in  the  Mysteries  were  all  in  reality  Nature- 
Gods  ;  none  of  whom  could  be  consistently  addressed  as  mere 
heroes,  because  their  nature  was  confessedly  super-heroic.  The 
Mysteries,  only  in  fact  a  more  solemn  expression  of  the  religion  of 
the  ancient  poetry,  taught  that  doctrine  of  the  Theocracia  or 
Divine  Oneness,  which  even  poetry  does  not  entirely  conceal. 
They  were  not  in  any  open  hostility  with  the  popular  religion,  but 
only  a  more  solemn  exhibition  of  its  symbols ;  or  rather  a  part 
of  itself  in  a  more  impressive  form.  The  essence  of  all  Mysteries, 
as  of  all  polytheism,  consists  in  this,  that  the  conception  of  an 
unapproachable  Being,  single,  eternal,  and  unchanging,  and  that 


CHIEF  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  355 

of  a  God  of  Nature,  whose  manifold  power  is  immediately  revealed 
to  the  senses  in  the  incessant  round  of  movement,  life,  and  death, 
fell  asunder  in  the  treatment,  and  were  separately  symbolized. 
They  offered  a  perpetual  problem  to  excite  curiosity,  and  con- 
tributed to  satisfy  the  all-pervading  religious  sentiment,  which  if  it 
obtain  no  nourishment  among  the  simple  and  intelligible,  finds 
compensating  excitement  in  a  reverential  contemplation  of  the 
obscure. 

Nature  is  as  free  from  dogmatism  as  from  tyranny ;  and  th . 
earliest  instructors  of  mankind  not  only  adopted  her  lessons,  but 
as  far  as  possible  adhered  to  her  method  of  imparting  them. 
They  attempted  to  reach  the  understanding  through  the  eye ;  and 
the  greater  part  of  all  religious  teaching  was  conveyed  through 
this  ancient  and  most  impressive  mode  of  "exhibition"  or  demon- 
stration. The  Mysteries  were  a  sacred  drama,  exhibiting  some 
legend  significant  of  Nature's  change,  of  the  visible  Universe  in 
which  the  divinity  is  revealed,  and  whose  import  was  in  many 
respects  as  open  to  the  Pagan,  as  to  the  Christian.  Beyond  the 
current  traditions  or  sacred  recitals  of  the  temple,  few  explanations 
were  given  to  the  spectators,  who  were  left,  as  in  the  school  of 
nature,  to  make  inferences  for  themselves. 

The  method  of  indirect  suggestion,  by  allegory  or  symbol,  is  a 
more  efficacious  instrument  of  instruction  than  plain  didactic 
language ;  since  we  are  habitually  indifferent  to  that  which  is 
acquired  without  effort :  "The  initiated  are  few,  though  many 
bear  the  thyrsus."  And  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  provide 
a  lesson  suited  to  every  degree  of  cultivation  and  capacity,  unless 
it  were  one  framed  after  Nature's  example,  or  rather  a  representa- 
tion of  Nature  herself,  employing  her  universal  symbolism  instead  of 
technicalities  of  language,  inviting  endless  research,  yet  rewarding 
the  humblest  inquirer,  and  disclosing  its  secrets  to  every  one  in  pro- 
portion to  his  preparatory  training  and  power  to  comprehend  them. 

Even  if  destitute  of  any  formal  or  official  enunciation  of  those 
important  truths,  which  even  in  a  cultivated  age  it  was  often  found 
inexpedient  to  assert  except  under  a  veil  of  allegory,  and  which 
moreover  lose  their  dignity  and  value  in  proportion  as  they  are 
learned  mechanically  as  dogmas,  the  shows  of  the  Mysteries  certainly 
contained  suggestions  if  not  lessons,  which  in  the  opinion  not  of 
one  competent  witness  only,  but  of  many,  were  adapted  to  elevate 
the  character  of  the  spectators,  enabling  them  to  augur  something 


35^  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  the  purposes  of  existence,  as  well  as  of  the  means  of  improving 
it,  to  live  better  and  to  die  happier. 

Unlike  the  religion  of  books  or  creeds,  these  mystic  shows  and 
performances  were  not  the  reading  of  a  lecture,  but  the  opening 
of  a  problem,  implying  neither  exemption  from  research,  nor  hos- 
tility to  philosophy :  for,  on  the  contrary,  philosophy  is  the  great 
Mystagogue  or  Arch-Expounder  of  symbolism :  though  the  inter- 
pretations by  the  Grecian  Philosophy  of  the  old  myths  and  symbols 
were  in  many  instances  as  ill-founded,  as  in  others  they  are  correct. 

No  better  means  could  be  devised  to  rouse  a  dormant  intellect, 
than  those  impressive  exhibitions,  which  addressed  it  through  the 
imagination :  which,  instead  of  condemning  it  to  a  prescribed 
routine  of  creed,  invited  it  to  seek,  compare,  and  judge.  The  alter- 
ation from  symbol  to  dogma  is  as  fatal  to  beauty  of  expression,  as 
that  from  faith  to  dogma  is  to  truth  and  wholesomeness  of  thought. 

The  first  philosophy  often  reverted  to  the  natural  mode  of  teach- 
ing ;  and  Socrates,  in  particular,  is  said  to  have  eschewed  dogmas, 
endeavoring,  like  the  Mysteries,  rather  to  awaken  and  develop  in 
the  minds  of  his  hearers  the  ideas  with  which  they  were  already 
endowed  or  pregnant,  than  to  fill  them  with  ready-made  adven- 
titious opinions. 

So  Masonry  still  follows  the  ancient  manner  of  teaching.  Her 
symbols  are  the  instruction  she  gives;  and  the  lectures  are  but 
often  partial  and  insufficient  one-sided  endeavors  to  interpret 
those  symbols.  He  who  would  become  an  accomplished  Mason, 
must  not  be  content  merely  to  hear  or  even  to  understand  the  lect- 
ures, but  must,  aided  by  them,  and  they  having  as  it  were  marked 
out  the  way  for  him,  study,  interpret,  and  develop  the  symbols 
for  himself. 

The  earliest  speculation  endeavored  to  express  far  more  than  it 
could  distinctly  comprehend ;  and  the  vague  impressions  of  the 
mind  found  in  the  mysterious  analogies  of  phenomena  their  most 
apt  and  energetic  representations.  The  Mysteries,  like  the  sym- 
bols of  Masonry,  were  but  an  image  of  the  eloquent  analogies  of 
Nature ;  both  those  and  these  revealing  no  new  secret  to  such  as 
were  or  are  unprepared,  or  incapable  of  interpreting  their  signifi- 
cance. 

Everywhere  in  the  old  Mysteries,  and  in  all  the  symbolisms  and 
ceremonial  of  the  Hierophant  was  found  the  same  mythical  per- 
sonage, who,  like  Hermes,  or  Zoroaster,  unites  Human  Attributes 


CHIEF  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  357 

with  Divine,  and  is  himself  the  God  whose  worship  he  intro- 
duced, teaching  rude  men  the  commencements  of  civilization 
through  the  influence  of  song,  and  connecting  with  the  symbol  of 
his  death,  emblematic  of  that  of  Nature,  the  most  essential  conso- 
lations of  religion. 

The  Mysteries  embraced  the  three  great  doctrines  of  Ancient 
Theosophy.  They  treated  of  God,  Man,  and  Nature.  Dionusos, 
whose  Mysteries  Orpheus  is  said  to  have  founded,  was  the  God  of 
Nature,  or  of  the  moisture  which  is  the  life  of  Nature,  who  pre- 
pares in  darkness  the  return  of  life  and  vegetation,  or  who  is  him- 
self the  Light  and  Change  evolving  their  varieties.  He  was 
theologically  one  with  Hermes,  Prometheus,  and  Poseidon.  In  the 
Egean  Islands  he  is  Butes,Dardanus,Himeros,or  Imbros.  In  Crete 
he  appears  as  lasius  or  Zeus,  whose  worship  remaining  unveiled 
by  the  usual  forms  of  mystery,  betrayed  to  profane  curiosity  the 
symbols  which,  if  irreverently  contemplated,  were  sure  to  be 
misunderstood.  In  Asia  he  is  the  long-stoled  Bassareus  coales- 
cing with  the  Sabazius  of  the  Phrygian  Corybantes :  the  same 
with  the  mystic  lacchus,  nursling  or  son  of  Ceres,  and  with 
the  dismembered  Zagreus,  son  of  Persephone. 

In  symbolical  forms  the  Mysteries  exhibited  THE  ONE,  of 
which  THE  MANIFOLD  is  an  infinite  illustration,  containing  a 
moral  lesson,  calculated  to  guide  the  soul  through  life,  and  to 
cheer  it  in  death.  The  story  of  Dionusos  was  profoundly  significant. 
He  was  not  only  creator  of  the  world,  but  guardian,  liberator,  and 
Savior  of  the  soul.  God  of  the  many-colored  mantle,  he  was  the 
resulting  manifestation  personified,  the  all  in  the  many,  the  varied 
year,  life  passing  into  innumerable  forms. 

The  spiritual  regeneration  of  man  was  typified  in  the  Mysteries 
by  the  second  birth  of  Dionusos  as  offspring  of  the  Highest ;  and 
the  agents  and  symbols  of  that  regeneration  were  the  elements 
that  affected  Nature's  periodical  purification — the  air,  indicated 
by  the  mystic  fan  or  winnow ;  the  fire,  signified  by  the  torch  ;  and 
the  baptismal  water,  for  water  is  not  only  cleanser  of  all  things, 
but  the  genesis  or  source  of  all. 

These  notions,  clothed  in  ritual,  eug^es^d  the  soul's  reformation 
and  training,  the  moral  purity  formally  proclaimed  at  Eleusis. 
He  only  was  invited  to  approach,  who  was  "of  clean  hands  and 
ingenuous  speech,  free  from  all  pollution,  and  with  a  clear  con- 
science." "Happy  the  man,"  say  the  initiated  in  Euripides  and 
24 


358  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

Aristophanes,  "who  purifies  his  life,  and  who  reverently  conse- 
crates his  soul  in  the  thiasos  of  the  God.  Let  him  take  heed 
to  his  lips  that  he  utter  no  profane  word;  let  him  be  just  and 
kind  to  the  stranger,  and  to  his  neighbor;  let  him  give  way  to 
no  vicious  excess,  lest  he  make  dull  and  heavy  the  organs  of  the 
spirit.  Far  from  the  mystic  dance  of  the  thiasos  be  the  impure, 
the  evil  speaker,  the  seditious  citizen,  the  selfish  hunter  after 
gain,  the  traitor ;  all  those,  in  short,  whose  practices  are  more  akin 
to  the  riot  of  Titans  than  to  the  regulated  life  of  the  Orphici,  or 
the  Curetan  order  of  the  Priests  of  Idsean  Zeus." 

The  votary,  elevated  beyond  the  sphere  of  his  ordinary  faculties, 
and  unable  to  account  for  the  agitation  which  overpowered  him, 
seemed  to  become  divine  in  proportion  as  he  ceased  to  be  human ; 
to  be  a  daemon  or  god.  Already,  in  imagination,  the  initiated 
were  numbered  among  the  beatified.  They  alone  enjoyed  the 
true  life,  the  Sun's  true  lustre,  while  they  hymned  their  God 
beneath  the  mystic  groves  of  a  mimic  Elysium,  and  were  really 
renovated  or  regenerated  under  the  genial  influence  of  their 
dances. 

"They  whom  Proserpina  guides  in  her  mysteries,"  it  was  said, 
"who  imbibed  her  instruction  and  spiritual  nourishment,  rest 
from  their  labors  and  know  strife  no  more.  Happy  they  who 
witness  and  comprehend  these  sacred  ceremonies !  They  are  made 
to  know  the  meaning  of  the  riddle  of  existence  by  observing  its 
aim  and  termination  as  appointed  by  Zeus ;  they  partake  a  benefit 
more  valuable  and  enduring  than  the  grain  bestowed  by  Ceres ;  for 
they  are  exalted  in  the  scale  of  intellectual  existence,  and  obtain 
sweet  hopes  to  console  them  at  their  death." 

No  doubt  the  ceremonies  of  initiation  were  originally  few  and 
simple.  As  the  great  truths  of  the  primitive  revelation  faded  out 
of  the  memories  of  the  masses  of  the  People,  and  wickedness 
became  rife  upon  the  earth,  it  became  necessary  to  discriminate, 
to  require  longer  probation  and  satisfactory  tests  of  the  candidates, 
and  by  spreading  around  what  at  first  were  rather  schools  of 
instruction  than  mysteries,  the  veil  of  secrecy,  and  the  pomp  of 
ceremony,  to  heighten  the  opinion  of  their  value  and  importance. 

Whatever  pictures  later  and  especially  Christian  writers  may 
draw  of  the  Mysteries,  they  must,  not  only  originally,  but  for  many 
ages,  have  continued  pure:  and  the  doctrines  of  natural  religion 
and  morals  there  taught,  have  been  of  the  highest  importance  ; 


CHIEF  OF  TliE  TABERNACLE.  359 

because  both  the  most  virtuous  as  well  as  the  most  learned  and 
philosophic  of  the  ancients  speak  of  them  in  the  loftiest  terms. 
That  they  ultimately  became  degraded  from  their  high  estate,  and 
corrupted,  we  know. 

The  rites  of  initiation  became  progressively  more  complicated. 
Signs  and  tokens  were  invented  by  which  the  Children  of  Light 
could  with  facility  make  themselves  known  to  each  other.  Differ- 
ent Degrees  were  invented,  as  the  number  of  Initiates  enlarged, 
in  order  that  there  might  be  in  the  inner  apartment  of  the  Temple  a 
favored  few,  to  whom  alone  the  more  valuable  secrets  were  en- 
trusted, and  who  could  wield  effectually  the  influence  and  power 
of  the  Order. 

Originally  the  Mysteries  were  meant  to  be  the  beginning  of  a 
new  life  of  reason  and  virtue.  The  initiated  or  esoteric  compan- 
ions were  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  One  Supreme  God,  the 
theory  of  death  and  eternity,  the  hidden  mysteries  of  Nature,  the 
prospect  of  the  ultimate  restoration  of  the  soul  to  that  state  of 
perfection  from  which  it  had  fallen,  its  immortality,  and  the  states 
of  reward  and  punishment  after  death.  The  uninitiated  were 
deemed  Profane,  unworthy  of  public  employment  or  private  confi- 
dence, sometimes  proscribed  as  Atheists,  and  certain  of  everlast- 
ing punishment  beyond  the  grave. 

All  persons  were  initiated  into  the  lesser  Mysteries;  but  few 
attained  the  greater,  in  which  the  true  spirit  of  them,  and  most 
of  their  secret  doctrines  were  hidden.  The  veil  of  secrecy  was 
impenetrable,  sealed  by  oaths  and  penalties  the  most  tremendous 
and  appalling.  It  was  by  initiation  only,  that  a  knowledge  of 
the  Hieroglyphics  could  be  obtained,  with  which  the  walls, 
columns,  and  ceilings  of  the  Temples  were  decorated,  and  which, 
believed  to  have  been  communicated  to  the  Priests  by  revelation 
from  the  celestial  deities,  the  youth  of  all  ranks  were  laudably 
ambitious  of  deciphering. 

The  ceremonies  were  performed  at  dead  of  night,  generally  in 
apartments  under-ground,  but  sometimes  in  the  centre  of  a  vast 
pyramid,  with  every  appliance  that  could  alarm  and  excite  the 
candidate.  Innumerable  ceremonies,  v/i!d  ar"t  romantic,  dreadful 
and  appalling,  had  by  degrees  been  added  to  the  few  expressive 
symbols  of  primitive  observances,  under  which  there  were  instan- 
ces in  which  the  terrified  aspirant  actually  expired  with  fear. 

The  pyramids  were  probably  used  for  the  purposes  of  initiation, 


360  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

as  were  caverns,  pagodas,  and  labyrinths ;  for  the  ceremonies 
required  many  apartments  and  cells,  long  passages  and  wells.  In 
Egypt  a  principal  place  for  the  Mysteries  was  the  island  of  Philse 
on  the  Nile,  where  a  magnificent  Temple  of  Osiris  stood,  and  his 
relics  were  said  to  be  preserved. 

With  their  natural  proclivities,  the  Priesthood,  that  select  and 
exclusive  class,  in  Egypt,  India,  Phoenicia,  Judea,  and  Greece,  as 
well  as  in  Britain  and  Rome,  and  wherever  else  the  Mysteries  were 
known,  made  use  of  them  to  build  wider  and  higher  the  fabric 
of  their  own  power.  The  purity  of  no  religion  continues  long. 
Rank  and  dignities  succeed  to  the  primitive  simplicity.  Unprin- 
cipled, vain,  insolent,  corrupt,  and  venal  men  put  on  God's  livery 
to  serve  the  Devil  withal ;  and  luxury,  vice,  intolerance,  and  pride 
depose  frugality,  virtue,  gentleness,  and  humility,  and  change  the 
altar  where  they  should  be  servants,  to  a  throne  on  which  they 
reign. 

But  the  Kings,  Philosophers,  and  Statesmen,  the  wise  and  great 
and  good  who  were  admitted  to  the  Mysteries,  long  postponed 
their  ultimate  self-destruction,  and  restrained  the  natural  tenden- 
cies of  the  Priesthood.  And  accordingly  Zosimus  thought  that 
the  neglect  of  the  Mysteries  after  Diocletian  abdicated,  was  the 
chief  cause  of  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire ;  and  in  the  year 
364,  the  Proconsul  of  Greece  would  not  close  the  Mysteries,  not- 
withstanding a  law  of  the  Emperor  Valentinian,  lest  the  people 
should  be  driven  to  desperation,  if  prevented  from  performing 
them ;  upon  which,  as  they  believed,  the  welfare  of  mankind 
wholly  depended.  They  were  practised  in  Athens  until  the  8th 
century,  in  Greece  and  Rome  for  several  centuries  after  Christ; 
and  in  Wales  and  Scotland  down  to  the  I2th  century. 

The  inhabitants  of  India  originally  practised  the  Patriarchal 
religion.  Even  the  later  worship  of  Vishnu  was  cheerful  and 
social ;  accompanied  with  the  festive  song,  the  sprightly  dance, 
and  the  resounding  cymbal,  with  libations  of  milk  and  honey, 
garlands,  and  perfumes  from  aromatic  woods  and  gums. 

There  perhaps  the  Mysteries  commenced ;  and  in  them,  under 
allegories,  were  taught  the  primitive  truths.  We  cannot,  within 
the  limits  of  this  lecture,  detail  the  ceremonies  of  initiation ;  and 
shall  use  general  language,  except  where  something  from  those 
old  Mysteries  still  remains  in  Masonry. 

The  Initiate  was  invested  with  a  cord  of  three  threads,  so  twined 


CHIEF  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  361 

as  to  make  three  times  three,  and  called  sennar.  Hence  comes  our 
cable-tow.  It  was  an  emblem  of  their  tri-une  Deity,  the  remem- 
brance of  whom  we  also  preserve  in  the  three  chief  officers  of 
our  Lodges,  presiding  in  the  three  quarters  of  that  Universe 
which  our  Lodges  represent ;  in  our  three  greater  and  three  lesser 
lights,  our  three  movable  and  three  immovable  jewels,  and  the 
three  pillars  that  support  our  Lodges. 

The  Indian  Mysteries  were  celebrated  in  subterranean  caverns 
and  grottos  hewn  in  the  solid  rock;  and  the  Initiates  adored  the 
Deity,  symbolized  by  the  solar  fire.  The  candidate,  long  wander- 
ing in  darkness,  truly  wanted  Light,  and  the  worship  taught  him 
was  the  worship  of  God,  the  Source  of  Light.  The  vast  Temple 
of  Elephanta,  perhaps  the  oldest  in  the  world,  hewn  out  of  the 
rock,  and  135  feet  square,  was  used  for  initiations;  as  were  the 
still  vaster  caverns  of  Salsette,  with  their  300  apartments. 

The  periods  of  initiation  were  regulated  by  the  increase  and 
decrease  of  the  moon.  The  Mysteries  were  divid^u  into  four 
steps  or  Degrees.  The  candidate  migh*  receive  the  first  at  eight 
years  of  age,  when  he  was  invested  with  the  z^nnar.  Each  Degree 
dispensed  something  of  perfection.  <JLe*  thfe  wretched  man," 
says  the  Hitopadesa,  "practise  virtue,  whenever  he  enjoys  one  of 
the  three  or  four  religious  Degrees;  let.  "flw»i  oe  even-minded  with 
all  created  things,  and  that  disposition  will  be  the  source  of 
virtue." 

After  various  ceremonies,  chiefly  relating  to  the  unity  and 
trinity  of  the  Godhead,  the  candidate  was  clothed  in  a  linen  gar- 
ment without  a  seam,  and  remained  under  the  c^r^  of  a  Brahmin 
until  he  was  twenty  years  of  age,  constantly  studying  and  practis- 
ing the  most  rigid  virtue.  Then  he  underwent  the  severest  pro- 
bation for  the  second  Degree,  in  which  he  was  sanctified  by  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  which,  pointing  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  com- 
pass, was  honored  as  a  striking  symbol  of  the  Universe  by  many 
nations  of  antiquity,  and  was  imitated  by  the  Indians  in  the 
shape  of  their  temples. 

Then  he  was  admitted  to  the  Holy  Cavern,  blazing  with  light, 
where,  in  costly  robes,  sat,  in  the  East,  West,  and  South,  the 
three  chief  Hierophants,  representing  the  Indian  tri-une  Deity. 
The  ceremonies  there  commenced  with  an  anthem  to  the  Great 
God  of  Nature ;  and  then  followed  this  apostrophe :  "O  mighty 
Being !  greater  than  Brahma  !  \vc  bow  down  before  Thee  as  the 


362  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

primal  Creator !  Eternal  God  of  Gods !  The  World's  Mansion ! 
Thou  art  the  Incorruptible  Being,  distinct  from  all  things  tran- 
sient !  Thou  art  before  all  Gods,  the  Ancient  Absolute  Existence, 
and  the  Supreme  Supporter  of  the  Universe !  Thou  art  the 
Supreme  Mansion ;  and  by  Thee,  O  Infinite  Form,  the  Universe 
was  spread  abroad." 

The  candidate,  thus  taught  the  first  great  primitive  truth,  was 
called  upon  to  make  a  formal  declaration,  that  he  would  be  tract- 
able and  obedient  to  his  superiors;  that  he  would  keep  his  body 
pure ;  govern  his  tongue,  and  observe  a  passive  obedience  in  receiv- 
ing the  doctrines  and  traditions  of  the  Order ;  and  .the  firmest 
secrecy  in  maintaining  inviolable  its  hidden  and  abstruse  myste- 
ries. Then  he  was  sprinkled  with  water  (whence  our  baptism)  ; 
certain  wrords,  now  unknown,  were  whispered  in  his  ear;  and  he 
was  divested  of  his  shoes,  and  made  to  go  three  times  around  the 
cavern.  Hence  our  three  circuits ;  hence  we  were  neither  barefoot 
nor  shod :  and  the  words  were  the  Pass-words  of  that  Indian 
Degree. 

The  Gymnosophist  Priests  came  from  the  banks  of  the  Eu- 
phrates into  Ethiopia,  and  brought  with  them  their  sciences  and 
their  doctrines.  Their  principal  College  was  at  Meroe,  and  their 
Mysteries  were  celebrated  in  the  Temple  of  Amun,  renowned  for 
his  oracle.  Ethiopia  was  then  a  powerful  State,  which  preceded 
Egypt  in  civilization,  and  had  a  theocratic  government.  Above 
the  King  was  the  Priest,  who  could  put  him  to  death  in  the  name 
of  the  Deity.  Egypt  was  then  composed  of  the  Thebaid  only. 
Middle  Egypt  and  the  Delta  were  a  gulf  of  the  Mediterranean.  The 
Nile  by  degrees  formed  an  immense  marsh,  which,  afterward 
drained  by  the  labor  of  man,  formed  Lower  Egypt;  and  was  for 
many  centuries  governed  by  the  Ethiopian  Sacerdotal  Caste,  of 
Arabic  origin  ;  afterward  displaced  by  a  dynasty  of  warriors.  The 
magnificent  ruins  of  Axoum,  with  its  obelisks  and  hieroglyphics, 
temples,  vast  tombs  and  pyramids,  around  ancient  Meroe,  are  far 
older  than  the  pyramids  near  Memphis. 

The  Priests,  taught  by  Hermes,  embodied  in  books  the  occult 
and  hermetic  sciences,  with  their  own  discoveries  and  the  revela- 
tions of  the  Sibyls.  They  studied  particularly  the  most  abstract 
sciences,  discovered  the  famous  geometrical  theorems  which  Py- 
thapror^s  afterward  learned  from  them,  calculated  eclipses,  and 
regulated,  nineteen  centuries  before  Caesar,  the  Julian  year.  They 


CHIEF  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  3^3 

descended  to  practical  investigations  as  to  the  necessities  of  life, 
and  made  known  their  discoveries  to  the  people ;  they  cultivated 
the  fine  arts,  and  inspired  the  people  with  that  enthusiasm  which 
produced  the  avenues  of  Thebes,  the  Labyrinth,  the  Temples  of 
Karnac,  Demlerah,  Edfou,  and  Philae,  the  monolithic  obelisks,  and 
the  great  Lake  Moeris,  the  fertilizer  of  the  country. 

The  wisdom  of  the  Egyptian  Initiates,  the  high  sciences  and 
lofty  morality  which  they  taught,  and  their  immense  knowledge, 
excited  the  emulation  of  the  most  eminent  men,  whatever  their 
rank  and  fortune ;  and  led  them,  despite  the  complicated  and  ter- 
rible trials  to  be  undergone,  to  seek  admission  into  the  Mysteries 
of  Osiris  and  Isis. 

From  Egypt,  the  Mysteries  went  to  Phoenicia,  and  were  cele- 
brated at  Tyre.  Osiris  changed  his  name,  and  became  Adoni  or 
Dionusos,  still  the  representative  of  the  Sun ;  and  afterward  these 
Mysteries  were  introduced  successively  into  Assyria,  Babylon,  Per- 
sia, Greece,  Sicily,  and  Italy.  In  Greece  and  Sicily,  Osiris  took  the 
name  of  Bacchus,  and  Isis  that  of  Ceres,  Cybele,  Rhea,  and  Venus. 

Bar  Hebraeus  says :  "Enoch  was  the  first  who  invented  books 
and  different  sorts  of  writing.  The  ancient  Greeks  declare  that 
Enoch  is  the  same  as  Mercury  Trismegistus  [Hermes],  and  that  he 
taught  the  sons  of  men  the  art  of  building  cities,  and  enacted 
some  admirable  laws.  .  .  He  discovered  the  knowledge  of  the 
Zodiac,  and  the  course  of  the  Planets ;  and  he  pointed  out  to  the 
sons  of  men,  that  they  should  worship  God,  that  they  should  fast, 
that  they  should  pray,  that  they  should  give  alms,  votive  offerings, 
and  tenths.  He  reprobated  abominable  foods  and  drunkenness, 
and  appointed  festivals  for  sacrifices  to  the  Sun,  at  each  of  the 
Zodiacal  Signs." 

Manetho  extracted  his  history  from  certain  pillars  which  he  dis- 
covered in  Egypt,  whereon  inscriptions  had  been  made  by  Thoth, 
or  the  first  Mercury  [or  Hermes],  in  the  sacred  letters  and  dia- 
lect :  but  which  were  after  the  flood  translated  from  that  dialect 
into  the  Greek  tongue,  and  laid  up  in  the  private  recesses  of  the 
Egyptian  Temples.  These  pillars  were  found  in  subterranean  cav- 
erns, near  Thebes  and  beyond  the  Nile,  not  far  from  the  sounding 
statue  of  Memnon,  in  a  place  called  Syringes ;  which  are  described 
to  be  certain  winding  apartments  underground ;  made,  it  is  said, 
by  those  who  were  skilled  in  ancient  rites ;  who,  foreseeing  the 
coming  of  the  Deluge,  and  fearing  lest  the  memory  of  their  cere- 


364  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

monies  should  be  obliterated,  built  and  contrived  vaults,  dug  with 
vast  labor,  in  several  places. 

From  the  bosom  of  Egypt  sprang  a  man  of  consummate  wis- 
dom, initiated  in  the  secret  knowledge  of  India,  of  Persia,  and  of 
Ethiopia,  named  Thoth  or  Phtha  by  his  compatriots,  Taaut  by  the 
Phoenicians,  Hermes  Trismegistus  by  the  Greeks,  and  Adris  by  the 
Rabbins.  Nature  seemed  to  have  chosen  him  for  her  favorite,  and 
to  have  lavished  on  him  all  the  qualities  necessary  to  enable  him 
to  study  her  and  to  know  her  thoroughly.  The  Deity  had,  so  to 
say,  infused  into  him  the  sciences  and  the  arts,  in  order  that  he 
might  instruct  the  whole  world. 

He  invented  many  things  necessary  for  the  uses  of  life,  and  gave 
them  suitable  names ;  he  taught  men  how  to  write  down  their 
thoughts  and  arrange  their  speech;  he  instituted  the  ceremonies 
to  be  observed  in  the  worship  of  each  of  the  Gods ;  he  observed 
the  course  of  the  stars ;  he  invented  music,  the  different  bodily 
exercises,  arithmetic,  medicine,  the  art  of  working  in  metals,  the 
lyre  with  three  strings ;  he  regulated  the  three  tones  of  the  voice, 
the  sharp,  taken  from  autumn,  the  grave  from  winter,  and  the  mid- 
dle from  spring,  there  being  then  but  three  seasons.  It  was  he 
who  taught  the  Greeks  the  mode  of  interpreting  terms  and  things, 
whence  they  gave  him  the  name  of  lEpjJLr^  [Hermes\t  which  sig- 
nifies Interpreter. 

In  Egypt  he  instituted  hieroglyphics :  he  selected  a  certain 
number  of  persons  whom  he  judged  fitted  to  be  the  depositaries 
of  his  secrets,  of  such  only  as  were  capable  of  attaining  the  throne 
and  the  first  offices  in  the  Mysteries ;  he  united  them  in  a  body, 
created  them  Priests  of  the  Living  God,  instructed  them  in  the 
sciences  and  arts,  and  explained  to  them  the  symbols  by  which 
they  were  veiled.  Egypt,  1500  years  before  the  time  of  Moses, 
revered  in  the  Mysteries  ONE  SUPREME  GOD,  called  the  ONLY  UN- 
CREATED. Under  Him  it  paid  homage  to  seven  principal  deities. 
It  is  to  Hermes,  who  lived  at  that  period,  that  we  must  attribute 
the  concealment  or  veiling  [velation]  of  the  Indian  worship,  which 
Moses  unveiled  or  revealed,  changing  nothing  of  the  laws  of 
Hermes,  except  the  plurality  of  his  mystic  Gods. 

The  Egyptian  Priests  related  that  Hermes,  dying,  said :  "Hith- 
erto I  have  lived  an  exile  from  my  true  country:  now  I  return 
thither.  Do  not  weep  for  me :  I  return  to  that  celestial  country 
whither  each  goes  in  his  turn.  There  is  God.  This  life  is  but  a 


CHIEF  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  3&5 

death."  This  is  precisely  the  creed  of  the  old  Buddhists  or  Sama- 
neans,  who  believed  that  from  time  to  time  God  sent  Buddhas  on 
earth,  to  reform  men,  to  wean  them  from  their  vices,  and  lead  them 
back  into  the  paths  of  virtue. 

Among  the  sciences  taught  by  Hermes,  there  were  secrets  which 
he  communicated  to  the  Initiates  only  upon  condition  that  they 
should  bind  themselves,  by  a  terrible  oath,  never  to  divulge  them, 
except  to  those  who,  after  long  trial,  should  be  found  worthy  to 
succeed  them.  The  Kings  even  prohibited  the  revelation  of  them 
on  pain  of  death.  This  secret  was  styled  the  Sacerdotal  Art,  and 
included  alchemy,  astrology,  magism  [magic] ,  the  science  of  spir- 
its, etc.  He  gave  them  the  key  to  the  Hieroglyphics  of  all  these 
secret  sciences,  which  were  regarded  as  sacred,  and  kept  concealed 
in  the  most  secret  places  of  the  Temple. 

The  great  secrecy  observed  by  the  initiated  Priests,  for  many 
years,  and  the  lofty  sciences  which  they  professed,  caused  them  to 
be  honored  and  respected  throughout  all  Egypt,  which  was  re- 
garded by  other  nations  as  the  college,  the  sanctuary,  of  the  sci- 
ences and  arts.  The  mystery  which  surrounded  them  strongly 
excited  curiosity.  Orpheus  metamorphosed  himself,  so  to  say,  into 
an  Egyptian.  He  was  initiated  into  Theology  and  Physics.  And 
he  so  completely  made  the  ideas  and  reasonings  of  his  teachers  his 
own,  that  his  Hymns  rather  bespeak  an  Egyptian  Priest  than  a 
Grecian  Poet:  and  he  was  the  first  who  carried  into  Greece  the 
Egyptian  fables. 

Pythagoras,  ever  thirsty  for  learning,  consented  even  to  be  cir- 
cumcised, in  order  to  become  one  of  the  Initiates :  and  the  occult 
sciences  were  revealed  to  him  in  the  innermost  part  of  the  sanc- 
tuary. ^  ' 

The  Initiates  in  a  particular  science,  having  been  instructed  by 
fables,  enigmas,  allegories,  and  hieroglyphics,  wrote  mysteriously 
whenever  in  their  works  they  touched  the  subject  of  the  Myste- 
ries, and  continued  to  conceal  science  under  a  veil  of  fictions. 

When  the  destruction  by  Cambyses  of  many  cities,  and  the  ruin 
of  nearly  all  Egypt,  in  the  year  528  before  our  era,  dispersed  most 
of  the  Priests  into  Greece  and  elsewhere,  -they  bore  with  them 
their  sciences,  which  they  continued  to  teach  enigmatically,  that 
is  to  say,  ever  enveloped  in  the  obscurities  of  fables  and  hiero- 
glyphics ;  to  the  end  that  the  vulgar  herd,  seeing,  might  see  noth- 
ing, and  hearing,  might  comprehend  nothing.  All  the  writers 


366  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

drew  from  this  source:  but  these  Mysteries,  concealed  unaer  so 
many  unexplained  envelopes,  ended  in  giving  birth  to  a  swarm  of 
absurdities,  which,  from  Greece,  spread  over  the  whole  earth. 

In  the  Grecian  Mysteries,  as  established  by  Pythagoras,  there 
were  three  Degrees.  A  preparation  of  five  years'  abstinence  and 
silence  was  required.  If  the  candidate  was  found  to  be  passionate 
or  intemperate,  contentious,  or  ambitious  of  worldly  honors  and 
distinctions,  he  was  rejected. 

In  his  lectures,  Pyi  hagoras  taught  the  mathematics,  as  a  me- 
dium whereby  to  prove  the  existence  of  God  from  observation  and 
by  means  of  reason ;  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  logic,  to  cultivate 
and  improve  that  reason,  arithmetic,  because  he  conceived  that 
the  ultimate  benefit  of  man  consisted  in  the  science  of  numbers, 
and  geometry,  music,  and  astronomy,  because  he  conceived  that 
man  is  indebted  to  them  for  a  knowledge  of  what  is  really  good 
and  useful. 

He  taught  the  true  method  of  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  the  Di- 
vine laws  of  purifying  the  soul  from  its  imperfections,  of  search- 
ing for  truth,  and  of  practising  virtue ;  thus  imitating  the  perfec- 
tions of  God.  He  thought  his  system  vain,  if  it  did  not  contribute 
to  expel  vice  and  introduce  virtue  into  the  mind.  He  taught  that 
the  t\vo  most  excellent  things  were,  to  speak  the  truth,  and  to 
render  benefits  to  one  another.  Particularly  he  inculcated  Silence, 
Temperance,  Fortitude,  Prudence,  and  Justice.  He  taught  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  the  Omnipotence  of  God,  and  the  necessity 
of  personal  holiness  to  qualify  a  man  for  admission  into  the 
Society  of  the  Gods. 

Thus  we  owe  the  particular  mode  of  instruction  in  the  Degree 
of  Fellow-Craft  to  Pythagoras ;  and  that  Degree  is  but  an  imper- 
fect reproduction  of  his  lectures.  From  him,  too,  we  have  many 
of  our  explanations  of  the  symbols.  He  arranged  his  assemblies 
due  East  and  West,  because  he  held  that  Motion  began  in  the 
East  and  proceeded  to  the  West.  Our  Lodges  are  said  to  be  due 
East  and  West,  because  the  Master  represents  the  rising  Sun,  and 
of  course  must  be  in  the  East.  The  pyramids,  too,  were  built 
precisely  by  the  four  cardinal  points.  And  our  expression,  that 
our  Lodges  extend  upward  to  the  Heavens,  comes  from  the  Per- 
sian and  Druidic  custom  of  having  to  their  Temples  no  roofs  but 
the  sky. 

Plato  developed  and  spiritualized  the  philosophy  of  Pythagoras. 


CHIEF  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  367 

Even  Eusebius  the  Christian  admits,  that  he  reached  to  the  vesti- 
bule of  Truth,  and  stood  upon  its  threshold. 

The  Druidical  ceremonies  undoubtedly  came  from  India ;  and 
the  Druids  were  originally  Buddhists.  The  word  Druidh,  like 
the  word  Magi,  signifies  wise  or  learned  men  ;  and  they  were  at 
once  philosophers,  magistrates,  and  divines. 

There  was  a  surprising  uniformity  in  the  Temples,  Priests,  doc- 
trines, and  worship  of  the  Persian  Magi  and  British  Druids.  The 
Gods  of  Britain  were  the  same  as  the  Cabiri  of  Samothrace. 
Osiris  and  Isis  appeared  in  their  Mysteries,  under  the  names  of  Hu 
and  Ceridwen ;  and  like  those  of  the  primitive  Persians,  their 
Temples  were  enclosures  of  huge  unhewn  stones,  some  of  which 
still  remain,  and  are  regarded  by  the  common  people  with  fear 
and  veneration.  They  were  generally  either  circular  or  oval. 
Some  were  in  the  shape  of  a  circle  to  which  a  vast  serpent  was 
attached.  The  circle  was  an  Eastern  symbol  of  the  Universe,  gov- 
erned by  an  Omnipotent  Deity  whose  centre  is  everywhere,  and 
his  circumference  nowhere :  and  the  egg  was  an  universal  symbol 
of  the  world.  Some  of  the  Temples  were  winged,  and  some  in 
the  shape  of  a  cross;  the  winged  ones  referring  to  Kneph,  the 
winged  Serpent-Deity  of  Egypt ;  whence  the  name  of  Navestock, 
where  one  of  them  stood.  Temples  in  the  shape  of  a  cross  were 
also  found  in  Ireland  and  Scotland.  The  length  of  one  of  these 
vast  structures,  in  the  shape  of  a  serpent,  was  nearly  three  miles. 

The  grand  periods  for  initiation  into  the  Druidical  Mysteries, 
were  quarterly ;  at  the  equinoxes  and  solstices.  In  the  remote 
times  when  they  originated,  these  were  the  times  corresponding 
with  the  1 3th  of  February,  ist  of  May,  iQth  of  August,  and  ist  of 
November.  The  time  of  annual  celebration  was  May-Eve,  and 
the  ceremonial  preparations  commenced  at  midnight,  on  the  2Qth 
of  April.  When  the  initiations  were  over,  on  May-Eve,  fires  were 
kindled  on  all  the  cairns  and  cromlechs  in  the  island,  which 
burned  all  night  to  introduce  the  sports  of  May-day.  The  festival 
was  in  honor  of  the  Sun.  The  initiations  were  performed  at 
midnight ;  and  there  were  three  Degrees. 

The  Gothic  Mysteries  were  carried  Northward  from  the  East,  by 
Odin ;  who,  being  a  great  warrior,  modelled  and  varied  them  to 
suit  his  purposes  and  the  genius  of  his  people.  He  placed  over 
their  celebration  twelve  Hierophants.who  were  alike  Priests.  Coun- 
sellors of  State. and  Judges  from  whose  decision  there  was  noappeal. 


368  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

He  held  the  numbers  three  and  nine  in  peculiar  veneration, 
and  was  probably  himself  the  Indian  Buddha.  Every  thrice-three 
months,  thrice-three  victims  were  sacrificed  to  the  tri-une  God. 

The  Goths  had  three  great  festivals;  the  most  magnificent  of 
which  commenced  at  the  winter  Solstice,  and  was  celebrated  in 
honor  of  Thor,  the  Prince  of  the  Power  of  the  Air.  That  being 
the  longest  night  in  the  year,  and  the  one  after  which  the  Sun 
comes  Northward,  it  was  commemorative  of  the  Creation ;  and 
they  termed  it  mother-night,  as  the  one  in  which  the  creation  of 
the  world  and  light  from  the  primitive  darkness  took  place.  This 
was  the  Yule,  Jnnl,  or  Yeol  feast,  which  afterward  became  Christ- 
mas. At  this  feast  the  initiations  were  celebrated.  Thor  was  the 
Sun,  the  Egyptian  Osiris  and  Kneph,  the  Phoenician  Bel  or  Baal. 
The  initiations  were  had  in  huge  intricate  caverns,  terminating,  as 
all  the  Mithriac  caverns  did,  in  a  spacious  vault,  where  the  candi- 
date was  brought  to  light. 

Joseph  was  undoubtedly  initiated.  After  he  had  interpreted 
Pharaoh's  dream,  that  Monarch  made  him  his  Prime  Minister,  let 
him  ride  in  his  second  chariot,  while  they  proclaimed  before  him, 
ABRECH  !*  and  set  him  over  the  land  of  Egypt.  In  addition  to 
this,  the  King  gave  him  a  new  name,  Tsapanat-Paanakh,  and 
married  him  to  Asanat,  daughter  of  Potai  Parang,  a  Priest  of  An 
or  Hieropolis,  where  was  the  Temple  of  Athom-Re,  the  Great  God 
of  Egypt ;  thus  completely  naturalizing  him.  He  could  not  have 
contracted  this  marriage,  nor  have  exercised  that  high  dignity, 
without  being  first  initiated  in  the  Mysteries.  When  his  Brethren 
came  to  Egypt  the  second  time,  the  Egyptians  of  his  court  could 
not  eat  with  them,  as  that  would  have  been  abomination,  though 
they  ate  with  Joseph ;  who  was  therefore  regarded  not  as  a  for- 
eigner, but  as  one  of  themselves:  and  when  he  sent  and  brought 
his  brethren  back,  and  charged  them  with  taking  his  cup,  he  said, 
"Know  ye  not  that  a  man  like  me  practises  divination?"  thus 
assuming  the  Egyptian  of  high  rank  initiated  into  the  Mysteries, 
and  as  such  conversant  with  the  occult  sciences. 

So  also  must  Moses  have  been  initiated:  for  he  was  not  only 
brought  up  in  the  court  of  the  King,  as  the  adopted  son  of  the 
King's  daughter,  until  he  was  forty  years  of  age ;  but  he  was  in- 
structed in  all  the  learning  of  the  Egyptians,  and  married  after- 


*An  Egyptian  word,  meaning,  "Bent  down," 


CHIEF    OK    THE    TABERNACLE.  369 

ward  the  daughter  of  Yethru,  a  Priest  of  An  likewise.  Strabo  and 
Diodorus  both  assert  that  he  was  himself  a  Priest  of  Heliopolis. 
Before  he  went  into  the  Desert,  there  were  intimate  relations 
between  him  and  the  Priesthood ;  and  he  had  successfully  com- 
manded, Josephus  informs  us,  an  army  sent  by  the  King  against 
the  Ethiopians.  Simplicius  asserts  that  Moses  received  from  the 
Egyptians,  in  the  Mysteries,  the  doctrines  which  he  taught  to  the 
Hebrews :  and  Clemens  of  Alexandria  and  Philo  say  that  he  was 
a  Theologian  and  Prophet,  and  interpreter  of  the  Sacred  Laws. 
Manetho,  cited  by  Josephus,  says  he  was  a  Priest  of  Heliopolis, 
and  that  his  true  and  original  (Egyptian)  name  was  Asersaph  or 
Osarsiph. 

And  in  the  institution  of  the  Hebrew  Priesthood,  in  the  powers 
and  privileges,  as  well  as  the  immunities  and  sanctity  which  he  con- 
ferred upon  them,  he  closely  imitated  the  Egyptian  institutions ; 
making  public  the  worship  of  that  Deity  whom  the  Egyptian  Ini- 
tiates worshipped  in  private ;  and  strenuously  endeavoring  to  keep 
the  people  from  relapsing  into  their  old  mixture  of  Chaldaic  and 
Egyptian  superstition  and  idol-worship,  as  they  were  ever  ready 
and  inclined  to  do ;  even  Ahariin,  upon  their  first  clamorous  dis- 
content, restoring  the  worship  of  Apis ;  as  an  image  of  which 
Egyptian  God  he  made  the  golden  calf. 

The  Egyptian  Priests  taught  in  their  great  Mysteries,  that  there 
was  one  God,  Supreme  and  Unapproachable,  who  had  conceived 
the  Universe  by  His  Intelligence,  before  He  created  it  by  His 
Power  and  Will.  They  were  no  Materialists  nor  Pantheists ;  but 
taught  that  Matter  was  not  eternal  or  co-existent  with  the  great 
First  Cause,  but  created  by  Him. 

The  early  Christians,  taught  by  the  founder  of  their  Religion, 
but  in  greater  perfection,  those  primitive  truths  that  from  the 
Egyptians  had  passed  to  the  Jews,  and  been  preserved  among 
the  latter  by  the  Essenes,  received  also  the  institution  of  the  Mys- 
teries ;  adopting  as  their  object  the  building  of  the  symbolic  Tem- 
ple, preserving  the  old  Scriptures  of  the  Jews  as  their  sacred  book, 
and  as  the  fundamental  law,  which  furnished  the  new  veil  of 
initiation  with  the  Hebraic  words  and  formulas,  that,  corrupted 
and  disfigured  by  time  and  ignorance,  appear  in  many  of  our 
Degrees. 

Such,  my  Brother,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  first  Degree  of  the 
Mysteries,  or  that  of  Chief  of  the  Tabernacle,  to  which  you  have 


3/O  MORALS    AND    DOGMA. 

now  been  admitted,  and  the  moral  lesson  of  which  is,  devotion  to 
the  service  of  God,  and  disinterested  zeal  and  constant  endeavor 
for  the  welfare  of  men.  You  have  here  received  only  hints  of  the 
true  objects  and  purposes  of  the  Mysteries.  Hereafter,  if  you  are 
permitted  to  advance,  you  will  arrive  at  a  more  complete  under- 
standing of  them  and  of  the  sublime  doctrines  which  they  teach. 
Be  content,  therefore,  with  that  which  you  have  seen  and  heard, 
and  await  patiently  the  advent  of  the  greater  light. 


XXIV. 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 

SYMBOLS  were  the  almost  universal  language  of  ancient  theology. 
They  were  the  most  obvious  method  of  instruction ;  for,  like  na- 
ture herself,  they  addressed  the  understanding  through  the  eye; 
and  the  most  ancient  expressions  denoting  communication  of  re- 
ligious knowledge,  signify  ocular  exhibition.  The  first  teachers 
of  mankind  borrowed  this  method  of  instruction ;  and  it  com- 
prised an  endless  store  of  pregnant  hieroglyphics.  These  lessons 
of  the  olden  time  were  the  riddles  of  the  Sphynx,  tempting  the 
curious  by  their  quaintness,  but  involving  the  personal  risk  of  the 
adventurous  interpreter.  "The  Gods  themselves,"  it  was  said, 
"disclose  their  intentions  to  the  wise,  but  to  fools  their  teaching 
is  unintelligible;"  and  the  King  of  the  Delphic  Oracle  was  said 
not  to  declare,  nor  on  the  other  hand  to  conceal;  but  emphatic- 
ally to  "intimate  or  signify." 

The  Ancient  Sages,  both  barbarian  and  Greek,  involved  their 
meaning  in  similar  indirections  and  enigmas;  their  lessons  were 
conveyed  either  in  visible  symbols,  or  in  those  "parables  and 
dark  sayings  of  old,"  which  the  Israelites  considered  it  a  sacred 
duty  to  hand  down  unchanged  to  successive  generations.  The 
explanatory  tokens  employed  by  man,  whether  emblematical  ob- 
jects or  actions,  symbols  or  mystic  ceremonies,  were  like  the  mys- 
tic signs  and  portents  either  in  dreams  or  by  the  wayside,  supposed 
to  be  significant  of  the  intentions  of  the  Gods ;  both  required  the 
aid  of  anxious  thought  and  skillful  interpretation.  It  was  only  by 
a  correct  appreciation  of  analogous  problems  of  nature,  that  the 
will  of  Heaven  could  be  understood  by  the  Diviner,  or  the  lessons 
of  Wisdom  become  manifest  to  the  Sage. 

The  Mysteries  were  a  series  of  symbols ;  and  what  was  spoken 
there  consisted  wholly  of  accessory  explanations  of  the  act  or  im- 
age ;  sacred  commentaries,  explanatory  of  established  symbols ; 
with  little  of  those  independent  traditions  embodying  physical  or 
moral  speculation,  in  which  the  elements  or  planets  were  the 
37i 


372  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

actors,  and  the  creation  and  revolutions  of  the  world  were  inter- 
mingled with  recollections  of  ancient  events :  and  yet  with  so 
much  of  that  also,  that  nature  became  her  own  expositor  through 
the  medium  of  an  arbitrary  symbolical  instruction ;  and  the 
ancient  views  of  the  relation  between  the  human  and  divine 
received  dramatic  forms. 

There  has  ever  been  an  intimate  alliance  between  the  two  sys- 
tems, the  symbolic  and  the  philosophical,  in  the  allegories  of  the 
monuments  of  all  ages,  in  the  symbolic  writings  of  the  priests  'of 
all  nations,  in  the  rituals  of  all  secret  and  mysterious  societies ; 
there  has  been  a  constant  series,  an  invariable  uniformity  of  prin- 
ciples, which  come  from  an  aggregate,  vast,  imposing,  and  true, 
composed  of  parts  that  fit  harmoniously  only  there. 

Symbolical  instruction  is  recommended  by  the  constant  and 
uniform  usage  of  antiquity ;  and  it  has  retained  its  influence 
throughout  all  ages,  as  a  system  of  mysterious  communication. 
The  Deity,  in  his  revelations  to  man,  adopted  the  use  of  material 
images  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  sublime  truths ;  and  Christ 
taught  by  symbols  and  parables.  The  mysterious  knowledge  of 
the  Druids  was  embodied  in  signs  and  symbols.  Taliesin,  de- 
scribing his  initiation,  says :  "The  secrets  were  imparted  to  me 
by  the  old  Giantess  (Ceridwen,  or  I  sis},  without  the  use  of  audi- 
ble language."  And  again  he  says,  "I  am  a  silent  proficient." 

Initiation  was  a  school,  in  which  were  taught  the  truths  of 
primitive  revelation,  the  existence  and  attributes  of  one  God,  the 
immortality  of  the  Soul,  rewards  and  punishments  in  a  future  life, 
the  phenomena  of  Nature,  the  arts,  the  sciences,  morality,  legis- 
lation, philosophy,  and  philanthropy,  and  what  we  now  style 
psychology  and  metaphysics,  with  animal  magnetism,  and  the 
other  occult  sciences. 

All  the  ideas  of  the  Priests  of  Hindostan,  Persia,  Syria,  Arabia, 
Chaldaea,  Phoenicia,  were  known  to  the  Egyptian  Priests.  The 
rational  Indian  philosophy,  after  penetrating  Persia  and  Chakhea, 
gave  birth  to  the  Egyptian  Mysteries.  We  find  that  the  use  of 
Hieroglyphics  was  preceded  in  Egypt  by  that  of  the  easily  under- 
stood symbols  and  figures,  from  the  mineral,  animal,  and  vegeta- 
ble kingdoms,  used  by  the  Indians,  Persians,  and  Chaldocans  to 
express  their  thoughts  ;  and  this  primitive  philosophy  was  the  basis 
of  the  modern  philosophy  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato. 

All  the  philosophers  and  legislators  that  made  Antiquity  illus- 


PRINCE   OF    THE   TABERNACLE.  373 

trious,  were  pupils  of  the  initiation;  and  all  the  beneficent  modi- 
fications in  the  religions  of  the  different  people  instructed  by  them 
were  owing  to  their  institution  and  extension  of  the  Mysteries. 
In  the  chaos  of  popular  superstitions,  those  Mysteries  alone  kept 
man  from  lapsing  into  absolute  brutishness.  Zoroaster  and  Con- 
fucius drew  their  doctrines  from  the  Mysteries.  Clemens  of  Alex- 
andria, speaking  of  the  Great  Mysteries,  says:  "Here  ends  all 
instruction.  Nature  and  all  things  are  seen  and  known."  Had 
moral  truths  alone  been  taught  the  Initiate,  the  Mysteries  could 
never  have  deserved  nor  received  the  magnificent  eulogiums  of 
the  most  enlightened  men  of  Antiquity, — of  Pindar,  Plutarch, 
Isocrates,  Diodorus,  Plato,  Euripides,  Socrates,  Aristophanes, 
Cicero,  Epictetus,  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  others ; — philosophers 
hostile  to  the  Sacerdotal  Spirit,  or  historians  devoted  to  the  inves- 
tigation of  Truth.  No :  all  the  sciences  were  taught  there ;  and 
those  oral  or  written  traditions  briefly  communicated,  which 
reached  back  to  the  first  age  of  the  world. 

Socrates  said,  in  the  Phasdo  of  Plato:  "It  well  appears  that 
those  who  established  the  Mysteries,  or  secret  assemblies  of  the 
initiated,  were  no  contemptible  personages,  but  men  of  great 
genius,  who  in  the  early  ages  strove  to  teach  us,  under  enigmas, 
that  he  who  shall  go  to  the  invisible  regions  without  being  puri- 
fied, will  be  precipitated  into  the  abyss ;  while  he  who  arrives 
there,  purged  of  the  stains  of  this  world,  and  accomplished  in 
virtue,  will  be  admitted  to  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Deity .  .  .  The 
initiated  are  certain  to  attain  the  company  of  the  Gods." 

Pretextatus,  Proconsul  of  Achaia,  a  man  endowed  with  all  the 
virtues,  said,  in  the  4th  century,  that  to  deprive  the  Greeks  of 
those  Sacred  Mysteries  which  bound  together  the  whole  human 
race,  would  make  life  insupportable. 

Initiation  was  considered  to  be  a  mystical  death ;  a  descent  into 
the  infernal  regions,  where  every  pollution,  and  the  stains  and 
imperfections  of  a  corrupt  and  evil  life  were  purged  away  by  fire 
and  water ;  and  the  perfect  Epopt  was  tfien  said  to  be  regenerated, 
new-born,  restored  to  a  renovated  existence  of  life,  light,  and 
purity;  and  placed  under  the  Divine  Protection. 

A  new  language  was  adapted  to  these  celebrations,  and  also  a  lan- 
guage of  hieroglyphics,  unknown  .to  any  but  those  who  had  re- 
ceived the  highest  Degree.  And  to  them  ultimately  were  confined 
the  learning,  the  morality,  and  the  political  power  of  every  people 

25 


374  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

among  which  the  Mysteries  were  practised.  So  effectually  was  the 
knowledge  of  the  hieroglyphics  of  the  highest  Degree  hidden  from 
all  but  a  favored  few,  that  in  process  of  time  their  meaning  was 
entirely  lost,  and  none  could  interpret  them.  If  the  same  hiero- 
glyphics were  employed  in  the  higher  as  in  the  lower  Degrees,  they 
had  a  different  and  more  abstruse  and  figurative  meaning.  It 
was  pretended,  in  later  times,  that  the  sacred  hieroglyphics  and 
language  were  the  same  that  were  used  by  the  Celestial  Deities. 
Everything  that  could  heighten  the  mystery  of  initiation  was 
added,  until  the  very  name  of  the  ceremony  possessed  a  strange 
charm,  and  yet  conjured  up  the  wildest  fears.  The  greatest  rap- 
ture came  to  be  expressed  by  the  word  that  signified  to  pass 
through  the  Mysteries. 

The  Priesthood  possessed  one  third  of  Egypt.  They  gained 
much  of  their  influence  by  means  of  the  Mysteries,  and  spared  no 
means  to  impress  the  people  with  a  full  sense  of  their  importance. 
They  represented  them  as  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  of  reason 
and  virtue :  the  initiated,  or  esoteric  companions  were  said  to  enter- 
tain the  most  agreeable  anticipations  respecting  death  and  eter- 
nity, to  comprehend  all  the  hidden  mysteries  of  Nature,  to  have 
their  souls  restored  to  the  original  perfection  from  which  man  had 
fallen ;  and  at  their  death  to  be  borne  to  the  celestial  mansions  of 
the  Gods.  The  doctrines  of  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments formed  a  prominent  feature  in  the  Mysteries ;  and  they 
were  also  believed  to  assure  much  temporal  happiness  and  good- 
fortune,  and  afford  absolute  security  against  the  most  imminent 
dangers  by  land  and  sea.  Public  odium  was  cast  on  those  who 
refused  to  be  initiated.  They  were  considered  profane,  unworthy 
of  public  employment  or  private  confidence ;  and  held  to  be 
doomed  to  eternal  punishment  as  impious.  To  betray  the  secrets 
of  the  Mysteries,  to  wear  on  the  stage  the  dress  of  an  Initiate,  or 
to  hold  the  Mysteries  up  to  derision,  was  to  incur  death  at  the 
hands  of  public  vengeance. 

It  is  certain  that  up  to  the  time  of  Cicero,  the  Mysteries  still 
retained  much  of  their  original  character  of  sanctity  and  purity. 
And  at  a  later  day,  as  we  know,  Nero,  after  committing  a  horrible 
crime,  did  not  dare,  even  in  Greece,  to  aid  in  the  celebration  of 
the  Mysteries ;  nor  at  a  still  later  day  was  Constantine,  the  Chris- 
tian Emperor,  allowed  to  do  so.  after  his  murder  of  his  relatives. 

Everywhere, and  in  all  their  forms,  the  Mysteries  were  funereal; 


PRINCE   OF    THE    TABERNACLE.  375 

and  celebrated  the  mystical  death  and  restoration  to  life  of  some 
divine  or  heroic  personage :  and  the  details  of  the  legend  and  the 
mode  of  the  death  varied  in  the  different  Countries  where  the 
Mysteries  were  practised. 

Their  explanation  belongs  both  to  astronomy  and  mythology, 
and  the  Legend  of  the  Master's  Degree  is  but  another  form  of  that 
of  the  Mysteries,  reaching  back,  in  one  shape  or  other,  to  the 
remotest  antiquity. 

Whether  Egypt  originated  the  legend,  or  borrowed  it  from  India 
or  Chaldaea,  it  is  now  impossible  to  know.  But  the  Hebrews 
received  the  Mysteries  from  the  Egyptians ;  and  of  course  were 
familiar  with  their  legend, — known  as  it  was  to  those  Egyptian 
Initiates,  Joseph  and  Moses.  It  was  the  fable  (or  rather  the  truth 
clothed  in  allegory  and  figures)  of  OSIRIS,  the  Sun,  Source  of  Light 
and  Principle  of  Good,  and  TYPHON,  the  Principle  of  Darkness 
and  Evil.  In  all  the  histories  of  the  Gods  and  Heroes  lay  couched 
and  hidden  astronomical  details  and  the  history  of  the  operations 
of  visible  Nature;  and  those  in  their  turn  were  also  symbols  of 
higher  and  profounder  truths.  None  but  rude  uncultivated 
intellects  could  long  consider  the  Sun  and  Stars  and  the  Powers 
of  Nature  as  Divine,  or  as  fit  objects  of  Human  Worship ;  and  they 
will  consider  them  so  while  the  world  lasts ;  and  ever  remain 
ignorant  of  the  great  Spiritual  Truths  of  which  these  are  the 
hieroglyphics  and  expressions. 

A  brief  summary  of  the  Egyptian  legend  will  serve  to  show  the 
leading  idea  on  which  the  Mysteries  among  the  Hebrews  were 
based. 

Osiris,  said  to  have  been  an  ancient  King  of  Egypt,  was  the 
Sun;  and  Isis,  his  wife,  the  Moon:  and  his  history  recounts,  in 
poetical  and  figurative  style,  the  annual  journey  of  the  Grer.c 
Luminary  of  Heaven  through  the  different  Signs  of  the  Zodiac. 

In  the  absence  of  Osiris,  Typhon,  his  brother,  filled  with  envy 
and  malice,  sought  to  usurp  hi.s  throne ;  but  his  plans  were  frus- 
trated by  Isis.  Then  he  resolved  to  kill  Osiris.  This  he  d'd,  by 
persuading  him  to  enter  a  coffin  or  sarcophagus,  which  he  then 
flung  into  the  Nile.  After  a  long  search,  Isis  found  the  body,  and 
concealed  it  in  the  depths  of  a  forest ;  but  Typhon,  finding  it  there, 
cut  it  into  fourteen  pieces,  and  scattered  them  hither  and  thither. 
After  tedious  search,  Isis  found  thirteen  pieces,  the  fishes  having 
eaten  the  other  (the  privates),  which  she  replaced  of  wood,  and 


376  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

buried  the  body  at  Philae;  where  a  temple  of  surpassing  magnifi- 
cence was  erected  in  honor  of  Osiris. 

Isis,  aided  by  her  son  Orus,  Horus  or  Har-oeri,  warred  against 
Typhon,  slew  him,  reigned  gloriously,  and  at  her  death  was  re- 
united to  her  husband,  in  the  same  tomb. 

Typhon  was  represented  as  born  of  the  earth ;  the  upper  part  of 
his  body  covered  with  feathers,  in  stature  reaching  the  clouds,  his 
arms  and  legs  covered  with  scales,  serpents  darting  from  him  on 
every  side,  and  fire  flashing  from  his  mouth.  Horus,  who  aided  in 
slaying  him,  became  the  God  of  the  Sun,  answering  to  the  Grecian 
Apollo;  and  Typhon  is  but  the  anagram  of  Python,  the  great 
serpent  slain  by  Apollo. 

The  word  Typhon,  like  Eve,  signifies  a  serpent,  and  life.*  By 
its  form  the  serpent  symbolizes  life,  which  circulates  through  all 
nature.  When,  toward  the  end  of  autumn,  the  Woman  (Virgo), 
in  the  constellations  seems  (upon  the  Chaldzean  sphere)  to  crush 
with  her  heel  the  head  of  the  serpent,  this  figure  foretells  the 
coming  of  winter,  during  which  life  seems  to  retire  from  all  beings, 
and  no  longer  to  circulate  through  nature.  This  is  why  Typhon 
signifies  also  a  serpent,  the  symbol  of  winter,  which,  in  the  Catholic 
Temples,  is  represented  surrounding  the  Terrestrial  Globe,  which 
surmounts  the  heavenly  cross,  emblem  of  redemption.  If  the  word 
Typhon  is  derived  from  Tuponl,  it  signifies  a  tree  which  produces 
apples  (mala,  evils),  the  Jewish  origin  of  the  fall  of  man.  Typhon 
means  also  one  who  supplants,  and  signifies  the  human  passions, 
which  expel  from  our  hearts  the  lessons  of  wisdom.  In  the  Egyp- 
tian Fable,  Isis  wrote  the  sacred  word  for  the  instruction  of  men, 
and  Typhon  efifaced  it  as  fast  as  she  wrote  it.  In  morals,  his  name 
signifies  Pride,  Ignorance,  and  Falsehood. 

When  Isis  first  found  the  body,  where  it  had  floated  ashore  near 
Byblos,  a  shrub  of  erica  or  tamarisk  near  it  had,  by  the  virtue  of 
the  body,  shot  up  into  a  tree  around  it,  and  protected  it ;  and 
hence  our  sprig  of  acacia.  Isis  was  also  aided  in  her  search  by 
Anubis,  in  the  shape  of  a  dog.  He  was  Sirius  or  the  Dog-Star, 
the  friend  and  counsellor  of  Osiris,  and  the  inventor  of  language, 
grammar,  astronomy,  surveying,  arithmetic,  music,  and  medical 
science ;  the  first  maker  of  laws ;  and  who  taught  the  worship  of 
the  Gods,  and  the  building  of  Temples. 

Tsapanai,  in  Hebrew,  means  a  serpent. 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  377 

In  the  Mysteries,  the  nailing  up  of  the  body  of  Osiris  in  the 
chest  or  ark  was  termed  the  aphanism,  or  disappearance  fof  the 
Sun  at  the  Winter  Solstice,  below  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn],  and 
the  recovery  of  the  different  parts  of  his  body  by  Isis,  the  Enresis, 
or  finding.  The  candidate  went  through  a  ceremony  representing 
this,  in  all  the  Mysteries  everywhere.  The  main  facts  in  the  fable 
were  the  same  in  all  countries;  and  the  prominent  Deities  were 
everywhere  a  male  and  a  female. 

In  Egypt  they  were  Osiris  and  Isis :  in  India,  Mahadeva  and 
Bhavani :  in  Phoenicia,  Thammuz  (or  Adonis)  and  Astarte : 
in  Phrygia,  Atys  and  Cybele :  in  Persia,  Mithras  and  Asis:  in 
Samothrace  and  Greece.  Dionusos  or  Sabazeus  and  Rhea :  in 
Britain,  Hu  and  Ceridwen :  and  in  Scandinavia,  Woden  and  Frea : 
and  in  every  instance  these  Divinities  represented  the  Sun  and 
the  Moon. 

The  Mysteries  of  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus,  seem  to  have  been  the 
model  of  all  other  ceremonies  of  initiation  subsequently  estab- 
lished among  the  different  peoples  of  the  world.  Those  of 
Atys  and  Cybele,  celebrated  in  Phrygia ;  those  of  Ceres  and  Pro- 
serpine, at  Eleusis  and  many  other  places  in  Greece,  were  but 
copies  of  them.  This  we  learn  from  Plutarch,  Diodorus  Siculus, 
Lactantius,  and  other  writers ;  and  in  the  absence  of  direct  testi- 
mony should  necessarily  infer  it  from  the  similarity  of  the  adven- 
tures of  these  Deities ;  for  the  ancients  held  that  the  Ceres  of  the 
Greeks  was  the  same  as  the  Isis  of  the  Egyptians ;  and  Dionusos 
or  Bacchus  as  Osiris. 

In  the  legend  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  as  given  by  Plutarch,  are  many 
details  and  circumstances  other  than  those  that  we  have  briefly 
mentioned ;  and  all  of  which  we  need  not  repeat  here.  Osiris 
married  his  sister  Isis ;  and  labored  publicly  with  her  to  ameliorate 
the  lot  of  men.  He  taught  them  agriculture,  while  Isis  invented 
laws.  He  built  temples  to  the  Gods,  and  established  their  worship. 
Both  were  the  patrons  of  artists  and  their  useful  inventions ;  and 
introduced  the  use  of  iron  for  defensive  weapons  and  implements 
of  agriculture,  and  of  gold  to  adorn  the  temples  of  the  Gods.  He 
went  forth  with  an  army  to  conquer  men  to  civilization,  teaching 
the  people  whom  he  overcame  to  plant  the  vine  and  sow  grain 
for  food. 

Typhon.  his  brother,  slew  him  when  the  sun  was  in  the  sign  of 
the  Scorpion,  that  is  to  say,  at  the  Autumnal  Equinox,  They  had 


378  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

been  rival  claimants,  says  Synesius,  for  the  throne  of  Egypt,  as 
Light  and  Darkness  contend  ever  for  the  empire  of  the  world. 
Plutarch  adds,  that  at  the  time  when  Osiris  was  slain,  the  moon 
was  at  its  full ;  and  therefore  it  was  in  the  sign  opposite  the 
Scorpion,  that  is,  the  Bull,  the  sign  of  the  Vernal  Equinox. 

Plutarch  assures  us  that  it  was  to  represent  these  events  and 
details  that  Isis  established  the  Mysteries,  in  which  they  were  re- 
produced by  iir.ages,  symbols,  and  a  religious  ceremonial,  whereby 
they  were  imitated :  and  in  which  lessons  of  piety  were  given,  and 
consolations  under  the  misfortunes  that  afflict  us  here  below. 
Those  who  instituted  these  Mysteries  meant  to  strengthen  religion 
jind  console  men  in  their  sorrows  by  the  lofty  hopes  found  in  a 
religious  faith,  whose  principles  were  represented  to  them  covered 
by  a  pompous  ceremonial,  and  under  the  sacred  veil  of  allegory. 

Diodorus  speaks  of  the  famous  columns  erected  near  Nysa,  in 
Arabia,  where,  it  was  said,  were  two  of  the  tombs  of  Osiris  and 
Isis.  On  one  was  this  inscription :  "I  am  Isis,  Queen  of  this 
country.  I  was  instructed  by  Mercury.  No  one  can  destroy  the 
laws  which  I  have  established.  I  am  the  eldest  daughter  of 
Saturn,  most  ancient  of  the  Gods.  I  am  the  wife  and  sister  of 
Osiris  the  King.  I  first  made  known  to  mortals  the  use  of  wheat. 
I  am  the  mother  of  Orus  the  King.  In  my  honor  was  the  city  of 
Bubaste  built.  Rejoice,  O  Egypt,  rejoice,  land  that  gave  me 
birth !"  .  .  .  And  on  the  other  was  this :  "I  am  Osiris  the  King, 
who  led  my  armies  into  all  parts  of  the  world,  to  the  most  thickly 
inhabited  countries  of  India,  the  North,  the  Danube,  and  the 
Ocean.  I  am  the  eldest  son  of  Saturn :  I  was  born  of  the  brilliant 
and  magnificent  egg,  and  my  substance  is  of  the  same  nature  as 
that  which  composes  light.  There  is  no  place  in  the  Universe 
where  I  have  not  appeared,  to  bestow  my  benefits  and  make  known 
my  discoveries."  The  rest  was  illegible. 

To  aid  her  in  the  search  for  the  body  of  Osiris,  and  to  nurse  her 
infant  child  Horus.  Isis  sought  out  and  took  with  her  Anubis,  son 
of  Osiris,  and  his  sister  Nephte.  He,  as  we  have  said,  was  Sinus, 
the  brightest  star  in  the  Heavens.  After  finding  him.  she  went  to 
Byblos,  and  seated  herself  near  a  fountain,  where  she  had  learned 
that  the  sacred  chest  had  stopped  which  contained  the  body  of 
Osiris.  There  she  sat.  sad  and  silent,  shedding  a  torrent  of  tears. 
Thither  came  the  women  of  the  Court  of  Queen  Astarte.  and  she 
spoke  to  them,  and  dressed  their  hair,  pouring  upon  it  deliciously 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  379 

perfumed  ambrosia.  This  known  to  the  Queen,  Isis  was  engaged 
as  nurse  for  her  child,  in  the  palace,  one  of  the  columns  of  which 
was  made  of  the  erica  or  tamarisk,  that  had  grown  up  over  the 
chest  containing  Osiris,  cut  down  by  the  King,  and  unknown  to 
him,  still  enclosing  the  chest :  which  column  Isis  afterward 
demanded,  and  from  it  extracted  the  chest  and  the  body,  which, 
the  latter  wrapped  in  thin  drapery  and  perfumed,  she  .carried  away 
with  her. 

Blue  Masonry,  ignorant  of  its  import,  still  retains  among  its  em- 
blems one  of  a  woman  weeping  over  a  broken  column,  holding  in 
her  hand  a  branch  of  acacia,  myrtle,  or  tamarisk,  while  Time,  we 
are  told,  stands  behind  her  combing  out  the  ringlets  of  her  hair. 
We  need  not  repeat  the  vapid  and  trivial  explanation  there  given,  of 
this  representation  of  Isis,  weeping  at  Byblos,  over  the  column 
torn  from  the  palace  of  the  King,  that  contained  the  body  of 
Osiris,  while  Horus,  the  God  of  Time,  pours  ambrosia  on  her 
hair. 

Nothing  of  this  recital  was  historical ;  but  the  whole  was  an 
allegory  or  sacred  fable,  containing  a  meaning  known  only  to 
those  who  were  initiated  into  the  Mysteries.  All  the  incidents 
were  astronomical,  with  a  meaning  still  deeper  lying  behind  that 
explanation,  and  so  hidden  by  a  double  veil.  The  Mysteries,  in 
which  these  incidents  were  represented  and  explained,  were  like 
those  of  Eleusis  in  their  object,  of  which  Pausanias,  who  was  ini- 
tiated, says  that  the  Greeks,  from  the  remotest  antiquity,  regarded 
them  as  the  best  calculated  of  all  things  to  lead  men  to  piety :  and 
Aristotle  says  they  were  the  most  valuable  of  all  religious  institu- 
tions, and  thus  were  called  mysteries  par  excellence;  and  the 
Temple  of  Eleusis  was  regarded  as,  in  some  sort,  the  common 
sanctuary  of  the  whole  earth,  where  religion  had  brought  together 
all  that  was  most  imposing  and  most  august. 

The  object  of  all  the  Mysteries  was  to  inspire  men  with  piety, 
and  to  console  them  in  the  miseries  of  life.  That  consolation,  so 
afforded,  was  the  hope  of  a  happier  future,  and  of  passing,  after 
death,  to  a  state  of  eternal  felicity. 

Cicero  says  that  the  Initiates  not  only  received  lessons  which 
made  life  more  agreeable,  but  drew  from  the  ceremonies  happy 
hopes  for  the  moment  of  death.  Socrates  says  that  those  who  were 
so  fortunate  as  to  be  admitted  to  the  Mysteries,  possessed,  when 
dying,  the  most  glorious  hopes  for  eternity.  Aristides  says  that 


380  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

they  not  only  procure  the  Initiates  consolations  in  the  present  life, 
and  means  of  deliverance  from  the  great  weight  of  their  evils,  but 
also  the  precious  advantage  of  passing  after  death  to  a  happier 
state. 

Isis  was  the  Goddess  of  Sais ;  and  the  famous  Feast  of  Lights 
was  celebrated  there  in  her  honor.  There  were  celebrated  the 
Mysteries,  in.  which  were  represented  the  death  and  subsequent 
restoration  to  life  of  the  God  Osiris,  in  a  secret  ceremony  and 
scenic  representation  of  his  sufferings,  called  the  Mysteries  of 
Night. 

The  Kings  of  Egypt  often  exercised  the  functions  of  the  Priest- 
hood ;  and  they  were  initiated  into  the  sacred  science  as  soon 
as  they  attained  the  throne.  So  at  Athens,  the  First  Magis- 
trate, or  Archon-King,  superintended  the  Mysteries.  This  was  an 
image  of  the  union  that  existed  between  the  Priesthood  and  Roy- 
alty, in  those  early  times  when  legislators  and  kings  sought  in 
religion  a  potent  political  instrument. 

Herodotus  says,  speaking  of  the  reasons  why  animals  were  dei- 
fied in  Egypt:  "If  I  were  to  explain  these  reasons,  I  should  be 
led  to  the  disclosure  of  those  holy  matters  which  I  particularly 
wish  to  avoid,  and  which,  but  from  necessity,  I  should  not  have 
discussed  at  all."  So  he  says,  "The  Egyptians  have  at  Sais  the 
tomb  of  a  certain  personage,  whom  I  do  not  think  myself  permit- 
ted to  specify.  It  is  behind  the  Temple  of  Minerva."  [The  lat- 
ter, so  called  by  the  Greeks,  was  really  Isis,  whose  was  the 
often-cited  enigmatical  inscription,  "I  am  what  was  and  is  and  is 
to  come.  No  mortal  hath  yet  unveiled  me."]  So  again  he  says: 
"Upon  this  lake  are  represented  by  night  the  accidents  which 
happened  to  him  whom  I  dare  not  name.  The  Egyptians  call 
them  their  Mysteries.  Concerning  these,  at  the  same  time  that  I 
confess  myself  sufficiently  informed,  I  feel  myself  compelled  to  be 
silent.  Of  the  ceremonies  also  in  honor  of  Ceres,  I  may  not  ven- 
ture to  speak,  further  than  the  obligations  of  religion  will  allow  me." 

It  is  easy  to  see  what  was  the  great  object  of  initiation  and  the 
Mysteries ;  whose  first  and  greatest  fruit  was,  as  all  the  ancients 
testify,  to  civilize  savage  hercles,  to  soften  their  ferocious  manners, 
to  introduce  among  them  social  intercourse,  and  lead  them  into  a 
way  of  life  more  worthy  of  men.  Cicero  considers  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  to  be  the  greatest  of  all  the  ben- 
efits conferred  by  Athens  on  other  commonwealths ;  their  effects 


PRINCE   OF   THE   TABERNACLE.  381 

having  been,  he  says,  to  civilize  men,  soften  their  savage  and  fero- 
cious manners,  and  teach  them  the  true  principles  of  morals, 
which  initiate  man  into  the  only  kind  of  life  worthy  of  him. 
The  same  philosophic  orator,  in  a  passage  where  he  apostrophizes 
Ceres  and  Proserpine,  says  that  mankind  owes  these  Goddesses  the 
first  elements  of  moral  life,  as  well  as  the  first  means  of  sustenance 
of  physical  life;  knowledge  of  the  laws,  regulation  of  morals,  and 
those  examples  of  civilization  which  have  improved  the  manners 
of  men  and  cities. 

Bacchus  in  Euripides  says  to  Pentheus,  that  his  new  institution 
(the  Dionysiac  Mysteries)  deserved  to  be  known,  and  that  one  of 
its  great  advantages,  was,  that  it  proscribed  all  impurity:  that 
these  were  the  Mysteries  of  Wisdom,  of  which  it  would  be  impru- 
dent to  speak  to  persons  not  initiated:  that  they  were  established 
among  the  Barbarians,  who  in  that  showed  greater  wisdom  than 
the  Greeks,  who  had  not  yet  received  them. 

This  double  object,  political  and  religious, — one  teaching  our 
duty  to  men,  and  the  other  what  we  owe  to  the  Gods ;  or  rather, 
respect  for  the  Gods  calculated  to  maintain  that  which  we  owe  the 
laws,  is  found  in  that  well-known  verse  of  Virgil,  borrowed  by  him 
from  the  ceremonies  of  initiation :  "Teach  me  to  respect  Justice 
and  the  Gods."  This  great  lesson,  which  the  Hierophant 
impressed  on  the  Initiates,  after  they  had  witnessed  a  representa- 
tion of  the  Infernal  regions,  the  Poet  places  after  his  description 
of  the  different  punishments  suffered  by  the  wicked  in  Tartarus, 
and  immediately  after  the  description  of  that  of  Sisyphus. 

Pausanias,  likewise,  at  the  close  of  the  representation  of  the 
punishments  of  Sisyphus  and  the  daughters  of  Danaus,  in  the 
Temple  at  Delphi,  makes  this  reflection ;  that  the  crime  or  im- 
piety •which  in  them  had  chiefly  merited  this  punishment,  was 
the  contempt  which  they  had  shown  for  the  Mysteries  of  Eleusis. 
From  this  reflection  of  Pausanias,  who  was  an  Initiate,  it  is  easy  to 
'see  that  the  Priests  of  Eleusis,  who  taught  the  dogma  of  punish- 
ment in  Tartarus,  included  among  the  great  crimes  deserving 
these  punishments,  contempt  for  and  disregard  of  the  Holy  Mys- 
teries;  whose  object  was  to  lead  men  to  piety,  and  thereby  to 
respect  for  justice  and  the  laws,  chief  object  of  their  institution,  if 
not  the  only  one,  and  to  which  the  needs  and  interest  of  religion 
itself  were  subordinate ;  since  the  latter  was  but  a  means  to  lead 
more  surely  to  the  former ;  for  the  whole  force  of  religious  opin- 


32  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

ions  being  in  the  hands  of  the  legislators  to  be  wielded,  they  were 
sure  of  being  better  obeyed. 

The  Mysteries  were  not  mereiy  simple  lustrations  and  the  obser- 
vation of  some  arbitrary  formulas  and  ceremonies ;  nor  a  means  of 
reminding  men  of  the  ancient  condition  of  the  race  prior  to  civili- 
zation :  but  they  led  men  to  piety  by  instruction  in  morals  and 
as  to  a  future  life;  which  at  a  very  early  day,  if  not  originally, 
formed  the  chief  portion  of  the  ceremonial. 

Symbols  wero  used  in  the  ceremonies,  which  referred  to  agricul- 
ture, as  Masonry  has  preserved  the  ear  of  wheat  in  a  symbol  and 
in  one  of  her  words  ;  but  their  principal  reference  was  to  astronom- 
ical phenomena.  Much  was  no  doubt  said  as  to  the  condition 
of  brutality  and  degradation  in  which  man  was  sunk  before  the 
institution  of  the  Mysteries ;  but  the  allusion  was  rather  meta- 
physical, to  the  ignorance  of  the  uninitiated,  than  to  the  wild  life 
of  the  earliest  men. 

The  great  object  of  the  Mysteries  of  Isis,  and  in  general  of  all 
the  Mysteries,  was  a  great  and  truly  politic  one.  It  was  to  ameli- 
orate our  race,  to  perfect  its  manners  and  morals,  and  to  restrain 
society  by  stronger  bonds  than  those  that  human  laws  impose. 
They  were  the  invention  of  that  ancient  science  and  wisdom  which 
exhausted  all  its  resources  to  make  legislation  perfect ;  and  of  that 
philosophy  which  has  ever  sought  to  secure  the  happiness  of  man, 
by  purifying  his  soul  from  the  passions  which  can  trouble  it,  and 
as  a  necessary  consequence  introduce  social  disorder.  And  that 
they  were  the  work  of  genius  is  evident  from  their  employment  of 
all  the  sciences,  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  and 
the  means  cf  subduing  it. 

It  is  a  still  greater  mistake  to  imagine  that  they  were  the  inven- 
tions of  charlatanism,  and  means  of  deception.  They  ma}'  in  thj 
lapse  of  time  have  degenerated  into  imposture  and  schools  of  false 
ideas ;  but  they  were  not  so  at  the  beginning ;  or  else  the  wisest 
and  best  men  of  antiquity  have  uttered  the  most  willful  falsehoods. 
In  process  of  time  the  very  allegories  of  the  Mysteries  themselves. 
Tartarus  and  its  punishments.  Minos  and  the  other  judges  of  the 
dead,  came  to  be  misunderstood,  arid  to  be  false  because  they  were 
so ;  while  at  first  they  were  true,  because  they  were  recognized  as 
merely  the  arbitrary  forms  in  which  truths  were  enveloped. 

The  object  of  the  Mysteries  was  to  procure  for  man  a  real  felic- 
ity on  earth  by  the  means  of  virtue ;  and  to  that  end  he  was 


PRINCE    OF    THE    TABERNACLE.  383 

taught  that  his  soul  was  immortal ;  and  that  error,  sin,  and  vice 
must  needs,  by  an  inflexible  law,  produce  their  consequences.  The 
rude  representation  of  physical  torture  in  Tartarus  was  but  an 
image  of  the  certain,  unavoidable,  eternal  consequences  that  flow 
by  the  law  of  God's  enactment  from  the  sin  committed  and  the 
vice  indulged  in.  The  poets  and  mystagogues  labored  to  propa- 
gate these  doctrines  of  the  soul's  immortality  and  the  certain  pun- 
ishment of  sin  and  vice,  and  to  accredit  them  with  the  people,  by 
teaching  them  the  former  in  their  poems,  and  the  latter  in  the 
sanctuaries ;  and  they  clothed  them  with  the  charms,  the  one  of 
poetry,  and  the  other  of  spectacles  and  magic  illusions. 

They  painted,  aided  by  all  the  resources  of  art,  the  virtuous 
man's  happy  life  after  death,  and  the  horrors  of  the  frightful  pris- 
ons destined  to  punish  the  vicious.  In  the  shades  of  the  sanctua- 
ries, these  delights  and  horrors  were  exhibited  as  spectacles,  and 
the  Initiates  witnessed  religious  dramas,  under  the  name  of  initia- 
tion and  mysteries.  Curiosity  was  excited  by  secrecy,  by  the  dif- 
ficulty experienced  in  obtaining  admission,  and  by  the  tests  to  be 
undergone.  The  candidate  was  amused  by  the  variety  of  the 
scenery,  the  pomp  of  the  decorations,  the  appliances  of  ma- 
chinery. Respect  was  inspired  by  the  gravity  and  dignity  of  the 
actors  and  the  majesty  of  the  ceremonial ;  and  fear  and  hope,  sad- 
ness and  delight,  were  in  turns  excited. 

The  Hierophants,  men  of  intellect,  and  well  understanding  the 
disposition  of  the  people  and  the  art  of  controlling  them,  used 
every  appliance  to  attain  that  object,  and  give  importance  and  im- 
pressiveness  to  their  ceremonies.  As  they  covered  those  ceremo- 
nies with  the  veil  of  Secrecy,  so  they  preferred  that  Night  should 
cover  them  with  its  wings.  Obscurity  adds  to  impressiveness,  and 
assists  illusion  ;  and  they  used  it  to  produce  an  effect  upon  the 
astonished  Initiate.  The  ceremonies  were  conducted  in  caverns 
dimly  lighted :  thick  groves  were  planted  around  the  Temples,  to 
produce  that  gloom  that  impresses  the  mind  with  a  religious 
awe. 

The  very  word  mystery,  according  to  Demetrius  Phalereus,  was 
a  metaphorical  expression  that  denoted  the  secret  awe  which  dark- 
ness and  gloom  inspired.  The  night  was  almost  always  the  time 
fixed  for  their  celebration ;  and  they  were  ordinarily  termed  noc- 
turnal ceremonies.  Initiations  into  the  Mysteries  of  Samothrace 
took  place  at  night :  as  d;d  those  of  Tsis,  of  which  Apuleius  speaks. 


384  MORALS    A.ND   DOGMA. 

Euripides  makes  Bacchus  say,  that  his  Mysteries  were  celebrated 
at  night,  because  there  is  in  night  something  august  and  im- 
posing. 

Nothing  excites  men's  curiosity  so  much  as  Mystery,  concealing 
things  which  they  desire  to  know :  and  nothing  so  much  increases 
curiosity  as  obstacles  that  interpose  to  prevent  them  from  indulg- 
ing in  the  gratification  of  their  desires.  Of  this  the  Legislators 
and  Hierophants  took  advantage,  to  attract  the  people  to  their 
sanctuaries,  and  to  induce  them  to  seek  to  obtain  lessons  from 
which  they  would  perhaps  have  turned  away  with  indifference,  if 
they  had  been  pressed  upon  them.  In  this  spirit  of  mystery  they 
professed  to  imitate  the  Deity,  who  hides  Himself  from  our  senses, 
and  conceals  from  us  the  springs  by  which  He  moves  the  Universe. 
They  admitted  that  they  concealed  the  highest  truths  under  the 
veil  of  allegory,  the  more  to  excite  the  curiosity  of  men,  and  to 
urge  them  to  investigation.  The  secrecy  in  which  they  buried 
their  Mysteries,  had  that  end.  Those  to  whom  they  were  con- 
fided, bound  themselves,  by  the  most  fearful  oaths,  never  to  reveal 
them.  They  were  not  allowed  even  to  speak  of  these  important 
secrets  with  any  others  than  the  initiated ;  and  the  penalty  of 
death  was  pronounced  against  any  one  indiscreet  enough  to  reveal 
them,  or  found  in  the  Temple  without  being  an  Initiate ;  and  any 
one  who  had  betrayed  those  secrets,  was  avoided  by  all,  as  excom- 
municated. 

Aristotle  was  accused  of  impiety,  by  the  Hierophant  Euryme- 
don,  for  having  sacrificed  to  the  manes  of  his  wife,  according  to 
the  rite  used  in  the  worship  of  Ceres.  He  was  compelled  to  flee 
to  Chalcis ;  and  to  purge  his  memory  from  this  stain,  he  directed, 
by  his  will,  the  erection  of  a  Statue  to  th?t  Goddess.  Socrates, 
dying,  sacrificed  to  Esculapius,  to  exculpate  himself  from  the  sus- 
picion of  Atheism.  A  price  was  set  on  the  head  of  Diagoras,  be- 
cause he  had  divulged  the  Secret  of  the  Mysteries.  Andocide.s 
was  accused  of  the  same  crime,  as  was  Alcibiades,  and  both  were 
cited  to  answer  the  charge  before  the  inquisition  at  Athens,  where 
the  People  were  the  Judges.  ^Eschylus  the  Tragedian  was  accused 
of  having  represented  the  Mysteries  on  the  stage  ;  and  was  acquit- 
ted only  on  proving  that  he  had  never  been  initiated. 

Seneca,  comparing  Philosophy  to  initiation,  says  that  the  most 
sacred  ceremonies  could  be  known  to  the  adepts  alone :  but  that 
many  of  their  precepts  were  known  even  to  the  Profane.  Such 


PRINCE   OF   THE   TABERNACLE.  385 

was  the  case  with  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life,  and  a  state  of  re- 
wards and  punishments  beyond  the  grave.  The  ancient  legislators 
clothed  this  doctrine  in  the  pomp  of  a  mysterious  ceremony,  in 
mystic  words  and  magical  representations,  to  impress  upon  the 
mind  the  truths  they  taught,  by  the  strong  influence  of  such 
scenic  displays  upon  the  senses  and  imagination. 

In  the  same  way  they  taught  the  origin  of  the  soul,  its  fall  to 
the  earth  past  the  spheres  and  through  the  elements,  and  its  final 
return  to  the  place  of  its  origin,  when,  during  the  continuance  of 
its  union  with  earthly  matter,  the  sacred  fire,  which  formed  its 
essence,  had  contracted  no  stains,  and  its  brightness  had  not  been 
marred  by  foreign  particles,  which,  denaturalizing  it,  weighed  it 
down  and  delayed  its  return.  These  metaphysical  ideas,  with  diffi- 
culty comprehended  by  the  mass  of  the  Initiates,  were  represented 
by  figures,  by  symbols,  and  by  allegorical  analogies ;  no  idea  being 
so  abstract  that  men  do  not  seek  to  give  it  expression  by,  and 
translate  it  into,  sensible  images. 

The  attraction  of  Secrecy  was  enhanced  by  the  difficulty  of  ob- 
taining admission.  Obstacles  and  suspense  redoubled  curiosity. 
Those  who  aspired  to  the  initiation  of  the  Sun  and  in  the  Myste- 
ries of  Mithras  in  Persia,  underwent  many  trials.  They  com- 
menced by  easy  tests  and  arrived  by  degrees  at  those  that  were 
most  cruel,  in  which  the  life  of  the  candidate  was  often  endan- 
gered. Gregory  Nazianzen  terms  them  tortures  and  mystic  pun- 
ishments. No  one  can  be  initiated,  says  Suidas,  until  after  he  has 
proven,  by  the  most  terrible  trials,  that  he  possesses  a  virtuous 
soul,  exempt  from  the  sway  of  every  passion,  and  as  it  were  im- 
passible. There  were  twelve  principal  tests ;  and  some  make  the 
number  larger. 

The  trials  of  the  Eleusinian  initiations  were  not  so  terrible ;  but 
they  were  severe ;  and  the  suspense,  above  all,  in  which  the  aspi- 
rant was  kept  for  several  years  [the  memory  of  which  is  retained 
in  Masonry  by  the  ages  of  those  of  the  different  Degrees], 
or  the  interval  between  admission  to  the  inferior  and  initiation  in 
the  great  Mysteries,  was  a  species  of  torture  to  the  curiosity  which 
it  was  desired  to  excite.  Thus  the  Egyptian  Priests  tried  Pythago- 
ras before  admitting  him  to  know  the  secrets  of  the  sacred  science. 
He  succeeded,  by  his  incredible  patience  and  the  courage  with 
which  he  surmounted  all  obstacles,  in  obtaining  admission  to  their 
society  and  receiving  their  lessons.  Amonc^  the  Jews,  the  Essenes 


386  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

admitted  none  among  them,  until  they  had  passed  the  tests  of  sev- 
eral Degrees. 

By  initiation,  those  who  before  were  fellow-citizens  only,  became 
brothers,  connected  by  a  closer  bond  than  before,  by  means  of  a 
religious  fraternity,  which,  bringing  men  nearer  together,  united 
them  more  strongly :  and  the  weak  and  the  poor  could  more  read- 
ily appeal  for  assistance  to  the  powerful  and  the  wealthy,  with 
whom  religious  association  gave  them  a  closer  fellowship. 

The  Initiate  was  regarded  as  the  favorite  of  the  Gods.  For  him 
alone  Heaven  opened  its  treasures.  Fortunate  during  life,  he 
could,  by  virtue  and  the  favor  of  Heaven,  promise  himself  after 
death  an  eternal  felicity. 

The  Priests  of  the  Island  of  Samothrace  promised  favorable 
winds  and  prosperous  voyages  to  those  who  were  initiated.  It  was 
promised  them  that  the  CABIRI,  and  Castor  and  Pollux,  the  DI- 
OSCURI, should  appear  to  them  when  the  storm  raged,  and  give 
them  calms  and  smooth  seas :  and  the  Scholiast  of  Aristophanes 
says  that  those  initiated  in  the  Mysteries  there  were  just  men,  who 
were  privileged  to  escape  from  great  evils  and  tempests. 

The  Initiate  in  the  Mysteries  of  Orpheus,  after  he  was  purified, 
was  considered  as  released  from  the  empire  of  evil,  and  transferred 
to  a  condition  of  life  which  gave  him  the  happiest  hopes.  "I  have 
emerged  from  evil,"  he  was  made  to  say,  "and  have  attained  good." 
Those  initiated  in  the  Mysteries  of  Eleusis  believed  that  the  Sun 
blazed  with  a  pure  splendor  for  them  alone.  And,  as  we  see  in  the 
case  of  Pericles,  they  flattered  themselves  that  Ceres  and  Proser- 
pine inspired  them  and  gave  them  wisdom  and  counsel. 

Initiation  dissipated  errors  and  banished  misfortune :  and  after 
having  filled  the  heart  of  man  with  joy  during  life,  it  gave  him 
the  most  blissful  hopes  at  the  moment  of  death.  We  owe  it  to 
the  Goddesses  of  Eleusis,  says  Socrates,  that  we  do  not  lead  the 
wild  life  of  the  earliest  men :  and  to  them  are  due  the  flattering 
hopes  which  initiation  gives  us  for  the  moment  of  death  and  for 
all  eternity.  The  benefit  which  we  reap  from  these  august  cere- 
monies, says  Aristides,  is  not  only  present  joy,  a  deliverance  and 
enfranchisement  from  the  old  ills  ;  but  also  the  sweet  hope  which 
we  have  in  death  of  passing  to  a  more  fortunate  state.  And 
Theon  says  that  participation  of  the  Mysteries  is  the  finest  of  all 
things,  and  the  source  of  the  greatest  blessing.  The  happiness 
promised  there  was  not  limited  to  this  mortal  life ;  but  it  extended 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  387 

beyond  the  grave.  There  a  new  life  was  to  commence,  during 
which  the  Initiate  was  to  enjoy  a  bliss  without  alloy  and  without 
limit.  The  Corybantes  promised  eternal  life  to  the  Initiates  of  the 
Mysteries  of  Cybele  and  Atys. 

Apuleius  represents  Lucius,  while  still  in  the  form  of  an  ass,  as 
addressing  his  prayers  to  Isis,  whom  he  speaks  of  as  the  same  as 
Ceres,  Venus,  Diana,  and  Proserpine,  and  as  illuminating  the  walls 
of  many  cities  simultaneously  with  her  feminine  lustre,  and  sub- 
stituting her  quivering  light  for  the  bright  rays  of  the  Sun.  She 
appears  to  him  in  his  vision  as  a  beautiful  female,  "over  whose 
divine  neck  her  long  thick  hair  hung  in  graceful  ringlets."  Ad- 
dressing him,  she  says,  "The  parent  of  Universal  nature  attends 
thy  call.  The  mistress  of  the  Elements,  initiative  germ  of 
generations,  Supreme  of  Deities,  Queen  of  departed  Spirits,  first 
inhabitant  of  Heaven,  and  uniform  type  of  all  the  Gods  and  God- 
desses, propitiated  by  thy  prayers,  is  with  thee.  She  governs  with 
her  nod  the  luminous  heights  of  the  firmament,  the  salubrious 
breezes  of  the  ocean ;  the  silent  deplorable  depths  of  the  shades 
below ;  one  Sole  Divinity  under  many  forms,  worshipped  by  the 
different  nations  of  the  Earth  under  many  titles,  and  with  various 
religious  rites." 

Directing  him  how  to  proceed,  at  her  festival,  to  re-obtain  his 
human  shape,  she  says :  "Throughout  the  entire  course  of  the 
remainder  of  thy  life,  until  the  very  last  breath  has  vanished  from 
thy  lips,  thou  art  devoted  to  my  service  ....  Under  my  protection 
will  thy  life  be  happy  and  glorious :  and  when,  thy  days  being 
spent,  thou  shalt  descend  to  the  shades  below,  and  inhabit  the 
Elysian  fields,  there  also,  even  in  the  subterranean  hemisphere, 
shalt  thou  pay  frequent  worship  to  me,  thy  propitious  patron :  and 
yet  further:  if  through  sedulous  obedience,  religious  devotion  to 
my  ministry,  and  inviolable  chastity,  thou  shalt  prove  thyself  a 
worthy  object  of  divine  favor,  then  shalt  thou  feel  the  influence 
of  the  power  that  I  alone  possess.  The  number  of  thy  days  shall 
be  prolonged  beyond  the  ordinary  decrees  of  fate." 

In  the  procession  of  the  festival,  Lucius  saw  the  image  of  the 
Goddess,  on  either  side  of  which  were  female  attendants,  that, 
"with  ivory  combs  in  their  hands,  made  believe,  by  the  motion 
of  their  arms  and  the  twisting  of  their  fingers,  to  comb  and  orna- 
ment the  Goddess'  royal  hair."  Afterward,  clad  in  linen  robes, 
came  the  initiated.  "The  hair  of  the  women  was  moistened  bv 


388  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

perfume,  and  enveloped  in  a  transparent  covering;  but  the  men, 
terrestrial  stars,  as  it  were,  of  the  great  religion,  were  thoroughly 
shaven,  and  their  bald  heads  shone  exceedingly.'' 

Afterward  came  the  Priests,  in  robes  of  white  linen.  The  first 
bore  a  lamp-  in  the  form  of  a  boat,  emitting  flame  from  an  orifice 
in  the  middle :  the  second,  a  small  altar :  the  third,  a  golden  palm- 
tree  :  and  the  fourth  displayed  the  figure  of  a  left  hand,  the  palm 
open  and  expanded,  "representing  thereby  a  symbol  of  equity  and 
fair-dealing,  of  which  the  left  hand,  as  slower  than  the  right  hand, 
and  more  void  of  skill  and  craft,  is  therefore  an  appropriate 
emblem." 

After  Lucius  had,  by  the  grace  of  Isis,  recovered  his  human  form, 
the  Priest  said  to  him,  "Calamity  hath  no  hold  on  those  whom 
our  Goddess  hath  chosen  for  her  service,  and  whom  her  majesty 
hath  vindicated."  And  the  people  declared  that  he  was  fortu- 
nate to  be  "thus  after  a  manner  born  again,  and  at  once  betrothed 
to  the  service  of  the  Holy  Ministry." 

When  he  urged  the  Chief  Priest  to  initiate  him,  he  was  answered 
that  there  was  not  "a  single  one  among  the  initiated,  of  a  mind 
so  depraved,  or  so  bent  on  his  own  destruction,  as,  without  receiv- 
ing a  special  command  from  Isis,  to  dare  to  undertake  her  minis- 
try rashly  and  sacrilegiously,  and  thereby  commit  an  act  certain 
to  bring  upon  himself  a  dreadful  injury."  "For,"  continued  the 
Chief  Priest,  "the  gates  of  the  shades  below,  and  the  care  of  our 
life  being  in  the  hands  of  the  Goddess, — the  ceremony  of  initiation 
into  the  Mysteries  is,  as  it  were,  to  suffer  death,  with  the  precarious 
chance  of  resuscitation.  Wherefore  the  Goddess,  in  the  wisdom 
of  her  Divinity,  hath  been  accustomed  to  select  as  persons  to 
whom  the  secrets  of  her  religion  can  with  propriety  be  entrusted, 
those  who,  standing  as  it  were  on  the  utmost  limit  of  the  course 
of  life  they  have  completed,  may  through  her  Providence  be  in  a 
manner  born  again,  and  commence  the  career  of  a  new  existence." 

When  he  was  finally  to  be  initiated,  he  was  conducted  to  the 
nearest  baths,  and  after  having  bathed, the  Priest  first  solicited  for- 
giveness of  the  Gods,  and  then  sprinkled  him  all  over  with  the 
clearest  and  purest  water,  and  conducted  him  back  to  the  Temple ; 
"where,"  says  Apuleius,  "after  giving  me  some  instruction,  that 
mortal  tongue  is  not  permitted  to  reveal,  he  bade  me  for  the  suc- 
ceeding ten  days  restrain  my  appetite,  eat  no  animal  food,  and 
drink  no  wine." 


PRINCE   OF    THE    TAUKKN  ACLE.  389 

These  ten  days  elapsed,  the  Priest  led  him  into  the  inmost 
recesses  of  the  Sanctuary.  "And  here,  studious  reader,"  he  con- 
tinues, "peradventure  thou  wilt  be  sufficiently  anxious  to  know  all 
that  was  said  and  done,  which,  were  it  lawful  to  divulge,  I  would 
tell  thee ;  and,  wort  thou  permitted  to  hear,  thou  shouldst  know. 
Nevertheless,  although  the  disclosure  would  affix  the  penalty  of 
rash  curiosity  to  my  tongue  as  well  as  thy  ears,  yet  will  I,  for 
fear  thou  shouldst  be  too  long  tormented  with  religious  longing, 
and  suffer  the  pain  of  protracted  suspense,  tell  the  truth  not- 
withstanding. Listen  then  to  what  I  shall  relate.  /  approached 
the  abode  of  death;  with  my  foot  I  pressed  the  threshold  of  Pros- 
erpine's Palace.  I  zvas  transported  through  the  elements,  and 
conducted  back  again.  At  midnight  I  saw  the  bright  light  of  the 
sun  shining.  I  stood  in  the  presence  of  the  Gods,  the  Gods  of 
Heaven  and  of  the  Shades  below;  ay,  stood  near  and  worshipped. 
And  now  have  I  told  thee  such  things  that,  hearing,  thou  neces- 
sarily canst  not  understand ;  and  being  beyond  the  comprehen- 
sion of  the  Profane,  I  can  enunciate  without  committing  a  crime." 

After  night  had  passed,  and  the  morning  had  dawned,  the 
usual  ceremonies  were  at  an  end.  Then  he  was  consecrated  by 
twelve  stoles  being  put  upon  him,  clothed,  crowned  with  palm- 
leaves,  and  exhibited  to  the  people.  The  remainder  of  that  day 
was  celebrated  as  his  birthday  and  passed  in  festivities ;  and  on 
the  third  day  afterwrard,  the  same  religious  ceremonies  were 
repeated,  including  a  religious  breakfast,  "follow'cd  by  a  final 
consummation  of  ceremonies." 

A  year  afterward,  he  was  warned  to  prepare  for  initiation  into 
the  Mysteries  of  "the  Great  God,  Supreme  Parent  of  all  the  other 
Gods,  the  invincible  OSIRIS."  "For,"  says  Apuleius,  "although 
there  is  a  strict  connexion  between  the  religions  of  both  Deities. 

AND    EVEN    THE    ESSENCE    OF    ROTH    DIVINITIES    IS    IDENTICAL,    the 

ceremonies  of  the  respective  initiations  are  considerably  different." 
Compare  with  this  hint  the  following  language  of  the  prayer  of 
Lucius,  addressed  to  Tsis ;  and  we  may  judge  what  doctrines  were 
taught  in  the  Mysteries,  in  regard  to  the  Deity :  "O  Holy  and 
Perpetual  Preserver  of  the  Human  Race!  ever  ready  to  cherish 
mortals  by  Thy  munificence,  and  to  afford  Thy  sweet  maternal  af- 
fection to  the  wretched  under  misfortune :  Whose  bounty  is  nevei 
at  rest,  neither  by  day  nor  by  night,  nor  throughout  the  verv 
minutest  particle  of  duration:  Thou  who  stretchiest  forth  Th- 


39O  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

health-bearing  right  hand  over  the  land  and  over  the  sea  for  the 
protection  of  mankind,  to  disperse  the  storms  of  life,  to  unravel  the 
inextricable  entanglement  of  the  web  of  fate,  to  mitigate  Ihe 
tempests  of  fortune,  and  restrain  the  malignant  influences  of  the 
stars, — the  Gods  in  Heaven  adore  Thee,  the  Gods  in  the  shades  be- 
low do  Thee  homage,  the  stars  obey  Thee,  the  Divinities  rejoice  in 
Thee,  the  elements  and  the  revolving  seasons  serve  Thee!  At  Thy 
nod  the  winds  breathe,  clouds  gather,  seeds  grow,  buds  germinate ; 
in  obedience  to  Thee  the  Earth  revolves  AND  THE  SUN  GIVES  us 
LIGHT.  IT  IS  TlIOU  WHO  GOVERNEST  THE  UNIVERSE  AND  TREADEST 
TARTARUS  UNDER  THY  FEET." 

Then  he  was  initiated  into  the  nocturnal  Mysteries  of  Osiris 
and  Serapis :  and  afterward  into  those  of  Ceres  at  Rome :  but  of 
the  ceremonies  in  these  initiations,  Apuleius  says  nothing. 

Under  the  Archonship  of  Euclid,  bastards  and  slaves  were 
excluded  from  initiation ;  and  the  same  exclusion  obtained  against 
the  Materialists  or  Epicureans  who  denied  Providence  and  conse- 
quently the  utility  of  initiation.  By  a  natural  progress,  it  came  at 
length  to  be  considered  that  the  gates  of  Elysium  would  open  only 
for  the  Initiates,  whose  souls  had  been  purified  and  regenerated 
in  the  sanctuaries.  But  it  was  never  held,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  initiation  alone  sufficed.  \Ye  learn  from  Plato,  that  it  \vas 
also  necessary  for  the  soul  to  be  purified  from  every  stain :  and 
that  the  purification  necessary  was  such  as  gave  virtue,  truth, 
wisdom,  strength,  justice,  and  temperance. 

Entrance  to  the  Temples  was  forbidden  to  all  who  had  com- 
mitted homicide,  even  if  it  were  involuntary.  So  it  is  stated  by 
both  Isocrates  and  Theon.  Magicians  and  Charlatans  who  made 
trickery  a  trade,  and  impostors  pretending  to  be  possessed  by  evil 
spirits,  were  excluded  from  the  sanctuaries.  Every  impious  person 
and  criminal  was  rejected;  and  Lampridius  states  that  before  the 
celebration  of  the  Mysteries,  public  notice  was  given,  that  none 
need  apply  to  enter  but  those  against  whom  their  consciences 
uttered  no  reproach,  and  who  were  certain  of  their  own  inno- 
cence. 

It  was  required  of  the  Initiate  that  his  heart  and  hands  should 
be  free  from  any  stain.  Porphyry  says  that  man's  soul,  at  death, 
should  be  enfranchised  from  all  the  passions,  from  hate.  envy,  and 
the  others  ;  and.  in  a  word,  be  as  pure  as  it  is  required  to  be  in  the 
Mysteries.  Of  course  it  is  not  surprising  that  parricides  and  per- 


PRINCE   OF   THE   TAP.ERNACLE.  391 

jurers,  and  others  who  had  committed  crimes  against  God  or  man, 
could  not  be  admitted. 

In  the  Mysteries  of  Mithras,  a  lecture  was  repeated  to  the  Initiate 
on  the  subject  of  Justice.  And  the  great  moral  lesson  of  the 
Mysteries,  to  which  all  their  mystic  ceremonial  tended,  expressed 
in  a  single  line  by  Virgil,  was  to  practise  Justice  and  revere  the 
Deity; — thus  recalling  men  to  justice,  by  connecting  it  with  the 
justice  of  the  Gods,  who  require  it  and  punish  its  infraction.  The 
Initiate  could  aspire  to  the  favors  of  the  Gods,  only  because  and 
while  he  respected  the  rights  of  society  and  those  of  humanity. 
"The  sun,"  says  the  chorus  of  Initiates  in  Aristophanes,  "burns 
with  a  pure  light  for  us  alone,  who,  admitted  to  the  Mysteries, 
observe  the  laws  of  piety  in  our  intercourse  with  strangers  and 
our  fellow-citizens."  The  rewards  of  initiation  were  attached 
to  the  practice  of  the  social  virtues.  It  was  not  enough  to  be 
initiated  merely.  It  was  necessary  to  be  faithful  to  the  laws  of 
initiation,  which  imposed  on  men  duties  in  regard  to  their  kind. 
Bacchus  allowed  none  to  participate  in  his  Mysteries,  but  men  who 
conformed  to  the  rules  of  piety  and  justice.  Sensibility,  above  all, 
and  compassion  for  the  misfortunes  of  others,  were  precious  vir- 
tues, which  initiation  strove  to  encourage.  "Nature,"  says  Juvenal, 
"has  created  us  compassionate,  since  it  has  endowed  us  with  tears. 
Sensibility  is  the  most  admirable  of  our  senses.  What  man  is  truly 
worthy  of  the  torch  of  the  Mysteries ;  who  such  as  the  Priest 
of  Ceres  requires  him  to  be,  if  he  regards  the  misfortunes  of  others 
as  wholly  foreign  to  himself?" 

All  who  had  not  used  their  endeavors  to  defeat  a  conspiracy ; 
and  those  who  had  on  the  contrary  fomented  one  ;  those  citizens 
who  had  betrayed  their  country,  who  had  surrendered  an  advan- 
tageous post  or  place,  or  the  vessels  of  the  State,  to  the  enemy; 
all  who  had  supplied  the  enemy  with  money ;  and  in  general,  all 
who  had  come  short  of  their  duties  as  honest  men  and  good  citi- 
zens, were  excluded  from  the  Mysteries  of  Eleusis.  To  be  admitted 
there,  one  must  have  lived  equitably,  and  with  sufficient  good 
fortune  not  to  be  regarded  as  hated  by  the  Gods. 

Thus  the  Society  of  the  Initiates  was,  in  its  principle,  and 
according  to  the  true  purpose  of  its  institution,  a  society  of  virtuous 
men,  who  labored  to  free  their  souls  from  the  tyranny  of  the  pas- 
sions, and  to  develop  the  germ  of 'all  the  social  virtues.  And  this 
was  the  meaning  of  the  idea,  afterward  misunderstood,  that  entry 


392  MORALS    A1SO   DOGMA. 

into  Elysium  was  only  allowed  to  the  Initiates :  because  entrance 
to  the  sanctuaries  was  allowed  to  the  virtuous  only,  and  Elysium 
was  created  for  virtuous  souls  alone. 

The  precise  nature  and  details  of  the  doctrines  as  to  a  future 
life,  and  rewards  and  punishments  there,  developed  in  the  Mys- 
teries, is  in  a  measure  uncertain.  Little  direct  information  in 
regard  to  it  has  come  down  to  us.  No  doubt,  in  the  ceremonies, 
there  was  a  scenic  representation  of  Tartarus  and  the  judgment  of 
the  dead,  resembling  that  which  we  find  in  Virgil :  but  there  is  as 
little  doubt  that  these  representations  were  explained  to  be  alle- 
gorical. It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  repeat  the  descriptions  given 
of  Elysium  and  Tartarus.  That  would  be  aside  from  our  object. 
We  are  only  concerned  with  the  great  fact  that  the  Mysteries 
taught  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  immortality,  and  that,  in  some 
shape,  suffering,  pain,  remorse,  and  agony,  ever  follow  sin  as  its 
consequences. 

Human  ceremonies  are  indeed  but  imperfect  symbols ;  and  the 
alternate  baptisms  in  fire  and  water  intended  to  purify  us  into 
immortality,  are  ever  in  this  world  interrupted  at  the  moment  of 
their  anticipated  completion.  Life  is  a  mirror  which  reflects  only 
to  deceive,  a  tissue  perpetually  interrupted  and  broken,  an  urn 
forever  fed,  yet  never  full. 

All  initiation  is  but  introductory  to  the  great  change  of  death. 
Baptism,  anointing,  embalming,  obsequies  by  burial  or  fire,  are 
preparatory  symbols,  like  the  initiation  of  Hercules  before  descend- 
ing to  the  Shades,  pointing  out  the  mental  change  which  ought  to 
precede  the  renewal  of  existence.  Death  is  the  true  initiation,  to 
which  sleep  is  the  introductory  or  minor  mystery.  It  is  the  final 
rite  which  united  the  Egyptian  with  his  God,  and  which  opens  the 
jame  promise  to  all  who  are  duly  prepared  for  it. 

The  body  was  deemed  a  prison  for  the  soul ;  but  the  latter  was 
not  condemned  to  eternal  banishment  and  imprisonment.  The 
Father  of  the  Worlds  permits  its  chains  to  be  broken,  and  has 
provided  in  the  course  of  Nature  the  means  of  its  escape.  It  was 
a  doctrine  of  immemorial  antiquity,  shared  alike  by  Egyptians, 
Pythagoreans,  the  Orphici,  and  by  that  characteristic  Bacchic 
Sage,  "the  Preceptor  of  the  Soul,"  Silenus,  that  death  is  far  better 
than  life  ;  that  the  real  death  belongs  to  those  who  on  earth  are  im- 
mersed in  theLethe  of  its  passions  and  fascinations.and  that  the  true 
life  commences  only  when  the  soul  is  emancipated  for  its  return. 


PRINCE   OF   THE   TABERNACLE.  393 

And  in  this  sense,  as  presiding  over  life  and  death,  Di  onuses  is 
in  the  highest  sense  the  LIBERATOR  :  since,  like  Osiris,  he  frees  the 
soul,  and  guides  it  in  its  migrations  beyond  the  grave,  preserving 
it  from  the  risk  of  again  falling  under  the  slavery  of  matter  or 
of  some  inferior  animal  form,  the  purgatory  of  Metempsychosis; 
and  exalting  and  perfecting  its  nature  through  the  purifying  dis- 
cipline of  his  Mysteries.  "The  great  consummation  of  all  philos- 
ophy," said  Socrates,  professedly  quoting  from  traditional  and 
mystic  sources,  "is  Death:  He  who  pursues  philosophy  aright,  is 
studying  hou'  to  die." 

All  soul  is  part  of  the  Universal  Soul,  whose  totality  is  Dionusos ; 
and  it  is  therefore  he  who,  as  Spirit  of  Spirits,  leads  ba,ck  the 
vagrant  spirit  to  its  home,  and  accompanies  it  through  the  purify- 
ing processes,  both  real  and  symbolical,  of  its  earthly  transit.  He 
is  therefore  emphatically  the  Mystes  or  Hierophant,  the  great 
Spiritual  Mediator  of  Greek  religion. 

The  human  soul  is  itself  8at/zonos,  a  God  within  the  mind, 
capable  through  its  own  power  of  rivalling  the  canonization  of  the 
Hero,  of  making  itself  immortal  by  the  practice  of  the  good,  and 
the  contemplation  of  the  beautiful  and  true.  The  removal  to  the 
I  lappy  Islands  could  only  be  understood  mythically ;  everything 
earthly  must  die ;  Man,  like  CEdipus,  is  wounded  from  his  birth, 
his  real  elysium  can  exist  only  beyond  the  grave.  Dionusos  died 
and  descended  to  the  Shades.  His  passion  was  the  great  Secret  of 
the  Mysteries ;  as  Death  is  the  Grand  Mystery  of  existence.  His 
death,  typical  of  Nature's  Death,  or  of  her  periodical  decay  and 
restoration,  was  one  of  the  many  symbols  of  the  palingenesia  or 
second  birth  of  man. 

Man  descended  from  the  elemental  Forces  or  Titans  [Elohim], 
who  fed  on  the  body  of  the  Pantheistic  Deity  creating  the  Universe 
by  self-sacrifice,  commemorates  in  sacramental  observance  this 
mysterious  passion  ;  and  while  partaking  of  the  raw  flesh  of  the 
victim,  seems  to  be  invigorated  by  a  fresh  draught  from  the  foun- 
tain of  universal  life,  to  receive  a  new  pledge  of  regenerated  exist- 
ence. Death  is  the  inseparable  antecedent  of  life ;  the  seed  dies  in 
order  to  produce  the  plant,  and  earth  itself  is  rent  asunder  and 
dies  at  the  birth  of  Dionusos.  Hence  the  significancy  of  the 
phallus,  or  of  its  inoffensive  substitute,  the  obelisk,  rising  as  'an 
emblem  of  resurrection  by 'the  tomb  of  buried  Deity  at  Lerna  or 
at  Sais. 


394  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

Dionusos-Orpheus  descended  to  the  Shades  to  recover  the  lost 
Virgin  of  the  Zodiac,  to  bring  back  his  mother  to  the  sky  as 
Thyone ;  or  what  has  the  same  meaning,  to  consummate  his 
eventful  marriage  with  Persephone,  thereby  securing,  like  the 
nuptials  of  his  father  with  Semele  or  Danae,  the  perpetuity  of 
Nature.  His  under-earth  office  is  the  depression  of  the  year,  the 
wintry  aspect  in  the  alternations  of  bull  and  serpent,  whose  united 
series  makes  up  the  continuity  of  Time,  and  in  which,  physically 
speaking,  the  stern  and  dark  are  ever  the  parents  of  the  beautiful 
and  bright. 

It  was  this  aspect,  sombre  for  the  moment,  but  bright  by  anti- 
cipation, which  was  contemplated  in  the  Mysteries :  the  human 
sufferer  was  consoled  by  witnessing  the  severer  trials  of  the  Gods  ; 
and  the  vicissitudes  of  life  and  death,  expressed  by  apposite  sym- 
bols, such  as  the  sacrifice  or  submersion  of  the  Bull,  the  extinction 
and  re-illumination  of  the  torch,  excited  corresponding  emotions 
of  alternate  grief  and  joy,  that  play  of  passion  which  was  present 
at  the  origin  of  Nature,  and  which  accompanies  all  her  changes. 

The  greater  Eleusinise  were  celebrated  in  the  month  Boedromion, 
when  the  seed  was  buried  in  the  ground,  and  when  the  year,  verg- 
ing to  its  decline,  disposes  the  mind  to  serious  reflection.  The 
first  days  of  the  ceremonial  were  passed  in  sorrow  and  anxious 
silence,  in  fasting  and  expiatory  or  lustral  offices.  On  a  sudden, 
the  scene  was  changed :  sorrow  and  lamentation  were  discarded, 
the  glad  name  of  lacchus  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  the  image 
of  the  God,  crowned  with  myrtle  and  bearing  a  lighted  torch,  was 
borne  in  joyful  procession  from  the  Ceramicus  to  Eleusis,  where, 
during  the  ensuing  night,  the  initiation  was  completed  by  an  im- 
posing revelation.  The  first  scene  was  in  the  Trporaos,  or  outer 
court  of  the  sacred  enclosure,  where  amidst  utter  darkness,  or 
while  the  mediating  God,  the  star  illuminating  the  Nocturnal 
Mystery,  alone  carried  an  unextinguished  torch,  the  candidates 
were  overawed  with  terrific  sounds  and  noises,  while  they  painfully 
groped  their  way,  as  in  the  gloomy  cavern  of  the  soul's  sublunar 
migration  ;  a  scene  justly  compared  to  the  passage  of  the  Valley 
of  the  Shadow  of  Death.  For  by  the  immutable  law  exemplified 
in  the  trials  of  Psyche,  man  must  pass  through  the  terrors  of  the 
under-world,  before  he  can  reach  the  height  of  Heaven.  At  length 
the  gates  of  the  adytum  were  thrown  open,  a  supernatural  light 
streamed  from  the  illuminated  statue  of  the  Goddess,  and  enchant- 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  395 

ing  sights  and  sounds,  mingled  with  songs  and  dances,  exalted 
the  communicant  to  a  rapture  of  supreme  felicity,  realizing,  as  far 
as  sensuous  imagery  could  depict,  the  anticipated  reunion  with 
the  Gods. 

In  the  dearth  of  direct  evidence  as  to  the  detail  of  the  ceremo- 
nies enacted,  or  of  the  meanings  connected  with  them,  their  ten- 
dency must  be  inferred  from  the  characteristics  of  the  contem- 
plated deities  with  their  accessory  symbols  and  mythi,  or  from 
direct  testimony  as  to  the  value  of  the  Mysteries  generally. 

The  ordinary  phenomena  of  vegetation,  the  death  of  the  seed  in 
giving  birth  to  the  plant,  connecting  the  sublimest  hopes  with 
the  plainest  occurrences,  was  the  simple  yet  beautiful  formula 
assumed  by  the  great  mystery  in  almost  all  religions,  from  the 
Zend-Avesta  to  the  Gospel.  As  Proserpina,  the  divine  power  is 
as  the  seed  decaying  and  destroyed ;  as  Artemis,  she  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  its  destruction ;  but  Artemis  Proserpina  is  also  Core  Sote- 
ria,  the  Saviour,  who  leads  the  Spirits  of  Hercules  and  Hyacinthus 
to  Heaven. 

Many  other  emblems  were  employed  in  the  Mysteries, — as  the 
dove,  the  myrtle-wreath,  and  others,  all  significant  of  life  rising 
out  of  death,  and  of  the  equivocal  condition  of  dying  yet  immortal 
man. 

The  horrors  and  punishments  of  Tartarus,  as  described  in  the 
Phredo  and  the  /Eneid,  with  all  the  ceremonies  of  the  judgments 
of  Minos,  Eacus,  and  Rhadamanthus,  were  represented,  sometimes 
more  and  sometimes  less  fully,  in  the  Mysteries;  in  order  to 
impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  Initiates  this  great  lesson, — that  we 
should  be  ever  prepared  to  appear  before  the  Supreme  Judge,  with 
a  heart  pure  and  spotless  ;  as  Socrates  teaches  in  the  Gorgias. 
For  the  soul  stained  with  crimes,  he  says,  to  descend  to  the  Shades, 
is  the  bitterest  ill.  To  adhere  to  Justice  and  Wisdom,  Plato  holds, 
is  our  duty,  that  we  may  some  day  take  that  lofty  road  that  leads 
toward  the  heavens,  and  avoid  most  of  the  evils  to  which  the 
soul  is  exposed  in  its  subterranean  journey  of  a  thousand  years. 
And  so  in  the  Phaedo,  Socrates  teaches  that  we  should  seek  here 
below  to  free  our  soul  of  its  passions,  in  order  to  be  ready  to  enter 
our  appearance,  whenever  Destiny  summons  us  to  the  Shades. 

Thus  the  Mysteries  inculcated  a  great  moral  truth,  veiled  with 
a  fable  of  huge  proportions  and  the  appliances  of  an  impressive 
spectacle,  to  which,  exhibited  in  the  sanctuaries,  art  and  natural 


MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

magic  lent  all  they  had  that  was  imposing.  They  sought  to 
strengthen  men  against  the  horrors  of  death  and  the  fearful  idea 
of  utter  annihilation.  Death,  says  the  author  of  the  dialogue, 
entitled  Axiochus,  included  in  the  works  of  Plato,  is  but  a  passage 
to  a  happier  state;  but  one  must  have  lived  well,  to  attain  that 
most  fortunate  result.  So  that  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  was  consoling  to  the  virtuous  and  religious  man  alone ; 
while  to  all  others  it  came  with  menaces  and  despair,  surrounding 
them  with  terrors  and  alarms  that  disturbed  their  repose  during 
all  their  life. 

For  the  material  horrors  of  Tartarus,  allegorical  to  the  Initiate, 
were  real  to  the  mass  of  the  Profane ;  nor  in  latter  times,  did,  per- 
haps many  Initiates  read  rightly  the  allegory.  The  triple-walled 
prison,  which  the  condemned  soul  first  met,  round  which  swelled 
and  surged  the  fiery  waves  of  Phlegethon,  wherein  rolled  roaring, 
huge,  blazing  rocks ;  the  great  gate  with  columns  of  adamant, 
which  none  save  the  Gods  could  crush ;  Tisiphone,  their  warder, 
with  her  bloody  robes ;  the  lash  resounding  on  the  mangled  bod- 
ies of  the  miserable  unfortunates,  their  plaintive  groans,  mingled 
in  horrid  harmony  with  the  clashings  of  their  chains ;  the 
Furies,  lashing  the  guilty  with  their  snakes ;  the  awful  abyss 
where  Hydra  howls  with  its  hundred  heads,  greedy  to  devour ; 
Tityus,  prostrate,  and  his  entrails  fed  upon  by  the  cruel  vulture ; 
Sisyphus,  ever  rolling  his  rock ;  Ixion  on  his  wheel ;  Tantalus 
tortured  by  eternal  thirst  and  hunger,  in  the  midst  of  water  and 
with  delicious  fruits  touching  his  head ;  the  daughters  of  Danaus 
at  their  eternal,  fruitless  task ;  beasts  biting  and  venomous  reptiles 
stinging ;  and  devouring  flame  eternally  consuming  bodies  ever 
renewed  in  endless  agony ;  all  these  sternly  impressed  upon  the 
people  the  terrible  consequences  of  sin  and  vice,  and  urged  them 
to  pursue  the  paths  of  honesty  and  virtue. 

And  if,  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Mysteries,  these  material  hor- 
rors were  explained  to  the  Initiates  as  mere  symbols  of  the  unim- 
aginable torture,  remorse,  and  agony  that  would  rend  the  imma- 
terial soul  and  rack  the  immortal  spirit,  they  were  feeble  and 
insufficient  in  the  same  mode  and  measure  only,  as  all  material 
images  and  symbols  fall  short  of  that  which  is  beyond  the  cogni- 
zance of  our  senses :  and  the  grave  Hierophant,  the  imagery,  the 
paintings,  the  dramatic  horrors,  the  funeral  sacrifices,  the  august 
mvsteries.  the  solemn  silence  of  the  sanctuaries,  were  none  the 


PRINCE  OF  TilK    1  AliKUX  ACl.E.  397 

less  impressive,  because  they  were  known  to  be  but  symbols,  that 
with  material  shows  and  images  made  the  imagination  to  be  the 
teacher  of  the  intellect. 

So,  too,  it  was  represented,  that  except  for  the  gravest  sins  there 
was  an  opportunity  for  expiation ;  and  the  tests  of  water,  air, 
and  fire  were  represented  ;  by  means  of  which,  during  the  march 
of  many  years,  the  soul  could  be  purified,  and  rise  toward  the 
ethereal  regions ;  that  ascent  being  more  or  less  tedious  and  labo- 
rious, according  as  each  soul  was  more  or  less  clogged  by  the  gross 
impediments  of  its  sins  and  vices.  Herein  was  shadowed  forth, 
(how  distinctly  taught  the  Initiates  we  know  not),  the  doctrine 
that  pain  and  sorrow,  misfortune  and  remorse,  are  the  inevitable 
consequencesthat  flow  from  sin  and  vice,as  effect  flows  from  cause  ; 
that  by  each  sin  and  every  act  of  vice  the  soul  drops  back  and 
loses  ground  in  its  advance  toward  perfection  :  and  that  the  ground 
so  lost  is  and  will  be  in  reality  never  so  recovered  as  that  the  sin 
shall  be  as  if  it  never  had  been  committed;  but  that  throughout 
all  the  eternity  of  its  existence,  each  soul  shall  be  conscious  that 
every  act  of  vice  or  baseness  it  did  on  earth  has  made  the  distance 
greater  between  itself  and  ultimate  perfection. 

We  see  this  truth  glimmering  in  the  doctrine,  taught  in  the 
Mysteries,  that  though  slight  and  ordinary  offences  could  be  expi- 
ated by  penance,  repentance,  acts  of  beneficence,  and  prayers,  grave 
crimes  were  mortal  sins,  beyond  the  reach  of  all  such  remedies. 
Eleusis  closed  her  gates  against  Nero :  and  the  Pagan  Priests  told 
Constantine  that  among  all  their  modes  of  expiation  there  was 
none  so  potent  as  could  wash  from  his  soul  the  dark  spots  left 
by  the  murder  of  his  wife,  and  his  multiplied  perjuries  and  assas- 
sinations. 

The  object  of  the  ancient  initiations  being  to  ameliorate  man- 
kind and  to  perfect  the  intellectual  part  of  man,  the  nature  of  the 
human  soul,  its  origin,  its  destination,  its  relations  to  the  body 
and  to  universal  nature,  all  formed  part  of  the  mystic  science : 
and  to  them  in  part  the  lessons  given  to  the  Initiate  were  directed. 
For  it  was  believed  that  initiation  tended  to  his  perfection,  and 
to  preventing  the  divine  part  within  him,  overloaded  with  matter 
gross  and  earthy,  from  being  plunged  into  gloom,  and  impeded 
in  its  return  to  the  Deity.  The  soul,  with  them,  was  not  a  mere 
conception  or  abstraction  ;  but  a  reality  including  in  itself  life  and 
thought :  or.  rather,  of  whose  essence  it  was  to  live  and  think. 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

It  was  material ;  but  not  brute,  inert,  inactive,  lifeless,  motionless, 
formless,  lightless  matter.  It  was  held  to  be  active,  reasoning, 
thinking;  its  natural  home  in  the  highest  regions  of  the  Universe, 
whence  it  descended  to  illuminate,  give  form  and  movement  to, 
vivify,  animate,  and  carry  with  itself  the  baser  matter;  and 
whither  it  unceasingly  tends  to  reascend,when  and  as  soon  as  it  can 
free  itself  from  its  connection  with  that  matter.  From  that  sub- 
stance, divine,  infinitely  delicate  and  active,  essentially  luminous, 
the  souls  of  men  were  formed,  and  by  it  alone,  uniting  with  and 
organizing  their  bodies,  men  lived. 

This  was  the  doctrine  of  Pythagoras,  who  learned  it  when  he 
received  the  Egyptian  Mysteries:  and  it  was  the  doctrine  of  all 
who,  by  means  of  the  ceremonial  of  initiation,  thought  to  purify 
the  soul.  Virgil  makes  the  spirit  of  Anchises  teach  it  to  tineas  : 
and  all  the  expiations  and  lustrations  used  in  the  Mysteries  were 
but  symbols  of  those  intellectual  ones  by  which  the  soul  was  to  be 
purged  of  its  vice-spots  and  stains,  arid  freed  of  the  incumbrance 
of  its  earthly  prison,  so  that  it  might  rise  unimpeded  to  the  source 
from  which  it  came. 

Hence  sprung  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls ; 
which  Pythagoras  taught  as  an  allegory,  and  those  who  came 
after  him  received  literally.  Plato,  like  him,  drew  his  doctrines 
from  the  East  and  the  Mysteries,  and  undertook  to  translate  the 
language  of  the  symbols  used  there,  into  that  of  Philosophy ;  and 
to  prove  by  argument  and  philosophical  deduction,  what,  felt  by 
the  consciousness,  the  Mysteries  taught  by  symbols  as  an  indisputa- 
ble fact, — the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Cicero  did  the  same ;  and 
followed  the  Mysteries  in  teaching  that  the  Gods  were  but  mortal 
men,  who  for  their  great  virtues  and  signal  services  had  deserved 
that  their  souls  should,  after  death,  be  raised  to  that  lofty  rank. 

It  being  taught  in  the  Mysteries,  either  by  way  of  allegory,  the 
meaning  of  which  was  not  made  known  except  to  a. select  few, 
or,  perhaps  only  at  a  later  day,  as  an  actual  reality,  that  the  souls 
of  the  vicious  dead  passed  into  the  bodies  of  those  animals  to 
whose  nature  their  vices  had  most  affinity,  it  was  also  taught  that 
the  soul  could  avoid  these  transmigrations,  often  successive  and 
numerous,  by  the  practice  of  virtue,  which  would  acquit  it  of 
them,  free  it  from  the  circle  of  successive  generations,  and  restore 
it  at  once  to  its  source.  Hence  nothing  was  so  ardently  prayed 
for  by  the  Initiates,  says  Proclus.  as  this  happy  fortune,  whi^h, 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  399 

delivering  them  from  the  empire  of  Evil,  would  restore  them  to 
their  true  life,  and  conduct  them  to  the  place  of  final  rest.  To 
this  doctrine  probably  referred  those  figures  of  animals  and  mon- 
sters which  were  exhibited  to  the  Initiate,  before  allowing  him  to 
see  the  sacred  light  for  which  he  sighed. 

Plato  says,  that  souls  will  not  reach  the  term  of  their  ills,  until 
the  revolutions  of  the  world  have  restored  them  to  their  primitive 
condition,  and  purified  them  from  the  stains  which  they  have  con- 
tracted by  the  contagion  of  fire,  earth,  and  air.  And  he  held  that 
they  could  not  be  allowed  to  enter  Heaven,  until  they  had  distin- 
guished themselves  by  the  practice  of  virtue  in  some  one  of  three 
several  bodies.  The  Manicheans  allowed  five :  Pindar,  the  same 
number  as  Plato ;  as  did  the  Jews. 

And  Cicero  says,  that  the  ancient  soothsayers,  and  the  interpre- 
ters of  the  will  of  the  Gods,  in  their  religious  ceremonies  and  ini- 
tiations, taught  that  we  expiate  here  below  the  crimes  committed 
in  a  prior  life ;  and  for  that  are  born.  It  was  taught  in  these  Mys- 
teries, that  the  soul  passes  through  several  states,  and  that  the 
pains  and  sorrows  of  this  life  are  an  expiation  of  prior  faults. 

This  doctrine  of  transmigration  of  souls  obtained,  as  Porphyry 
informs  us,  among  the  Persians  and  Magi.  It  was  held  in  the 
East  and  the  West,  and  that  from  the  remotest  antiquity.  Hero- 
dotus found  it  among  the  Egyptians,  who  made  the  term  of  the 
circle  of  migrations  from  one  human  body,  through  animals, 
fishes,  and  birds,  to  another  human  body,  three  thousand  years. 
Empedocles  even  held  that  souls  went  into  plants.  Of  these,  the 
laurel  was  the  noblest,  as  of  animals  the  lion ;  both  being  conse- 
crated to  the  Sun,  to  which,  it  was  held  in  the  Orient,  virtuous 
souls  were  to  return.  The  Curds,  the  Chinese,  the  Kabbalists,  all 
held  the  same  doctrine.  So  Origen  held,  and  the  Bishop  Synesius, 
the  latter  of  whom  had  been  initiated,  and  who  thus  prayed  to 
God :  "O  Father,  grant  that  my  soul,  reunited  to  the  light,  may 
not  be  plunged  again  into  the  defilements  of  earth !"  So  the  Gnos- 
tics held  ;  and  even  the  Disciples  of  Christ  inquired  if  the  man 
who  was  born  blind,  was  not  so  punished  for  some  sin  that  he  had 
committed  before  his  birth. 

Virgil,  in  the  celebrated  allegory  in  which  he  develops  the  doc- 
trines taught  in  the  Mysteries,  enunciated  the  doctrine,  held  by 
most  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  of  the  pre-existenee  of  souls,  in 
the  eternal  fire  from  which  they  emanate;  that  fire  which,  ani- 


400  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

mates  the  stars,  and  circulates  in  every  part  of  Nature:  and  the 
purifications  of  the  soul,  by  fire,  water,  and  air,  of  which  he 
speaks,  and  which  three  modes  were  employed  in  the  Mysteries  of 
Bacchus,  were  symbols  of  the  passage  of  the  soul  into  different 
bodies. 

The  relations  of  the  human  soul  with  the  rest  of  nature  were  a 
chief  object  of  the  science  of  the  Mysteries.  The  man  was  there 
brought  face  to  face  with  entire  nature.  The  world,  and  the  spher- 
ical envelope  that  surrounds  it,  were  represented  by  a  mystic  egg, 
by  the  side  of  the  image  of  the  Sun-God  whose  Mysteries  were 
celebrated.  The  famous  Orphic  egg  was  consecrated  to  Bacchus 
in  his  Mysteries.  It  was,  says  Plutarch,  an  image  of  the  Uni- 
verse, which  engenders  everything,  and  contains  everything  in  its 
bosom.  "Consult/'  says  Macrobius,  "the  Initiates  of  the  Myste- 
ries of  Bacchus,  who  honor  with  special  veneration  the  sacred  egg." 
The  rounded  and  almost  spherical  form  of  its  shell,  he  says,  which 
encloses  it  on  every  side,  and  confines  within  itself  the  principles 
of  life,  is  a  symbolic  image  of  the  world ;  and  the  world  is  the 
universal  principle  of  all  things. 

This  symbol  was  borrowed  from  the  Egyptians,  who  also  conse- 
crated the  egg  to  Osiris,  germ  of  Light,  himself  born,  says  Diodo- 
rus,  from  that  famous  egg.  In  Thebes,  in  Upper  Egypt,  he  was 
represented  as  emitting  it  from  his  mouth,  and  causing  to  issue 
from  it  the  first  principle  of  heat  and  light,  or  the  Fire-God,  Vul- 
can, or  Phtha.  We  find  this  egg  even  in  Japan,  between  the  horns 
of  the  famous  Mithriac  Bull,  whose  attributes  Osiris,  Apis,  and 
Bacchus  all  borrowed. 

Orpheus,  author  of  the  Grecian  Mysteries,  which  he  carried  from 
Egypt  to  Greece,  consecrated  this  symbol :  and  taught  that  matter, 
uncreated  and  informous,  existed  from  all  eternity,  unorganized, 
as  chaos ;  containing  in  itself  the  Principles  of  all  Existences 
confused  and  intermingled,  light  with  darkness,  the  dry  with  the 
humid,  heat  with  cold ;  from  which,  it  after  long  ages  taking  tfk 
shape  of  an  immense  egg,  issued  the  purest  matter,  or  first  sub- 
stance, and  the  residue  was  divided  into  the  four  elements,  from 
which  proceeded  heaven  and  earth  and  all  things  else.  This  grand 
Cosmogonic  idea  he  taught  in  the  Mysteries  ;  and  thus  the  Hiero- 
phant  explained  the  meaning  of  the  mystic  egg,  seen  by  the  Initi- 
ates in  the  Sanctuary. 

Thus  entire  Nature,  in  her  primitive  organization,  was  presented 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  4OI 

to  him  whom  it  was  wished  to  instruct  in  her  secrets  and  initiate 
in  her  mysteries ;  and  Clemens  of  Alexandria  might  well  say  that 
initiation  was  a  real  physiology. 

So  Phanes,  the  Light-God,  in  the  Mysteries  of  the  New  Or- 
phics,  emerged  from  the  egg  of  chaos :  and  the  Persians  had  the 
great  egg  of  Ormuzd.  And  Sanchoniathon  tells  us  that  in  tfie 
Phoenician  theology,  the  matter  of  chaos  took  the  form  of  an  egg ; 
and  he  adds:  "Such  are  the  lessons  which  the  Son  of  Thabion, 
first  Hierophant  of  the  Phoenicians,  turned  into  allegories,  in 
which  physics  and  astronomy  intermingled,  and  which  he  taught 
to  the  other  Hierophants,  whose  duty  it  was  to  preside  at  orgies 
and  initiations ;  and  who,  seeking  to  excite  the  astonishment  and 
admiration  of  mortals,  faithfully  transmitted  these  things  to  their 
successors  and  the  Initiates." 

In  the  Mysteries  was  also  taught  the  division  of  the  Universal 
Cause  into  an  Active  and  a  Passive  cause ;  of  which  two,  Osiris 
and  Isis, — the  heavens  and  the  earth  were  symbols.  These  two 
First  Causes,  into  which  it  was  held  that  the  great  Universal  First 
Cause  at  the  beginning  of  things  divided  itself,  were  the  two  great 
Divinities,  whose  worship  was,  according  to  Varro,  inculcated  upon 
the  Initiates  at  Samothrace.  "As  is  taught,"  he  says,  "in  the  ini- 
tiation into  the  Mysteries  at  Samothrace,  Heaven  and  Earth  are 
regarded  as  the  two  first  Divinities.  They  are  the  potent  Gods 
worshipped  in  that  Island,  and  whose  names  are  consecrated  in  the 
books  of  our  Augurs.  One  of  them  is  male  and  the  other  female ; 
and  they  bear  the  same  relation  to  each  other  as  the  soul  does  to 
the  body,  humidity  to  dryness."  The  Curetes,  in  Crete,  had 
builded  an  altar  to  Heaven  and  to  Earth ;  whose  Mysteries  they 
celebrated  at  Gnossus,  in  a  cypress  grove. 

These  two  Divinities,  the  Active  and  Passive  Principles  of  the 
Universe,  were  commonly  symbolized  by  the  generative  parts  of 
man  and  woman  ;  to  which,  in  remote  ages,  no  idea  of  indecency 
was  attached ;  the  Phallus  and  Ctcis,  emblems  of  generation  and 
production,  and  which,  as  such,  appeared  in  the  Mysteries.  The 
Indian  Lingam  was  the  union  of  both,  as  were  the  boat  and  mast, 
and  the  point  within  a  circle:  all  of  which  expressed  the  same 
philosophical  idea  as  to  the  Union  of  the  two  great  Causes  of  Na- 
ture, which  concur,  one  actively  and  the  other  passively,  in  the 
generation  of  all  beings:  which  were  symbolized  by  what  we  now 
term  Gemini,  the  Twins,  at  that  remote  period  when  the  Sun  was 


4O2  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

in  that  Sign  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  and  when  they  were  Male  and 
Female;  and  of  which  the  Phallus  was  perhaps  taken  from  the 
generative  organ  of  the  Bull,  when  about  twenty-five  hundred 
years  before  our  era  he  opened  that  equinox,  and  became  to  the 
Ancient  World  the  symbol  of  the  creative  and  generative  Power. 

The  Initiates  at  Eleusis  commenced,  Proclus  says,  by  invoking 
the  two  great  causes  of  nature,  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth,  on 
which  in  succession  they  fixed  their  eyes,  addressing  to  each  a 
prayer.  And  they  deemed  it  their  duty  to  do  so,  he  adds,  because 
they  saw  in  them  the  Father  and  Mother  of  all  generations.  The 
concourse  of  these  two  agents  of  the  Universe  was  termed  in  theo- 
logical language  a  marriage.  Tertullian,  accusing  the  Valentin- 
ians  of  having  borrowed  these  symbols  from  the  Mysteries  of 
Eleusis,  yet  admits  that  in  those  Mysteries  they  were  explained  in 
a  manner  consistent  with  decency,  as  representing  the  powers  of 
nature.  He  was  too  little  of  a  philosopher  to  comprehend  the 
sublime  esoteric  meaning  of  these  emblems,  which  will,  if  you  ad- 
vance, in  other  Degrees  be  unfolded  to  you. 

The  Christian  Fathers  contented  themselves  with  reviling  and 
ridiculing  the  use  of  these  emblems.  But  as  they  in  the  earlier 
times  created  no  indecent  ideas,  and  were  worn  alike  by  the  most 
innocent  youths  and  virtuous  women,  it  will  be  far  wiser  for  us  to 
seek  to  penetrate  their  meaning.  Not  only  the  Egyptians,  says 
Diodorus  Siculus,  but  every  other  people  that  consecrate  this  sym- 
bol (the  Phallus),  deem  that  they  thereby  do  honor  to  the  Active 
Force  of  the  universal  generation  of  all  living  things.  For  the 
same  reason,  as  we  learn  from  the  geographer  Ptolemy,  it  was 
revered  among  the  Assyrians  and  Persians.  Proclus  remarks  that 
in  the  distribution  of  the  Zodiac  among  the  twelve  great  Divini- 
ties, by  ancient  astrology,  six  signs  were  assigned  to  the  male  and 
six  to  the  female  principle. 

There  is  another  division  of  nature,  which  has  in  all  ages  struck 
all  men,  and  which  was  not  forgotten  in  the  Mysteries ;  that  of 
Light  and  Darkness,  Day  and  Night,  Good  and  Evil ;  which  min- 
gle with,  and  clash  against,  and  pursue  or  are  pursued  by  each 
other  throughout  the  Universe.  The  Great  Symbolic  Egg  dis- 
tinctly reminded  the  Initiates  of  this  great  division  of  the  world. 
Plutarch,  treating  of  the  dogma  of  a  Providence,  and  of  that  of 
the  two  principles  of  Light  and  Darkness,  which  he  regarded  as 
the  basis  of  the  Ancient  Theology,  of  the  Orgies  and  the  Myste- 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  403 

ries,  as  well  among  the  Greeks  as  the  Barbarians, — a  doctrine 
whose  origin,  according  to  him,  is  lost  in  the  night  of  time, — cites, 
in  support  of  his  opinion,  the  famous  Mystic  Egg  of  the  disciples 
of  Zoroaster  and  the  Initiates  in  the  Mysteries  of  Mithras. 

To  the  Initiates  in  the  Mysteries  of  Eleusis  was  exhibited  the 
spectacle  of  these  two  principles,  in  the  successive  scenes  of  Dark- 
ness and  Light  which  passed  before  their  eyes.  To  the  profound- 
est  darkness,  accompanied  with  illusions  and  horrid  phantoms, 
succeeded  the  most  brilliant  light,  whose  splendor  blazed  round 
the  statue  of  the  Goddess.  The  candidate,  says  Dion  Chrysosto- 
mus,  passed  into  a  mysterious  temple,  of  astonishing  magnitude 
and  beauty,  where  were  exhibited  to  him  many  mystic  scenes; 
where  his  ears  were  stunned  with  many  voices ;  and  where  Dark- 
ness and  Light  successively  passed  before  hirr\.  And  Themistius 
in  like  manner  describes  the  Initiate,  when  about  to  enter  into  that 
part  of  the  sanctuary  tenanted  by  the  Goddess,  as  filled  with  fear 
and  religious  awe,  wavering,  uncertain  in  what  direction  to  ad- 
vance through  the  profound  darkness  that  envelops  him.  But 
when  the  Hierophant  has  opened  the  entrance  to  the  inmost  sanc- 
tuary, and  removed  the  robe  that  hides  the  Goddess,  he  exhibits 
her  to  the  Initiate,  resplendent  with  divine  light.  The  thick 
shadow  and  gloomy  atmosphere  which  had  environed  the  candi- 
date vanish ;  he  is  filled  with  a  vivid  and  glowing  enthusiasm,  that 
lifts  his  soul  out  of  the  profound  dejection  in  which  it  was  plunged ; 
and  the  purest  light  succeeds  to  the  thickest  darkness. 

In  a  fragment  of  the  same  writer,  preserved  by  Stobaeus,  we 
learn  that  the  Initiate,  up  to  the  moment  when  his  initiation  is  to 
be  consummated,  is  alarmed  by  every  kind  of  sight :  that  aston- 
ishment and  terror  take  his  soul  captive ;  he  trembles ;  cold 
sweat  flows  from  his  body ;  until  the  moment  when  the  Light  is 
shown  him, — a  most  astounding  Light, — the  brilliant  scene  of 
Elysium,  where  he  sees  charming  meadows  overarched  by  a  clear 
sky,  and  festivals  celebrated  by  dances ;  where  he  hears  harmoni- 
ous voices,  and  the  majestic  chants  of  the  Hierophants ;  and 
views  the  sacred  spectacles.  Then,  absolutely  free,  and  enfran- 
chised from  the  dominion  of  all  ills,  he  mingles  with  the  crowd 
of  Initiates,  and,  crowned  with  flowers,  celebrates  with  them  the 
holy  orgies,  in  the  brilliant  realms  of  ether,  and  the  dwelling-place 
of  Ormuzd. 

In  the  Mysteries  of  Isis,  the  candidate  first  passed  through  the 


404  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death;  then  into  a  place  represent- 
ing the  elements  or  sublunary  world,  where  the  two  principles 
clash  and  contend ;  and  was  finally  admitted  to  a  luminous  region, 
where  the  sun,  with  his  most  brilliant  light,  put  to  rout  the  shades 
of  night.  Then  he  himself  put  on  the  costume  of  the  Sun-God, 
or  the  Visible  Source  of  Etherial  Light,  in  whose  Mysteries  he  was 
initiated;  and  passed  from  the  empire  of  darkness  to  that  of  light. 
After  having  set  his  feet  on  the  threshold  of  the  palace  of  Pluto, 
he  ascended  to  the  Empyrean,  to  the  bosom  of  the  Eternal  Prin- 
ciple of  Light  of  the  Universe,  from  which  all  souls  and  intelli- 
gences emanate. 

Plutarch  admits  that  this  theory  of  two  Principles  was  the  basis 
of  all  the  Mysteries,  and  consecrated  in  the  religious  ceremonies 
and  Mysteries  of  Greece.  Osiris  and  Typhon,  Ormuzd  and  Ahri- 
man,  Bacchus  and  the  Titans  and  Giants,  all  represented  these 
principles.  Phanes.  the  luminous  God  that  issued  from  the  Sacred 
Egg,  and  Night,  bore  the  sceptres  in  the  Mysteries  of  the  New 
Bacchus.  Night  and  Day  were  two  of  the  eight  Gods  adored  in 
the  Mysteries  of  Osiris.  The  sojourn  of  Proserpine  and  also  of 
Adonis,  during  six  months  of  each  year  in  the  upper  world,  abode 
of  light,  and  six  months  in  the  lower  or  abode  of  darkness,  alle- 
gorically  represented  the  same  division  of  the  Universe. 

The  connection  of  the  different  initiations  with  the  Equinoxes 
which  separate  the  Empire  of  the  Nights  from  that  of  the  Days, 
and  fix  the  moment  when  one  of  these  principles  begins  to  prevail 
over  the  other,  shows  that  the  Mysteries  referred  to  the  continual 
contest  between  the  two  principles  of  light  and  darkness,  each 
alternately  victor  and  vanquished.  The  very  object  proposed  by 
them  shows  that  their  basis  was  the  theory  of  the  two  principles 
and  their  relations  with  the  soul.  "We  celebrate  the  august  Mys- 
teries of  Ceres  and  Proserpine."  "TS  the  Emneror  Julian,  "at  the 
Autumnal  Equinox,  to  obtain  of  the  Gods  that  the  soul  may  not 
experience  the  mali.crnnt  nction  of  the  Power  of  Dnrkness  that  is 
then  about  to  have  sway  and  rule  in  Nature."  Sallust  the  Philos- 
opher makes  almost  the  samr  remark  ns  to  the  relations  of  the 
soul  with  the  periodical  march  of  Kent  and  darkness,  during:  an 
annual  revolution :  and  assures  us  that  the  mysterious  festivals  of 
Greece  related  to  the  same.  And  in  all  the  explanations  given  by 
Macrobim  of  the  Sacred  Fables  in  regard  to  the  Sun.  adored  under 
the  names  of  Osiris,  Horus,  Adonis,  Atvs,  Bacchus,  etc.,  we  inva- 


PRliNCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  405 

riably  see  that  they  refer  to  the  theory  of  the  two  Principles,  Light 
and  Darkness,  and  the  triumphs  gained  by  one  over  the  other.  In 
April  was  celebrated  the  first  triumph  obtained  by  the  light  of  day 
over  the  length  of  the  nights;  and  the  ceremonies  of  mourning 
and  rejoicing  had,  Alacrobius  says,  as  their  object,  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  annual  administration  of  the  world. 

This  brings  us  naturally  to  the  tragic  portion  of  these  religious 
scenes,  and  to  the  allegorical  history  of  the  different  adventures 
of  the  Principle,  Light,  victor  and  vanquished  by  turns,  in  the 
combats  waged  with  Darkness  during  each  annual  period.  Here 
we  reach  the  most  mysterious  part  of  the  ancient  initiations,  and 
that  most  interesting  to  the  Mason  who  laments  the  death  of  his 
Grand  Master  Khir-Om.  Over  it  Herodotus  throws  the  august 
veil  of  mystery  and  silence.  Speaking  of  the  Temple  of  Minerva,  or 
of  that  Isis  who  was  styled  the  Mother  of  the  Sun-God,  and  whose 
Mysteries  were  termed  Isiac,  at  Sais,  he  speaks  of  a  Tomb  in  tne 
Temple,  in  the  rear  of  the  Chapel  and  against  the  wall ;  and  says, 
"It  is  the  tomb  of  a  man,  whose  name  respect  requires  me  to  con- 
ceal. Within  the  Temple  \vere  great  obelisks  of  stone  [phalli], 
and  a  circular  lake  paved  with  stones  and  revetted  with  a  parapet. 
It  seemed  to  me  as  large  as  that  at  Delos"  [where  the  Mysteries  of 
Apollo  were  celebrated].  "In  this  lake  the  Egyptians  celebrate, 
during  the  night,  what  they  style  the  Mysteries,  in  which  are  rep- 
resented the  sufferings  of  the  God  of  whom  I  have  spoken  above." 
This  God  was  Osiris, put  to  death  byTyphon,andwho  descended  to 
the  Shades  and  was  restored  to  life  ;  of  which  he  had  spoken  before. 

We  are  reminded,  by  this  passage,  of  the  Tomb  of  Khir-Om,  his 
death,  and  his  rising  from  the  grave,  symbolical  of  restoration  of 
life ;  and  also  of  the  brazen  Sea  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  He- 
rodotus adds:  "I  impose  upon  myself  a  profound  silence  in  regard 
to  these  Mysteries,  with  most  of  which  I  am  acquainted.  As  little 
will  I  speak  of  the  initiations  of  Ceres,  known  among  the  Greeks 
as  Thesmophoria.  What  I  shall  say  will  not  violate  the  respect 
which  I  owe  to  religion." 

Athenagoras  quotes  this  passage  to  show  that  not  only  the  Statue 
but  the  Tomb  of  Osiris  was  exhibited  in  Egypt,  and  a  tragic  rep- 
resentation of  his  sufferings ;  and  remarks  that  the  Egyptians  had 
mourning  ceremonies  in  honor  of  their  Gods,  whose  deaths  they 
lamented ;  and  to  whom  they  afterward  sacrificed  as  having  passed 
to  a  state  of  immortality. 
a? 


406  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

It  is,  however,  not  difficult,  combining  the  different  rays  of  light 
that  emanate  from  the  different  Sanctuaries,  to  learn  the  genius 
and  the  object  of  these  secret  ceremonies.  We  have  hints,  and  not 
details. 

We  know  that  the  Egyptians  worshipped  the  Sun,  under  the 
name  of  Osiris.  The  misfortunes  and  tragical  death  of  this  God 
were  an  allegory  relating  to  the  Sun.  Typhon,  like  Ahriman,  rep- 
resented Darkness.  The  sufferings  and  death  of  Osiris  in  the 
Mysteries  of  the  Night  were  a  mystic  image  of  the  phenomena  of 
Nature,  and  the  conflict  of  the  two  great  Principles  which  share 
the  empire  of  Nature,  and  most  influence  our  souls.  The  Sun  is 
neither  born,  dies,  nor  is  raised  to  life:  and  the  recital  of  these 
events  was  but  an  allegory,  veiling  a  higher  truth. 

Horus,  son  of  Isis,  and  the  same  as  Apollo  or  the  Sun,  also  died 
and  was  restored  again  to  life  and  to  his  mother ;  and  the  priests 
cf  Isis  celebrated  these  great  events  by  mourning  and  joyous  fes- 
tival succeeding  each  other. 

In  the  Mysteries  of  Phoenicia,  established  in  honor  of  Thammuz 
or  Adoni,  also  the  Sun,  the  spectacle  of  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion was  exhibited  to  the  Initiates.  As  we  learn  from  Meursius 
and  Plutarch,  a  figure  was  exhibited  representing  the  corpse  of  a 
young  man.  Flowers  were  strewed  upon  his  body ,  the  women 
mourned  for  him ;  a  tomb  was  erected  to  him.  Aiid  these  feasts, 
as  we  learn  from  Plutarch  and  Ovid,  passed  into  Greece. 

In  the  Mysteries  of  Mithras,  the  Sun-God,  in  Asia  Minor,  Ar- 
menia and  Persia,  the  death  of  that  God  was  lamented,  and  his 
resurrection  was  celebrated  with  the  most  enthusiastic  expressions 
of  joy.  A  corpse,  we  learn  from  Julian  Firmicus,  was  shown  the 
Initiates,  representing  Mithras  dead ;  and  afterward  his  resurrec- 
tion was  announced;  and  they  were  then  invited  to  rejoice  that 
the  dead  God  was  restored  to  life,  and  had  by  means  of  his  suffer- 
ings secured  their  salvation.  Three  months  before,  his  birth  had 
been  celebrated,  under  the  emblem  of  an  infant,  born  on  the 
25th  of  December,  or  the  eighth  day  before  the  Kalends  of  Jan- 
uary. 

In  Greece,  in  the  Mysteries  of  the  same  God.  honored  under  the 
name  of  Bakchos,  a  representation  was  given  of  his  death,  slain 
by  the  Titans ;  of  his  descent  into  hell,  his  subsequent  resurrec- 
tion, and  his  return  toward  his  Principle  or  the  pure  abode  whence 
he  had  descended  to  unite  himself  with  matter.  In  the  islands 


PRINCE   OF   THE    iABERNACLE.  407 

of  Chios  and  Tenedos,  this  death  was  represented  by  the  sacrifice 
of  a  man,  actually  immolated. 

The  mutilation  and  sufferings  of  the  same  Sun-God,  honored 
in  Phrygia  under  the  name  of  Atys,  caused  the  tragic  scenes  that 
were,  as  we  learn  from  Diodorus  Siculus,  represented  annually  in 
the  Mysteries  of  Cybele,  mother  of  the  Gods.  An  image  was 
borne  there,  representing  the  corpse  of  a  young  man,  over  whose 
tomb  tears  were  shed,  and  to  whom  funeral  honors  were  paid. 

At  Samothrace,  in  the  Mysteries  of  the  Cabiri  or  great  Gods,  a 
representation  was  given  of  the  death  of  one  of  them.  This  name 
was  given  to  the  Sun,  because  the  Ancient  Astronomers  gave  the 
name  of  Gods  Cabiri  and  of  Samothrace  to  the  two  Gods  in  the 
Constellation  Gemini;  whom  others  term  Apollo  and  Hercules, 
two  names  of  the  Sun.  Athenion  says  that  the  young  Cabirus  so 
slain  was  the  same  as  the  Dionusos  or  Bakchos  of  the  Greeks.  The 
Pelasgi,  ancient  inhabitants  of  Greece,  and  who  settled  Samo- 
thrace, celebrated  these  Mysteries,  whose  origin  is  unknown :  and 
they  worshipped  Castor  and  Pollux  as  patrons  of  navigation. 

The  tomb  of  Apollo  was  at  Delphi,  where  his  body  was  laid, 
after  Python,  the  Polar  Serpent  that  annually  heralds  the  coming 
of  autumn,  cold,  darkness,  and  winter,  had  slain  him,  and  over 
whom  the  God  triumphs,  on  the  25th  of  March,  on  his  return  to 
the  lamb  of  the  Vernal  Equinox. 

In  Crete,  Jupiter  Ammon,  or  the  Sun  in  Aries,  painted  with  the 
attributes  of  that  equinoctial  sign,  the  Ram  or  Lamb ; — that  Am- 
mon who,  Martianus  Copella  says,  is  the  same  as  Osiris,  Adoni, 
Adonis,  Atys,  and  the  other  Sun-Gods, — had  also  a  tomb,  and  a 
religious  initiation  ;  one  of  the  principal  ceremonies  of  which  con- 
sisted in  clothing  the  Initiate  with  the  skin  of  a  white  lamb*  And 
in  this  we  see  the  origin  of  the  apron  of  white  sheep-skin,  used  in 
Masonry. 

All  these  deaths  and  resurrections,  these  funeral  emblems,  these 
anniversaries  of  mourning  and  joy,  these  cenotaphs  raised  in  dif- 
ferent places  to  the  Sun-God,  honored  under  different  names,  had 
but  a  single  object,  the  allegorical  narration  of  the  events  which 
happened  here  below  to  the  Light  of  Nature,  that  sacred  fire  from 
which  our  souls  were  deemed  to  emanate,  warring  with  Matter  and 
the  dark  Principle  resident  therein,  ever  at  varianae  with  the  Prin- 
ciple of  Good  and  Light  poured  upon  itself  by  the  Supreme  Divin- 
ity. All  these  Mysteries,  says  Clemens  of  Alexandria,  displaying 


408  MORALS    AND    DOGMA. 

to  us  murders  and  tombs  alone,  all  these  religious  tragedies,  had  a 
common  basis,  variously  ornamented :  and  that  basis  was  the  ficti- 
tious death  and  resurrection  of  the  Sun,  Soul  of  the  World,  princi- 
ple of  life  and  movement  in  the  Sublunary  World,  and  source  of 
our  intelligences,  which  are  but  a  portion  of  the  Eternal  Light 
blazing  in  that  Star,  their  chief  centre. 

It  was  in  the  Sun  that  Souls,  it  was  said,  were  purified :  and  to 
it  they  repaired.  It  was  one  of  the  gates  of  the  soul,  through 
which  the  theologians,  says  Porphyry,  say  that  it  re-ascends 
toward  the  home  oi  Light  and  the  Good.  Wherefore,  in  the  Mys- 
teries of  Eleusis  the  Dadoukos  (the  first  officer  after  the  Hiero- 
phant,  who  icpresented  the  Grand  Demiourgos  or  Maker  of  the 
Universe),  who  was  posted  in  the  interior  of  the  Temple,  and  there 
received  the  candidates,  represented  the  Sun. 

It  was  also  held  that  the  vicissitudes  experienced  by  the  Father 
of  Light  had  an  influence  on  the  destiny  of  souls ;  which,  of  the 
same  substance  as  he,  shared  his  fortunes.  This  we  learn  from  the 
Emperor  Julian  and  Sallust  the  Philosopher.  They  are  afflicted 
when  he  suffers :  they  rejoice  when  he  triumphs  over  the  Power 
of  Darkness  which  opposes  his  sway  and  hinders  the  happiness  of 
Souls,  to  whom  nothing  is  so  terrible  as  darkness.  The  fruit  of 
the  sufferings  of  the  God,  father  of  light  and  Souls,  slain  by  the 
Chief  of  the  Powers  of  Darkness,  and  again  restored  to  life,  was 
received  in  the  Mysteries.  "His  death  works  your  Salvation ;" 
said  the  High  Priest  of  Mithras.  That  was  the  great  secret  of  this 
religious  tragedy,  and  its  expected  fruit ; — the  resurrection  of  a 
God,  who,  repossessing  Himself  of  His  dominion  over  Darkness, 
should  associate  with  Him  in  His  triumph  those  virtuous  Souls 
that  bV  their  purity  were  worthy  to  share  His  glory  ;  and  that 
strove  not  against  the  divine  force  that  drew  them  to  Him,  when 
He  had  thus  conquered. 

To  the  Initiate  were  also  displayed  the  spectacles  of  the  chief 
agents  of  the  Universal  Cause,  and  of  the  distribution  of  the  world, 
in  the  detail  of  its  parts  arranged  in  most  regular  order.  The 
Universe  itself  supplied  man  with  the  model  of  the  first  Temple 
reared  to  the  Divinity.  The  arrangement  of  the  Temple  of  Solo- 
mon, the  symbolic  ornaments  which  formed  its  chief  decorations, 
and  the  dress  of  the  High  Priest, — all.  as  Clemens  of  Alexandria, 
Josephus  and  Philo  state,  had  reference  to  the  order  of  the  world. 
Clemens  informs  us  that  the  Temple  contained  many  emblems  of 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  409 

the  Seasons,  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  the  planets,  the  constellations 
Ursa  Major  and  Minor,  the  zodiac,  the  elements,  and  the  other 
parts  of  the  world. 

Josephus,  in  his  description  of  the  High  Priest's  Vestments, 
protesting  against  the  charge  of  impiety  brought  against  the  He- 
brews by  other  nations,  for  contemning  the  Heathen  Divinities, 
declares  it  false,  because,  in  the  construction  of  the  Tabernacle,  in 
the  vestments  of  the  Sacrificers,  and  in  the  Sacred  vessels,  the 
whole  World  was  in  some  sort  represented.  Of  the  three  parts,  he 
says,  into  which  the  Temple  was  divided,  two  represent  Earth  and 
Sea,  open  to  all  men,  and  the  third,  Heaven,  God's  dwelling-place, 
reserved  for  Him  alone.  The  twelve  loaves  of  Shew-bread  signify 
the  twelve  months  of  the  year.  The  Candlestick  represented  the 
twelve  signs  through  which  the  Seven  Planets  run  their  courses ; 
and  the  seven  lights,  those  planets ;  the  veils,  of  four  colors,  the 
four  elements ;  the  tunic  of  the  High  Priest,  the  earth ;  the 
Hyacinth,  nearly  blue,  the  Heavens ;  the  ephod,  of  four  colors, 
the  whole  of  nature ;  the  gold,  Light ;  the  breast-plate,  in  the 
middle,  this  earth  in  the  centre  of  the  world ;  the  two  Sardonyxes, 
used  as  clasps,  the  Sun  and  Moon ;  and  the  twelve  precious  stones 
of  the  breast-plate  arranged  by  threes,  like  the  Seasons,  the  twelve 
months, and  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac.  Even  the  loaves  were  ar- 
ranged in  two  groups  of  six,  like  the  zodiacal  signs  above  and 
below  the  Equator.  Clemens,  the  learned  Bishop  of  Alexandria, 
and  Philo,  adopt  all  these  explanations. 

Hermes  calls  the  Zodiac,  the  Great  Tent, — Tabernaculum.  In 
the  Royal  Arch  Degree  of  the  American  Rite,  the  Tabernacle  has 
four  veils,  of  different  colors,  to  each  of  which  belongs  a  banner. 
The  colors  of  the  four  are  White,  Blue,  Crimson,  and  Purple,  and 
the  banners  bear  the  images  of  the  Bull,  the  Lion,  the  Man.  and 
the  Eagle,  the  Constellations  answering  2500  years  before  our  era 
to  the  Equinoctial  and  Solstitial  points :  to  which  belong  four  stars, 
Aldebaran,  Regulus.  Fomalhaut,  and  Antares.  At  each  of  these 
veils  there  are  three  words :  and  to  each  division  of  the  Zodiac, 
belonging  to  each  of  these  Stars,  are  three  Signs.  The  four  signs, 
Taurus,  Leo,  Scorpio,  and  Aquarius,  were  termed  the  fixed  signs, 
and  are  appropriately  assigned  to  the  four  veils. 

So  the  Cherubim,  according  to  Clemens  and  Philo,  represented 
the  two  hemispheres  ;  their  wings,  the  rapid  course  of  the  firma- 
ment, and  of  time  which  revolves  in  the  Zodiac.  "For  the  Heavens 


4IO  MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

fly ;"  says  Philo,  speaking  of  the  wings  of  the  Cherubim :  which 
were  winged  representations  of  the  Lion,  the  Bull,  the  Eagle,  and 
the  Man ;  of  tw-o  of  which,  the  human-headed,  winged  bulls  and 
lions,  so  many  have  been  found  at  Nimroud ;  adopted  as  beneficent 
symbols,  when  the  Sun  entered  Taurus  at  the  Vernal  Equinox  and 
Leo  at  the  Summer  Solstice:  and  when,  also,  he  entered  Scorpio,  for 
which,  on  account  of  its  malignant  influences,  Aquila,  the  eagle 
was  substituted,  at  the  autumnal  equinox;  and  Aquarius  (the 
water-bearer)  at  the  Winter  Solstice. 

So,  Clemens  says,  the  candlestick  with  seven  branches  represent- 
ed the  seven  planets,  like  which  the  seven  branches  were  arranged 
and  regulated,  preserving  that  musical  proportion  and  system  of 
harmony  of  which  the  sun  was  the  centre  and  connection.  -They 
were  arranged,  says  Philo,  by  threes,  like  the  planets  above  and 
those  below  the  sun ;  between  which  two  groups  was  the  branch 
that  represented  him,  the  mediator  or  moderator  of  the  celestial 
harmony.  He  is,  in  fact,  the  fourth  in  the  musical  scale,  as  Philo 
remarks,  and  Martianus  Capella  in  his  hymn  to  the  Sun. 

Near  the  candlestick  were  other  emblems  representing  the  heav- 
ens, earth,  and  the  vegetative  matter  out  of  whose  bosom  the  vapors 
arise.  The  whole  temple  was  an  abridged  image  of  the  world. 
There  were  candlesticks  with  four  branches,  symbols  of  the  ele- 
ments and  the  seasons  ;  with  twelve,  symbols  of  the  signs ;  and 
even  with  three  hundred  and  sixty,  the  number  of  days  in  the 
year,  without  the  supplementary  days.  Imitating  the  famous  Tem- 
ple of  Tyre,  where  were  the  great  columns  consecrated  to  the  winds 
and  fire,  the  Tyrian  artist  placed  two  columns  of  bronze  at  the 
entrance  of  the  porch  of  the  temple.  The  hemispherical  brazen 
sea,  supported  by  four  groups  of  bulls,  of  three  each,  looking  to  the 
four  cardinal  points  of  the  compass,  represented  the  bull  of  the 
Vernal  Equinox, and  at  Tyre  were  consecrated  toAstarte;  to  whom 
Hiram,  Josephus  says,  had  builded  a  temple,  and  who  wore  on  her 
head  a  helmet  bearing  the  image  of  a  bull.  And  the  throne  of  Sol- 
omon, with  bulls  adorning  its  arms,  and  supported  on  lions,  like 
those  of  Horus  in  Egypt  and  of  the  Sun  at  Tyre,  likewise  referred 
to  the  Vernal  Equinox  and  Summer  Solstice. 

Those  who  in  Thrace  adored  the  sun,  under  the  name  of  Saba- 
Zeus,  the  Grecian  Bakchos.  builded  to  him,  says  Macrobius,  a 
temple  on  Mount  Zelmisso,  its  round  form  representing  the  world 
and  the  sun.  A  circular  aperture  in  the  roof  admitted  the  light, 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  4!  I 

and  introduced  the  image  of  the  sun  into  the  body  of  the  sanctu- 
ary, where  he  seemed  to  blaze  as  in  the  heights  of  Heaven,  and  to 
dissipate  the  darkness  within  that  temple  which  was  a  representa- 
tive symbol  of  the  world.  There  the  passion,  death,  and  resurrec- 
tion of  Bakchos  were  represented. 

So  the  Temple  of  Eleusis  was  lighted  by  a  window  in  the  roof. 
The  sanctuary  so  lighted,  Dion  compares  to  the  Universe,  from 
which  he  says  it  differed  in  size  alone;  and  in  it  the  great  lights 
of  nature  played  a  great  part  and  were  mystically  represented. 
The  images  of  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  Mercury  were  represented  there, 
(the  latter  the  same  as  Anubis  who  accompanied  Isis)  ;  and  they 
are  still  the  three  lights  of  a  Masonic  Lodge ;  except  that  for  Mer- 
cury, the  Master  of  the  Lodge  has  been  absurdly  substituted. 

Eusebius  names  as  the  principal  Ministers  in  the  Mysteries  of 
Eleusis,  first,  the  Hicrophaiit,  clothed  with  the  attributes  of  the 
Grand  Architect  (Demiourgos)  of  the  Universe.  After  him  came 
the  Dadoukos,  or  torch-bearer,  representative  of  the  Sun  :  then 
the  altar-bearer,  representing  the  Moon :  and  last,  the  Hicroceryx, 
bearing  the  caduceus,  and  representing  Mercury.  It  was  not 
permissible  to  reveal  the  different  emblems  and  the  mysterious 
pageantry  of  initiation  to  the  Profane ;  and  therefore  we  do  not 
know  the  attributes,  emblems,  and  ornaments  of  these  and  other 
officers  ;  of  which  Apuleius  and  Pausanias  dared  not  speak. 

We  know  only  that  everything  recounted  there  was  marvellous  ; 
everything  done  there  tended  to  astonish  the  Initiate :  and  that 
eyes  and  ears  were  equally  astounded.  The  Hierophant,  of  lofty 
height,  and  noble  features,  with  long  hair,  of  a  great  age,  grave 
and  dignified,  with  a  voice  sweet  and  sonorous,  sat  upon  a  throne, 
clad  in  a  long  trailing  robe ;  as  the  Motive-God  of  Nature  was 
held  to  be  enveloped  in  His  work  and  hidden  under  a  veil  which 
no  mortal  can  raise.  Even  His  name  was  concealed,  like  that  of 
the  Demiourgos,  whose  name  was  ineffable. 

The  Dadoukos  also  wore  a  long  robe,  his  hair  long,  and  a  ban- 
deau on  his  forehead.  Callias,  when  holding  that  office,  fighting 
on  the  great  day  of  Marathon,  clothed  with  the  insignia  of  his 
office,  was  taken  by  the  Barbarians  to  be  a  King.  The  Dadoukos 
led  the  procession  of  the  Initiates,  and  was  charged  with  the 
purifications. 

We  do  not  know  the  functions  of  the  Epibomos  or  assistant  at 
the  altar,  who  represented  the  moon.  That  planet  was  one  of  the 


412  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

two  homes  of  souls,  and  one  of  the  two  great  gates  by  which  they 
descended  and  reascended.  Mercury  was  charged  with  the  con- 
ducting of  souls  through  the  two  great  gates ;  and  in  going  from 
the  sun  to  the  moon  they  passed  immediately  by  him.  He  ad- 
mitted or  rejected  them  as  they  were  more  or  less  pure,  and  there- 
fore the  Hieroceryx  or  Sacred  Herald,  who  represented  Mercury, 
was  charged  with  the  duty  of  excluding  the  Profane  from  the 
Mysteries. 

The  same  officers  are  found  in  the  procession  of  Initiates  of  Isis, 
described  by  Apuleius.  All  clad  in  robes  of  white  linen,  drawn 
tight  across  the  breast,  and  close-fitting  down  to  the  very  feet, 
came,  first,  one  bearing  a  lamp  in  the  shape  of  a  boat ;  second,  one 
carrying  an  altar;  and  third,  one  carrying  a  golden  palm-tree 
and  the  caduceus.  These  are  the  same  as  the  three  officers  at  Eleu- 
sis,  after  the  Hierophant.  Then  one  carrying  an  open  hand,  and 
pouring  milk  on  the  ground  from  a  golden  vessel  in  the  shape  of 
a  woman's  breast.  The  hand  was  that  of  justice:  and  the  milk 
alluded  to  the  Galaxy  or  Milky  Way,  along  which  souls  descended 
and  remounted.  Two  others  followed,  one  bearing  a  winnowing 
fan,  and  the  other  a  water-vase ;  symbols  of  the  purification  of 
souls  by  air  and  water ;  and  the  third  purification,  by  earth,  was 
represented  by  an  image  of  the  animal  that  cultivates  it,  the  cow 
or  ox,  borne  by  another  officer. 

Then  followed  a  chest  or  ark,  magnificently  ornamented,  con- 
taining an  image  of  the  organs  of  generation  of  Osiris,,  or  perhaps 
of  both  sexes ;  emblems  of  the  original  generating  and  producing 
Powers.  When  Typhon,  said  the  Egyptian  fable,  cut  up  the  body 
of  Osiris  into  pieces,  he  flung  his  genitals  into  the  Nile,  where  a 
fish  devoured  them.  Atys  multilated  himself,  as  his  Priests  after- 
ward did  in  imitation  of  him  ;  and  Adonis  was  in  that  part  of  his 
body  wounded  by  the  boar :  all  of  which  represented  the  loss  by 
the  Sun  of  his  vivifying  and  generative  power,  when  he  reached 
the  Autumnal  Equinox  (the  Scorpion  that  on  old  monuments  bites 
those  parts  of  the  Vernal  Bull),  and  descended  toward  the  region 
of  darkness  and  Winter. 

Then,  says  Apuleius,  came  "one  who  carried  in  his  bosom  an 
object  that  rejoiced  the  heart  of  the  bearer,  a  venerable  effigy  of 
the  Supreme  Deity,  neither  bearing  resemblance  to  man,  cattle, 
bird,  beast,  or  any  living  creature  :  an  exquisite  invention,  veneia- 
ble  from  the  novel  originality  of  the  fashioning;  a  wonderful, 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  413 

ineffable  symbol  of  religious  mysteries,  to  be  looked  upon  in  pro- 
found silence.  Such  as  it  was,  its  figure  was  that  of  a  small  urn 
of  burnished  gold,  hollowed  very  artistically,  rounded  at  the  bot- 
tom, and  covered  all  over  the  outside  with  the  wonderful  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  Egyptians.  The  spout  was  not  elevated,  but 
extended  laterally,  projecting  like  a  long  rivulet;  while  on  the 
opposite  side  was  the  handle,  which,  with  similar  lateral  extension, 
bore  on  its  summit  an  asp,  curling  its  body  into  folds,  and  stretch- 
ing upward,  its  wrinkled,  scaly,  swollen  throat." 

The  salient  basilisk,  or  royal  ensign  of  the  Pharaohs,  of  ten  occurs 
on  the  monuments — a  serpent  in  folds,  with  his  head  raised  erect 
above  the  folds.  The  basilisk  was  the  Phoenix  of  the  serpent- 
tribe  ;  and  the  vase  or  urn  was  probably  the  vessel,  shaped  like  a 
cucumber,  with  a  projecting  spout,  out  of  which,  on  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt,  the  priests  are  represented  pouring  streams  of 
the  cruz  ansata  or  Tau  Cross,  and  of  sceptres,  over  the  kings. 

In  the  Mysteries  of  Mithras,  a  sacred  cave,  representing  the 
whole  arrangement  of  the  world,  was  used  for  the  reception  of  the 
Initiates.  Zoroaster,  says  Eubulus,  first  introduced  this  custom 
of  consecrating  caves.  They  were  also  consecrated,  in  Crete,  to 
Jupiter ;  in  Arcadia,  to  the  Moon  and  Pan ;  and  in  the  Island 
of  Naxos,  to  Bacchus.  The  Persians,  in  the  cave  where  the  Mys- 
teries of  Mithras  were  celebrated,  fixed  the  seat  of  that  God, 
Father  of  Generation,  or  Demiourgos,  near  the  equinoctial  point 
of  Spring,  with  the  Northern  portion  of  the  world  on  his  right, 
and  the  Southern  on  his  left. 

Mithras,  says  Porphyry,,  presided  over  the  Equinoxes,  seated  on 
a  Bull,  the  symbolical  animal  of  the  Demiourgos,  and  bearing  a 
sword.  The  equinoxes  were  the  gates  through  which  souls  passed 
to  and  fro,  between  the  hemisphere  of  light  and  that  of  darkness. 
The  milky  way  was  also  represented,  passing  near  each  of  these 
gates  :  and  it  was,  in  the  old  theology,  termed  the  path\vay  of  souls. 
It  is.  according  to  Pythagoras,  vast  troops  of  souls  that  form  that 
luminous  belt. 

The  route  followed  by  souls,  according  to  Porphyry,  or  rather 
their  progressive  march  in  the  world,  lying  through  the  fixed  stars 
and  planets,  the  Mithriac  cave  not  only  displayed  the  zodiacal 
and  other  constellations,  and  marked  gates  at  the  four  equinoctial 
and  solstitial  points  of  the  zodiac,  whereat  souls  enter  into  and 
escape  from  the  world  of  generations ;  and  through  which  they 


414  MORALS   AND  DOGMA, 

pass  to  and  fro  between  the  realms  of  light  and  darkness ;  but  it 
represented  the  seven  planetary  spheres  which  they  needs  must 
traverse,  in  descending  from  the  heaven  of  the  fixed  stars  to  the 
elements  that  envelop  the  earth;  and  seven  gates  were  marked, 
one  for  each  planet,  through  which  they  pass,  in  descending  or 
returning. 

We  learn  this  from  Celsus,  in  Origen;  who  says  that  the  sym- 
bolical image  of  this  passage  among  the  Stars,  used  in  the  Mith- 
riac  Mysteries,  was  a  ladder,  reaching  from  earth  to  Heaven,  di- 
vided into  seven  steps  or  stages,  to  each  of  which  was  a  gate,  and  at 
the  summit  an  eighth,  that  of  the  fixed  stars.  The  first  gate,  says 
Celsus,  was  that  of  Saturn,  and  of  lead,  by  the  heavy  nature 
whereof  his  dull  slow  progress  was  symbolized.  The  second,  of 
tin,  was  that  of  Venus,  symbolizing  her  soft  splendor  and  easy  flex- 
ibility. The  third,  of  brass,  was  that  of  Jupiter,  emblem  of  his 
solidity  and  dry  nature.  The  fourth,  of  iron,  was  that  of  Mercury, 
expressing  his  indefatigable  activity  and  sagacity.  The  fifth,  of 
copper,  was  that  of  Mars,  expressive  of  his  inequalities  and  varia- 
ble nature.  The  sixth,  of  silver,  was  that  of  the  Moon :  and  the 
seventh,  of  gold,  that  of  the  Sun.  This  order  is  not  the  real 
order  of  these  Planets ;  but  a  mysterious  one,  like  that  of  the  days 
of  the  Week  consecrated  to  them,  commencing  with  Saturday,  and 
retrograding  to  Sunday.  It  was  dictated,  Celsus  says,  by  certain 
harmonic  relations,  those  of  the  fourth. 

Thus  there  was  an  intimate  connection  between  the  Sacred 
Science  of  the  Mysteries,  and  ancient  astronomy  and  physics ;  and 
the  grand  spectacle  of  the  Sanctuaries  was  that  of  the  order  of  the 
Known  Universe,  or  the  spectacle  of  Nature  itself,  surrounding 
the  soul  of  the  Initiate,  as  it  surrounded  it  when  it  first  descended 
through  the  planetary  gates,  and  by  the  equinoctial  and  solstitial 
doors,  along  the  Milky  Way,  to  be  for  the  first  time  immured  in 
its  prison-house  of  matter.  But  the  Mysteries  also  represented  to 
the  candidate,  by  sensible  symbols,  the  invisible  forces  which  move 
this  visible  Universe,  and  the  virtues,  qualities,  and  powers  attached 
to  matter,  and  which  maintain  the  marvellous  order  observed 
therein.  Of  this  Porphyry  informs  us. 

The  world,  according  to  the  philosophers  of  antiquity,  was  not  a 
purely  material  and  mechanical  machine.  A  great  Soul,  diffused 
everywhere,  vivified  all  the  members  of  the  immense  body  of  the 
Universe ;  and  an  Intelligence,  equally  great,  directed  all  its  move- 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  415 

ments,  and  maintained  the  eternal  harmony  that  resulted  there- 
from*. Thus  the  Unity  of  the  Universe,  represented  by  the  sym- 
bolic egg,  contained  in  itself  two  unities,  the  Soul  and  the  Intelli- 
gence, which  pervaded  all  its  parts :  and  they  were  to  the  Universe, 
considered  as  an  animated  and  intelligent  being,  what  intelligence 
and  the  soul  of  life  are  to  the  individuality  of  man. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Unity  of  God,  in  this  sense,  was  taught  by 
Orpheus.  Of  this  his  hymn  or  palinode  is  a  proof ;  fragments  of 
which  are  quoted  by  many  of  the  Fathers,  as  Justin,  Tatian,  Clem- 
ens of  Alexandria,  Cyril,  and  Theodoret,  and  the  whole  by  Euse- 
bius,  quoting  from  Aristobulus.  The  doctrine  of  the  LOGOS 
(word)  or  the  Noos  (intellect),  his  incarnation,  death,  resurrec- 
tion or  transfiguration ;  of  his  union  with  matter,  his  division 
in  the  visible  world,  which  he  pervades,  his  return  to  the  original 
Unity,  and  the  whole  theory  relative  to  the  origin  of  the  soul  and 
its  destiny,  were  taught  in  the  Mysteries,  of  which  they  were  the 
great  object. 

The  Emperor  Julian  explains  the  Mysteries  of  Atys  and  Cybele 
by  the  same  metaphysical  principles,  respecting  the  clemiurgical 
Intelligence,  its  descent  into  matter,  and  its  return  to  its  origin: 
and  extends  this  explanation  to  those  of  Ceres.  And  so  likewise 
does  Sallust  the  Philosopher,  who  admits  in  God  a  secondary  intel- 
ligent Force,  which  descends  into  the  generative  matter  to  organ- 
ize it.  These  mystical  ideas  naturally  formed  a  part  of  the  sacred 
doctrine  and  of  the  ceremonies  of  initiation,  the  object  of  which, 
Sallust  remarks,  was  to  unite  man  with  the  World  and  the  Deity ; 
and  the  final  term  of  perfection  whereof  was,  according  to  Cle- 
mens, the  contemplation  of  nature,  of  real  beings,  and  of  causes. 
The  definition  of  Sallust  is  correct.  The  Mysteries  were  practised 
as  a  means  of  perfecting  the  soul,  of  making  it  to  know  its  own 
dignity,  of  reminding  it  of  its  noble  origin  and  immortality,  and 
consequently  of  its  relations  with  the  Universe  and  the  Deity. 

What  was  meant  by  real  beings,  was  invisible  beings,  genii,  the 
faculties  or  powers  of  nature ;  everything  not  a  part  of  the  visible 
world,  which  was  called,  by  way  of  opposition,  apparent  existence. 
The  theory  of  Genii,  or  Powers  of  Nature,  and  its  Forces,  person- 
ified, made  part  of  the  Sacred  Science  of  initiation,  and  of  that 
religious  spectacle  of  different  beings  exhibited  in  the  Sanctuary. 
It  resulted  from  that  belief  in  the  providence  and  superintendence 
of  the  Gods,  which  was  one  of  the  primary  bases  of  initiation.  The 


416  MOfeALS  AND  DOGMA. 

administration  of  the  Universe  by  Subaltern  Genii,  to  whom  it  is 
confided,  and  by  whom  good  and  evil  are  dispensed  in  the  world, 
was  a  consequence  of  this  dogma,  taught  in  the  Mysteries  of 
Mithras,  where  was  shown  that  famous  egg,  shared  between 
Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  each  of  whom  commissioned  twenty-four 
Genii  to  dispense  the  good  and  evil  found  therein ;  they  being 
under  twelve  Superior  Gods,  six  on  the  side  of  Light  and  Good, 
and  six  on  that  of  Darkness  and  Evil. 

This  doctrine  of  the  Genii,  depositaries  of  the  Universal  Provi- 
dence, was  intimately  connected  with  the  Ancient  Mysteries,  and 
adopted  in  the  sacrifices  and  initiations  both  of  Greeks  and  Barba- 
rians. Plutarch  says  that  the  Gods,  by  means  of  Genii,  who  are 
intermediates  between  them  and  men,  draw  near  to  mortals  in  the 
ceremonies  of  initiation,  at  which  the  Gods  charge  them  to  assist, 
and  to  distribute  punishment  and  blessing.  Thus  not  the 
Deity,  but  His  ministers,  or  a  Principle  and  Power  of  Evil,  were 
deemed  the  authors  of  vice  and  sin  and  suffering:  and  thus  the 
Genii  or  angels  differed  in  character  like  men,  some  being  good 
and  some  evil ;  some  Celestial  Gods,  Archangels,  Angels,  and 
some  Infernal  Gods,  Demons  and  fallen  Angels. 

At  the  head  of  the  latter  was  their  Chief,  Typhon,  Ahriman,  or 
Shaitan,  the  Evil  Principle;  who,  having  wrought  disorder  in  na- 
ture, brought  troubles  on  men  by  land  and  sea,  and  caused  the 
greatest  ills,  is  at  last  punished  for  his  crimes.  It  was  these  events 
and  incidents,  says  Plutarch,  which  Isis  desired  to  represent  in  the 
ceremonial  of  the  Mysteries,  established  by  her  in  memory  of  her 
sorrows  and  wanderings,  whereof  she  exhibited  an  image  and  rep- 
resentation in  her  Sanctuaries,  where  also  were  afforded  encour- 
agements to  piety  and  consolation  in  misfortune.  The  dogma  of 
a  Providence,  he  says,  administering  the  Universe  by  means  of 
intermediary  Powers,  who  maintain  the  connection  of  man  with 
the  Divinity,  was  consecrated  in  the  Mysteries  of  the  Egyptians, 
Phrygians,  and  Thracians,  of  the  Magi  and  the  Disciples  of  Zoro- 
aster; as  is  plain  by  their  initiations,  in  which  mournful  and 
funereal  ceremonies  mingled.  It  was  an  essential  part  of  the  les- 
sons given  the  Initiates,  to  teach  them  the  relations  of  their  own 
souls  with  Universal  Nature,  the  greatest  lessons  of  all,  meant  to 
dignify  man  in  his  own  eyes,  and  teach  him  his  place  in  the  Uni- 
verse of  things. 

Thus  the  whole  system  of  the  Universe  was  displayed  in  all  its 


PRINCE  Ol'  THE  TABKRXACLE. 

parts  to  the  eyes  of  the  Initiate ;  and  the  symbolic  cave  which  rep- 
resented it  was  adorned  and  clothed  with  all  the  attributes  of  that 
Universe.  To  this  world  so  organized,  endowed  with  a  double 
force,  active  and  passive,  divided  between  light  and  darkness, 
moved  by  a  living'  and  intelligent  Force,  governed  by  Genii  or 
Angels  who  preside  over  its  different  parts,  and  whose  nature  and 
character  are  more  lofty  or  low  in  proportion  as  they  possess  a 
greater  or  less  portion  of  dark  matter, — to  this  world  descends  the 
soul,  emanation  of  the  ethereal  fire,  and  exiled  from  the  luminous 
region  above  the  world.  It  enters  into  this  dark  matter,  wherein 
the  hostile  Principles,  each  seconded  by  his  troops  of  Genii,  are 
ever  in  conflict,  there  to  submit  to  one  or  more  organizations  in 
the  body  which  is  its  prison,  until  it  shall  at  last  return  to  its  place 
of  origin,  its  true  native  country,  from  which  during  this  life  it  is 
an  exile. 

But  one  thing  remained. — to  represent  its  return,  through  the 
constellations  and  planetary  spheres,  to  its  original  home.  The 
celestial  fire,  the  philosophers  said,  soul  of  the  world  and  of  fire, 
an  universal  principle,  circulating  above  the  Heavens,  in  a  region 
infinitely  pure  and  wholly  luminous,  itself  pure,  simple,  and  un- 
mixed, is  above  the  world  by  its  specific  lightness.  If  any  part  of  it 
(say  a  human  soul)  descends,  it  acts  against  its  nature  in  doing  so, 
urged  by  an  inconsiderate  desire  of  the  intelligence,  a  perfidious 
love  for  matter  which  causes  it  to  descend,  to  know  what  passes 
here  below,  where  good  and  evil  are  in  conflict.  The  Soul,  a 
simple  substance,  when  unconnected  with  matter,  a  ray  or  parti- 
cle of  the  Divine  Fire,  whose  home  is  in  Heaven,  ever  turns  to- 
ward that  home,  while  united  with  the  body,  and  struggles  to 
return  thither. 

Teaching  this,  the  Mysteries  strove  to  recall  man  to  his  divine 
origin,  and  point  out  to  him  the  means  of  returning  thither.  The 
great  science  acquired  in  the  Mysteries  was  knowledge  of  man's 
self,  of  the  nobleness  of  his  origin,  the  grandeur  of  his  destiny,  and 
his  superiority  over  the  animals,  which  can  never  acquire  this 
knowledge,  and  whom  he  resembles  so  long  as  he  does  not  reflect 
upon  his  existence  and  sound  the  depths  of  his  own  nature. 

By  doing  and  suffering,  by  virtue  and  piety  and  good  deeds,  the 
soul  was  enabled  at  length  to  free  itself  from  the  body,  and  ascend 
along  the  path  of  the  Milky  Way,  by  the  gate  of  Capricorn  and  by 
the  seven  spheres,  to  the  place  whence  by  many  gradations  and 


418  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

successive  lapses  and  enthralments  it  had  descended.  And  thus  the 
theory  of  the  spheres,  and  of  the  signs  and  intelligences  which  pre- 
side there,  and  the  whole  system  of  astronomy,  were  connected 
with  that  of  the  soul  and  its  destiny ;  and  so  were  taught  in  the 
Mysteries,  in  which  were  developed  the  great  principles  of  physics 
and  metaphysics  as  to  the  origin  of  the  soul,  its  condition  here 
below,  its  destination,  and  its  future  fate. 

The  Greeks  fix  the  date  of  the  establishment  of  the  Mysteries  of 
Eleusis  at  the  year  1423  B.  C,  during  the  reign  of  Erechtheus  at 
Athens.  According  to  some  authors,  they  were  instituted  by  Ceres 
herself;  and  according  to  others,  by  that  Monarch,  who  brought 
them  from  Egypt,  where,  according  to  Diodorus  of  Sicily,  he  was 
born.  Another  tradition  was,  that  Orpheus  introduced  them  into 
Greece,  together  with  the  Dionisiac  ceremonies,  copying  the  latter 
from  the  Mysteries  of  Osiris,  and  the  former  from  those  of  Isis. 

Nor  was  it  at  Athens  only,  that  the  worship  and  Mysteries  of 
Isis,  metamorphosed  into  Ceres,  were  established.  The  Boeotians 
worshipped  the  Great  or  Cabiric  Ceres,  in  the  recesses  of  a  sacred 
grove,  into  which  none  but  Initiates  could  enter ;  and  the  ceremo- 
nies there  observed,  and  the  sacred  traditions  of  their  Mysteries, 
were  connected  with  those  of  the  Cabiri  in  Samothrace. 

So  in  Argos,  Phocis,  Arcadia,  Achaia,  Messenia,  Corinth,  and 
many  other  parts  of  Greece, the  Mysteries  were  practised,  revealing 
everywhere  their  Egyptian  origin  and  everywhere  having  the  same 
general  features ;  but  those  of  Eleusis,  in  Attica,  Pausanius  in- 
forms us,  had  been  regarded  by  the  Greeks,  from  the  earliest 
times,  as  being  as  far  superior  to  all  the  others,  as  the  Gods  are 
to  mere  Heroes. 

Similar  to  these  were  the  Mysteries  of  Bona  Dea,  the  Good  God- 
dess, whose  name,  say  Cicero  and  Plutarch,  it  was  not  permitted 
to  any  man  to  know,  celebrated  at  Rome  from  the  earliest  times  of 
that  city.  It  was  these  Mysteries,  practised  by  women  alone,  the 
secrecy  of  which  was  impiously  violated  by  Clodius.  They  were 
held  at  the  Kalends  of  May ;  and.  according  to  Plutarch,  much  of 
the  ceremonial  greatly  resembled  that  of  the  Mysteries  of  Bakchos. 

The  Mysteries  of  Venus  and  Adonis  belonged  principally  to  Sy- 
ria and  Phoenicia,  whence  they  passed  into  Greece  and  Sicily. 
Venus  or  Astarte  was  the  Great  Female  Deity  of  the  Phoenicians, 
as  Hercules,  Melkarth  or  Adoni  was  their  Chief  God.  Adoni, 
called  by  the  Greeks  Adonis,  was  the  lover  of  Venus.  Slain  by  a 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 

wound  in  the  thigh  inflicted  by  a  wild  boar  in  the  chase,  the  flower 
called  anemone  sprang  from  his  blood.  Venus  received  the  corpse 
and  obtained  from  Jupiter  the  boon  that  her  lover  should  thereaf- 
ter pass  six  months  of  each  year  with  her,  and  the  other  six  in  the 
Shades  with  Proserpine ;  an  allegorical  description  of  the  alternate 
residence  of  the  Sun  in  the  two  hemispheres.  In  these  Mysteries 
his  death  was  represented  and  mourned,  and  after  this  maceration 
and  mourning  were  concluded,  his  resurrection  and  ascent  to 
Heaven  were  announced. 

Ezekiel  speaks  of  the  festivals  of  Adonis  under  the  name  of 
those  of  Thammuz,an  Assyrian  Deity,  whom  every  year  the  women 
mourned,  seated  at  the  doors  of  their  dwellings.  These  Mysteries, 
like  the  others,  were  celebrated  in  the  Spring,  at  the  Vernal  Equi- 
nox, when  he  was  restored  to  life ;  at  which  time,  when  they  were 
instituted,  the  Sun  (ADON,  Lord,  or  Master)  was  in  the  Sign  Tau- 
rus, the  domicile  of  Venus.  He  was  represented  with  horns, 
and  the  hymn  of  Orpheus  in  his  honor  styles  him  "the  two-horned 
God;"  as  in  Argos  Bakchos  was  represented  with  the  feet  of  a 
bull. 

Plutarch  says  that  Adonis  and  Bakchos  were  regarded  as  one 
and  the  same  Deity ;  and  that  this  opinion  was  founded  on  the 
great  similarity  in  very  many  respects  between  the  Mysteries  of 
these  two  Gods. 

The  Mysteries  of  Bakchos  were  known  as  the  Sabazian,  Orphic, 
and  Dionysiac  Festival's.  They  went  back  to  the  remotest  antiq- 
uity among  the  Greeks,  and  were  attributed  by  some  to  Bakchos 
himself,  and  by  others  to  Orpheus.  The  resemblance  in  ceremo- 
nial between  the  observances  established  in  honor  of  Osiris  in 
Egypt,  and  those  in  honor  of  Bakchos  in  Greece,  the  mythological 
traditions  of  the  two  Gods,  and  the  symbols  used  in  the  festivals 
of  each,  amply  prove  their  identity.  Neither  the  name  of  Bakchos, 
nor  the  word  orgies  applied  to  his  feasts,  nor  the  sacred  words 
used  in  his  Mysteries,  are  Greek,  but  of  foreign  origin.  Bakchos 
was  an  Oriental  Deity,  worshipped  in  the  East,  and  his  orgies 
celebrated  there,  long  before  the  Greeks  adopted  them.  In  the 
earliest  times  he  was  worshipped  in  India,  Arabia,  and  Bactria. 

He  was  honored  in  Greece  with  public  festivals,  and  in  simple 
or  complicated  Mysteries,  varying  in  ceremonial  in  various  places, 
as  was  natural, because  his  worship  had  come  thither  from  different 
countries  and  at  different  periods.  The  people  who  celebrated  the 


42O  .       MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

complicated  Mysteries  were  ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  many 
words  which  they  used,  and  of  many  emblems  which  they  revered. 
In  the  Sabazian  Feasts,  for  example  [from  Saba-Zeus,  an  oriental 
name  of  this  Deity],  the  words  Evoi,  SABOI,  were  used,  which  are 
in  nowise  Greek;  and  a  serpent  of  gold  was  thrown  into  the 
bosom  of  the  Initiate,  in  allusion  to  the  fable  that  Jupiter  had,  in 
the  form  of  a  serpent,  had  connection  with  Proserpina,  and  begot- 
ten Bakchos,  the  bull ;  whence  the  enigmatical  saying,  repeated 
to  the  Initiates,  that  a  bull  engendered  a  dragon  or  serpent,  and 
the  serpent  in  turn  engendered  the  bull,  who  became  Bakchos :  the 
meaning  of  which  was,  that  the  bull  [Taurus,  which  then  opened 
the  Vernal  Equinox,  and  the  Sun  in  which  Sign,  figuratively  repre- 
sented by  the  Sign  itself,  was  Bakchos,  Dionusos,  Saba-Zeus,  Osiris, 
etc.],  and  the  Serpent,  another  constellation,  occupied  such  relative 
positions  in  the  Heavens,  that  when  one  rose  the  other  set,  and 
vice  versa. 

The  serpent  was  a  familiar  symbol  in  the  Mysteries  of  Bakchos. 
The  Initiates  grasped  them  with  their  hands,  as  Ophiucus  does 
on  the  celestial  globe,  and  the  Orpheo-telestes,  or  purifier  of  can- 
didates did  the  same,  crying,  as  Demosthenes  taunted  /Eschines 
with  doing  in  public  at  the  head  of  the  women  wrhom  his  mother 
was  to  imitate,  Evoi,  SABOI,  HYES  ATTE,  ATTE,  HYES  ! 

The  Initiates  in  these  Mysteries  had  preserved  the  ritual  and 
ceremonies" that  accorded  with  the  simplicity  of  the  earliest  ages, 
and  the  manners  of  the  first  men.  The  rules  of  Pythagoras  were 
followed  there.  Like  the  Egyptians,  who  held  wool  unclean,  they 
buried  no  Initiate  in  woolen  garments.  They  abstained  from 
bloody  sacrifices ;  and  lived  on  fruits  or  vegetables  or  inanimate 
things.  They  imitated  the  life  of  the  contemplative  Sects  of  the 
Orient;  thus  approximating  to  the  tranquillity  of  the  first  men, 
who  lived  exempt  from  trouble  and  crimes  in  the  bosom  of  a  pro- 
found peace.  One  of  the  most  precious  advantages  promised  by 
their  initiation  was,  to  put  a  man  in  communion  with  the  Gods, 
by  purifying  his  soul  of  all  the  passions  that  interfere  with  that 
enjoyment,  and  dim  the  rays  of  divine  light  that  are  communicated 
to  every  soul  capable  of  receiving  them,  and  that  imitate  their 
purity.  One  of  the  degrees  of  initiation  was  the  state  of  inspira- 
tion to  which  the  adepts  were  claimed  to  attain.  The  Initiates  in 
the  Mysteries  of  the  Lamb,  at  Pepuza,  in  Phrygia,  professed  to  be 
inspired,  and  prophesied ;  and  it  was  claimed  that  the  soul,  by 


I'RINCE  CF  THE  TABERNACLE.  421 

means  of  these  religious  ceremonies,  purified  of  all  stain,  could  see 
the  Gods  in  this  life,  and  certainly,  in  all  cases,  after  death. 

The  sacred  gates  of  the  Temple,  where  the  ceremonies  of  initia- 
tion were  performed,  were  opened  but  once  in  each  year,  and  no 
stranger  was  ever  allowed  to  enter  it.  Night  threw  her  veil  over 
these  august  Mysteries,  which  could  be  revealed  to  no  one.  There 
the  sufferings  of  Bakchos  were  represented,  who,  like  Osiris,  died, 
descended  to  hell  and  rose  to  life  again  ;  and  raw  flesh  was  distrib- 
uted to  the  Initiates,  which  each  ate,  in  memory  of  the  death  of 
the  Deity,  torn  in  pieces  by  the  Titans. 

These  Mysteries  also  were  celebrated  at  the  Vernal  Equinox  ; 
and  the  emblem  of  generation,  to  express  the  active  energy  and 
generative  power  of  the  Divinity,  was  a  principal  symbol.  The 
Initiates  wore  garlands  and  crowns  of  myrtle  and  laurel. 

In  these  Mysteries,  the  aspirant  was  kept  in  terror  and  darkness 
three  days  and  nights ;  and  was  then  made  to  perform  the  A$a- 
vLnfjLOf,  or  ceremony  representing  'the  death  of  Bakchos,  the  same 
mythological  personage  with  Osiris.  This  was  effected  by  confining 
him  in  a  close  cell,  that  he  might  seriously  reflect,  in  solitude  and 
darkness,  on  the  business  he  was  engaged  in :  and  his  mind  be 
prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  sublime  and  mysterious  truths 
of  primitive  revelation  and  philosophy.  This  was  a  symbolic 
death ;  the  deliverance  from  it,  regeneration ;  after  which  he  was 
called  8i.<f>vr)<;  or  twin-born.  While  confined  in  the  cell,  the  pur- 
suit of  Typhon  after  the  mangled  body  of  Osiris,  and  the  search 
of  Rhea  or  Isis  for  the  same,  were  enacted  in  his  hearing ;  the 
initiated  crying  aloud  the  names  of  that  Deity  derived  from  the 
Sanscrit.  Then  it  was  announced  that  the  body  was  found ;  and 
the  aspirant  was  liberated  amid  shouts  of  joy  and  exultation. 

Then  he  passed  through  a  representation  of  Hell  and  Elysium. 
'"Then,"  said  an  ancient  writer,  "they  are  entertained  with 
hymns  and  dances,  with  the  sublime  doctrines  of  sacred  knowledge. 
and  with  wonderful  and  holy  visions.  And  now  become  perfect 
and  initiated,  they  are  FREE,  and  no  longer  under  restraint ;  but, 
crowned  and  triumphant,  they  walk  up  and  down  the  regions 
of  the  blessed,  converse  with  pure  and  holy  men.  and  celebrate  the 
sacred  Mysteries  at  pleasure."  They  were  taught  the  nature  and 
objects  of  the  Mysteries,  and  the  means  of  making  themselves 
known,  and  received  the  name  of  Epopts;  were  fully  instructed 
in  the  nature  and  attributes  of  the  Divinity,  and  the  doctrine  of  a 
38 


$22  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

future  state;  and  made  acquainted  with  the  unity  and  attributes 
of  the  Grand  Architect  of  the  Universe,  and  t'.ie  true  meaning  of 
the  fables  in  regard  to  the  Gods  of  Paganism :  the  great  Truth 
being  often  proclaimed,  that  "Zeus  is  the  primitive  Source  of  all 
things ;  there  is  ONE  God ;  ONE  power,  and  ONE  rule  over  all." 
And  after  full  explanation  of  the  many  symbols  and  emblems  that 
surrounded  them,  they  were  dismissed  with  the  barbarous  words 
A  07^  and  0/0r«£,  corruptions  of  the  Sanscrit  words,  Kanska  Aom 
Pakscha;  meaning,  object  of  our  wishes,  God,  Silence,  or  Worship 
the  Deity  in  Silence. 

Among  the  emblems  used  was  the  rod  of  Bakchos ;  which  once, 
it  was  said,  he  cast  on  the  ground,  and  it  became  a  serpent ;  and 
at  another  time  he  struck  the  rivers  Orontes  and  Hydaspes  with  it, 
and  the  waters  receded  and  he  passed  over  dry-shod.  Water  was 
obtained,  during  the  ceremonies,  by  striking  a  rock  with  it.  The 
Bakchse  crowned  their  heads  with  serpents,  carried  them  in  vases 
and  baskets,  and  at  the  Eupyffei;,  or  finding,  of  the  body  of  Osiris, 
cast  one,  alive,  into  the  aspirant's  bosom. 

The  Mysteries  of  Atys  in  Phrygia,  and  those  of  Cybele  his  mis- 
tress, like  their  worship,  much  resembled  those  of  Adonis  and 
Bakchos,  Osiris  and  Isis.  Their  Asiatic  origin  is  universally 
admitted,  and  was  with  great  plausibility  claimed  by  Phrygia, 
which  contested  the  palm  of  antiquity  with  Egypt.  They,  more 
than  any  other  people,  mingled  allegory  with  their  religious 
worship,  and  were  great  inventors  of  fables ;  and  their  sacred  tra- 
ditions as  to  Cybele  and  Atys,  whom  all  admit  to  be  Phrygian 
Gods,  were  very  various.  In  all,  as  we  learn  from  Julius  Firmicus, 
they  represented  by  allegory  the  phenomena  of  nature,  and  the 
succession  of  physical  facts,  under  the  veil  of  a  marvellous 
history 

Their  feasts  occurred  at  the  equinoxes,  commencing  with  lamen- 
tation, mourning,  groans,  and  pitiful  cries  for  the  death  of  Atys ; 
and  ending  with  rejoicings  at  his  restoration  to  life. 

We  shall  not  recite  the  different  versions  of  the  legend  of  Atys 
and  Cybele,  given  by  Julius  Firmicus,  Diodorus,  Arnobius,  Lac- 
tantius.  Servius,  Saint  Augustine,  and  Pausanias.  It  is  enough  to 
say  that  it  is  in  substance  this :  that  Cybele,  a  Phrygian  Princess, 
who  invented  musical  instruments  and  dances,  was  enamored  of 
Atys,  a  youth  :  that  either  he  in  a  fit  of  frenzy  mutilated  himself 
or  was  mutilated  by  her  in  a  paroxysm  of  jealousy ;  that  he  died. 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  423 

and  afterward,  like  Adonis,  was  restored  to  life.  It  is  the  Phoe- 
nician fiction  as  to  the  Sun-God,  expressed  in  other  terms,  under 
other  forms,  and  with  other  names. 

Cybele  was  worshipped  in  Syria,  under  the  name  of  Rhea. 
Lucian  says  that  the  Lydian  Atys  there  established  her  worship 
and  built  her  temple.  The  name  of  Rhea  is  also  found  in  the  ancient 
cosmogony  of  the  Phoenicians  by  Sanchoniathon.  It  was  Atys 
the  Lydian,  says  Lucian,  who,  having  been  mutilated,  first  estab- 
lished the  Mysteries  of  Rhea,  and  taught  the  Phrygians,  the  Lyd- 
ians,  and  the  people  of  Samothrace  to  celebrate  them.  Rhea,  like 
Cybele,  was  represented  drawn  by  lions,  bearing  a  drum,  and 
crowned  with  flowers.  According  to  Varro,  Cybele  represented 
the  earth.  She  partook  of  the  characteristics  of  Minerva,  Venus, 
the  Moon,  Diana,  Nemesis,  and  the  Furies;  was  clad  in  precious 
stones ;  and  her  High  Priest  wore  a  robe  of  purple  and  a  tiara  of 
gold. 

The  Grand  Feast  of  the  Syrian  Goddess,  like  that  of  the  Mother 
of  the  Gods  at  Rome,  was  celebrated  at  the  Vernal  Equinox.  Pre- 
cisely at  that  equinox  the  Mysteries  of  Atys  were  celebrated,  in 
which  the  Initiates  were  taught  to  expect  the  rewards  of  a  future 
life,  and  the  flight  of  Atys  from  the  jealous  fury  of  Cybele  was 
described,  his  concealment  in  the  mountains  and  in  a  cave,  and 
his  self-mutilation  in  a  fit  of  delirium ;  in  which  act  his  priests 
imitated  him.  The  feast  of  the  passion  of  Atys  continued  three 
days ;  the  first  of  which  was  passed  in  mourning  and  tears ;  to 
which  afterward  clamorous  rejoicings  succeeded ;  by  which,  Ma- 
crobius  says,  the  Sun  was  adored  under  the  name  of  Atys.  The 
ceremonies  were  all  allegorical,  some  of  which,  according  to  the 
Emperor  Julian,  could  be  explained,  but  more  remained  covered 
with  the  veil  of  mystery.  Thus  it  is  that  symbols  outlast  their 
explanations,  as  many  have  done  in  Masonry,  and  ignorance  and 
rashness  substitute  new  ones. 

In  another  legend,  given  by  Pausanias,  Atys  dies,  wounded  like 
Adonis  by  a  wild  boar  in  the  organs  of  generation ;  a  mutilation 
with  which  all  the  legends  ended.  The  pine-tree  under  which  he 
was  said  to  have  died,  was  sacred  to  him ;  and  was  found  upon 
many  monuments,  with  a  bull  and  a  ram  near  it ;  one  the  sign  of 
exaltation  of  the  Sun,  and  the  other  of  that  of  the  Moon. 

The  worship  of  the  Sun  under  the  name  of  Mithras  belonged  to 
Persia,  whence  that  name  came,  as  did  the  erudite  svmbols  of  that 


4.24  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

worship.  The  Persians,  adorers  of  Fire,  regarded  the  Sun  as  the 
most  brilliant  abode  of  the  fecundating  energy  of  that  element, 
which  gives  life  to  the  earth,  and  circulates  in  every  part  of  the 
Universe,  of  which  it  is,  as  it  were,  the  soul.  This  worship  passed 
from  Persia  into  Armenia,  Cappadocia,  and  Cilicia,  long  before  it 
was  known  at  Rome.  The  Mysteries  of  Mithras  flourished  more 
than  any  others  in  the  imperial  city.  The  worship  of  Mithras  com- 
menced to  prevail  there  under  Trajan.  Hadrian  prohibited  these 
Mysteries,  on  account  of  the  cruel  scenes  represented  in  their  cere- 
monial :  for  human  victims  were  immolated  therein,  and  the  events 
of  futurity  looked  for  in  their  palpitating  entrails.  They  reap- 
peared in  greater  splendor  than  ever  under  Commodus,  who  with 
his  own  hand  sacrificed  a  victim  to  Mithras :  and  they  were  still 
more  practised  under  Constantine  and  his  successors,  when  the 
Priests  of  Mithras  were  found  everywhere  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  the  monuments  of  his  worship  appeared  even  in  Britain. 

Caves  were  consecrated  to  Mithras,  in  which  were  collected  a 
multitude  of  astronomical  emblems ;  and  cruel  tests  were  required 
of  the  Initiates. 

The  Persians  built  no  temples ;  but  worshipped  upon  the  sum- 
mits of  hills,  in  enclosures  of  unhewn  stones.  They  abominated 
images,  and  made  the  Sun  and  Fire  emblems  of  the  Deity  The 
Jews  borrowed  this  from  them,  and  represented  God  as  appearing 
to  Abraham  in  a  flame  of  fire,  and  to  Moses  as  a  fire  at  Horeb  and 
on  Sinai. 

With  the  Persians,  Mithras,  typified  in  the  Sun,  was  the  invisi- 
ble Deity,  the  Parent  of  the  Universe,  the  Mediator.  In  Zoroas- 
ter's cave  of  initiation,  the  Sun  and  Planets  were  represented 
over-head,  in  gems  and  gold,  as  also  was  the  Zodiac.  The  Sun 
appeared  emerging  from  the  back  of  Taurus.  Three  great  pillars, 
Eternity,  Fecundity,  and  Authority,  supported  the  roof:  and  the 
whole  was  an  emblem  of  the  Universe. 

Zoroaster,  like  Moses,  claimed  to  have  conversed  face  to  face,  as 
man  with  man,  with  the  Deity ;  and  to  have  received  from  Him  a 
system  of  pure  worship,  to  be  communicated  only  to  the  virtuous, 
and  those  who  would  devote  themselves  to  the  study  of  Philosophy. 
His  fame  spread  over  the  world,  and  pupils  came  to  him  from 
even'  country.  Even  Pythagoras  was  his  scholar. 

After  his  novitiate,  the  candidate  entered  the  cavern  of  initiation, 
and  was  received  on  the  point  of  a  sword  presented  to  his  naked 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABEKNACtE.  42$ 

left  breast,  by  which  he  was  slightly  wounded.  Being  crowned 
with  olive,  anointed  with  balsam  of  benzoin,  and  otherwise  pre- 
pared, he  was  purified  with  fire  and  water,  and  went  through  seven 
stages  of  initiation.  The  symbol  of  these  stages  was  a  high  ladder 
with  seven  rounds  or  steps.  In  them,  he  went  through  many  fearful 
trials,  in  which  darkness  displayed  a  principal  part.  He  saw  a 
representation  of  the  wicked  in  Hades ;  and  finally  emerged  from 
darkness  into  light.  Received  in  a  place  representing  Elysium,  in 
the  brilliant  assembly  of  the  initiated,  where  the  Archimagus  pre- 
sided, robed  in  blue,  he  assumed  the  obligations  of  secrecy,  and  was 
entrusted  with  the  Sacred  Words,  of  which  the  Ineffable  Name  of 
God  was  the  chief. 

Then  all  the  incidents  of  his  initiation  were  explained  to  him: 
he  was  taught  that  these  ceremonies  brought  him  nearer  the 
Deity ;  and  that  he  should  adore  the  consecrated  Fire,  the  gift  of 
that  Deity  and  His  visible  residence.  He  was  taught  the  sacred 
characters  known  only  to  the  initiated;  and  instructed  in  regard 
to  the  creation  of  the  world,  and  the  true  philosophical  meaning 
of  the  vulgar  mythology ;  and  especially  of  the  legend  of  Ormuzd 
and  Ahriman,  and  the  symbolic  meaning  of  the  six  Amshaspands 
created  by  the  former:  Bahman,  the  Lord  of  Light;  Ardibehest, 
the  Genius  of  Fire;  Sharivcr,  the  Lord  of  Splendor  and  Metals;  Sta- 
pandomad,i\\&  Source  of  Fruitfulness ;  Khordad,\\\&  Genius  of  Wa- 
ter and  Time  ;  and  Amerdad,  the  protector  of  the  Vegetable  World, 
and  the  prime  cause  of  growth.  And  finally  he  was  taught  the 
true  nature  of  the  Supreme  Being,  Creator  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahri- 
man. the  Absolute  First  Cause,  styled  ZERUANE  AKHERENE. 

In  the  Mithriac  initiation  were  several  Degrees.  The  first,  Ter- 
tullian  says,  was  that  of  Soldier  of  Mithras.  The  ceremony  of 
reception  consisted  in  presenting  the  candidate  a  crown,  supported 
by  a  sword.  It  was  placed  near  his  head,  and  he  repelled  it,  say- 
ing, "Mithras  is  my  crown."  Then  he  was  declared  the  soldier  of 
Mithras,  and  had  the  right  to  call  the  other  Initiates  fellow-soldiers 
or  companions  in  arms.  Hence  the  title  Companions  in  the  Royal 
Arch  Degree  of  the  American  Rite. 

Then  he  passed.  Porphyry  says,  through  the  Degree  of  the  Lion, 
— the  constellation  Leo,  domicile  of  the  Sun  and  symbol  of  Mithras, 
found  on  his  monuments.  These  ceremonies  were  termed  at 
Rome  Leontic  and  Heliac ;  and  Coracia  or  Hiero-Coracia,  of  the 
Raven,  a  bird  consecrated  to  the  Sun,  and  a  sign  placed  in  the 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Heavens  below  the  Lion,  with  the  Hydra,  and  also  appearing  on 
the  Mithriac  monuments. 

Thence  he  passed  to  a  higher  Degree,  where  the  Initiates  were 
called  Perses  and  children  of  the  Sun.  Above  them  were  the 
Fathers,  whose  chief  or  Patriarch  was  styled  Father  of  Fathers,  or 
Pater  Patratus.  The  Initiates  also  bore  the  title  of  Eagles  and 
Hawks,  birds  consecrated  to  the  Sun  in  Egypt,  the  former  sacred 
to  the  God  Mendes,  and  the  latter  the  emblem  of  the  Sun  and 
Royalty. 

The  little  island  of  Samothrace  was  long  the  depository  of  cer- 
tain august  Mysteries,  and  many  went  thither  from  all  parts  of 
Greece  to  be  initiated.  It  was  said  to  have  been  settled  by  the 
ancient  Pelasgi,  early  Asiatic  colonists  in  Greece.  The  Gods 
adored  in  the  Mysteries  of  this  island  were  termed  CABIRI,  an  ori- 
ental word,  from  Cabar,  great.  Varro  calls  the  Gods  of  Samo- 
thrace, Potent  Gods.  In  Arabic,  Venus  is  called  Cabar.  Varro 
says  that  the  Great  Deities  whose  Mysteries  were  practised  there, 
were  Heaven  and  Earth.  These  were  but  symbols  of  the  Active 
and  Passive  Powers  or  Principles  of  universal  generation.  The  two 
Twins,  Castor  and  Pollux,  or  the  Dioscuri,  were  also  called  the 
Gods  of  Samothrace ;  and  the  Scholiast  of  Apollonius,  citing  Mna- 
seas,  gives  the  names  of  Ceres,  Proserpine,  Pluto,  and  Mercury,  as 
the  four  Cabiric  Divinities  worshipped  at  Samothrace,  as  Axieros. 
Axiocersa,  Axiocersus,  and  Casmillus.  Mercury  \vas,  there  as 
everywhere,  the  minister  and  messenger  of  the  Gods ;  and  the 
young  servitors  of  the  altars  and  the  children  employed  in  the 
Temples  were  called  Mercuries  or  Casmilli,  as  they  were  in  Tus- 
cany, by  the  Etrusci  and  Pelasgi,  who  worshipped  the  Great 
Gods. 

Tarquin  the  Etruscan  was  an  Initiate  of  the  Mysteries  of  Samo- 
thrace ;  and  Etruria  had  its  Cabiri  as  Samothrace  had.  For  the 
worship  of  the  Cabiri  spread  from  that  island  into  Etruria, Phrygia, 
and  Asia  Minor :  and  it  probably  came  from  Phoenicia  into  Samo- 
thrace :  for  the  Cabiri  are  mentioned  by  Sanchoniathon ;  and  the 
word  Cabar  belongs  to  the  Hebrew,  Phoenician,  and  Arabic  lan- 
guages. 

The  Dioscuri,  tutelary  Deities  of  Navigation,  with  Venus,  were 
invoked  in  the  Mysteries  of  Samothrace.  The  constellation  Auri- 
ga, or  Phaeton,  was  also  honored  there  with  imposing  ceremonies. 
Upon  the  Argonautic  expedition,  Orpheus,  an  Initiate  of  these 


PRINCE   OF   THE   TABERNACLE.  427 

Mysteries,  a  storm  arising,  counselled  his  companions  to  put  into 
Samothrace.  They  did  so,  the  storm  ceased,  and  they  were  initia- 
ted into  the  Mysteries  there,  and  sailed  again  with  the  assurance 
of  a  fortunate  voyage,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Dioscuri,  patrons 
of  sailors  and  navigation. 

But  much  more  than  that  was  promised  the  Initiates.  The  Hier- 
ophants  of  Samothrace  made  something  infinitely  greater  to  be  the 
object  of  their  initiations;  to  wit,  the  consecration  of  men  to  the 
Deity,  by  pledging  them  to  virtue;  and  the  assurance  of  those  re- 
wards which  the  justice  of  the  Gods  reserves  for  Initiates  after 
death.  This,  above  all  else,  made  these  ceremonies  august,  and 
inspired  everywhere  so  great  a  respect  for  them,  and  so  great  a 
desire  to  be  admitted  to  them.  That  originally  caused  the  island 
to  be  styled  Sacred.  It  was  respected  by  all  nations.  The  Ro- 
mans, when  masters  of  the  world,  left  it  its  liberty  and  laws.  It 
was  an  asylum  for  the  unfortunate,  and  a  sanctuary  inviolable. 
There  men  were  absolved  01  the  crime  of  homicide,  if  not  commit- 
ted in  a  temple. 

Children  of  tender  age  were  initiated  there,  and  invested  with 
the  sacred  robe,  the  purple  cincture,  and  the  crown  of  olive,  and 
seated  upon  a  throne,  like  other  Initiates.  In  the  ceremonies  was 
represented  the  death  of  the  youngest  of  the  Cabiri,  slain  by  his 
brothers,  who  fled  into  Etruria,  carrying  with  them  the  chest  or 
ark  that  contained  his  genitals :  and  there  the  Phallus  and  the 
sacred  ark  were  adored.  Herodotus  says  that  the  Samothracian 
Initiates  understood  the  object  and  origin  of  this  reverence  paid 
the  Phallus,  and  why  it  was  exhibited  in  the  Mysteries.  Clemens 
of  Alexandria  says  that  the  Cabiri  taught  the  Tuscans  to  revere 
it.  It  was  consecrated  at  Heliopolis  in  Syria,  where  the  Mysteries 
of  a  Divinity  having  many  points  of  resemblance  with  Atys  and 
Cybele  were  represented.  The  Pelasgi  connected  it  with  Mercury ; 
and  it  appears  on  the  monuments  of  Mithras ;  always  and  every- 
where a  symbol  of  the  life-giving  power  of  the  Sun  at  the  Vernal 
Equinox. 

In  the  Indian  Mysteries,  as  the  candidate  made  his  three  cir- 
cuits, he  paused  each  time  he  reached  the  South,  and  said,  "I  copy 
the  example  of  the  Sun,  and  follow  his  beneficent  course/'  Blue 
Masonry  has  retained  the  Circuits,  but  has  utterly  lost  the  expla- 
nation ;  which  is.  that  in  the  Mysteries  the  candidate  invariably 
represented  the  Sun,  descending  Southward  toward  the  reign  of 


428  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  Evil  Principle,  Ahriman,  Siba,  or  Typhon  (darkness  and  win- 
ter) ;  there  figuratively  to  be  slain,  and  after  a  few  days  to  rise 
again  from  the  dead,  and  commence  to  ascend  to  the  Northward. 

Then  the  death  of  Sita  was  bewailed;  or  that  of  Cama,  slain  by 
Iswara,  and  committed  to  the  waves  on  a  chest,  like  Osiris  and 
Bacchus ;  during-  which  the  candidate  was  terrified  by  phantoms 
and  horrid  noises. 

Then  he  was  made  to  personify  Vishnu,  and  perform  his  ava- 
tars, or  labors.  In  the  first  two  he  was  taught  in  allegories  the 
legend  of  the  Deluge :  in  the  first  he  took  three  steps  at  right 
angles,  representing  the  three  huge  steps  taken  by  Vishnu  in  that 
avatar ;  and  hence  the  three  steps  in  the  Master's  Degree  ending 
at  right  angles. 

The  nine  avatars  finished,  he  was  taught  the  necessity  of  faith, 
as  superior  to  sacrifices,  acts  of  charity,  or  mortifications  of  the 
flesh.  Then  he  was  admonished  against  five  crimes,  and  took  a 
solemn  obligation  never  to  commit  them.  He  was  then  introduced 
into  a  representation  of  Paradise ;  the  Company  of  the  Members 
of  the  Order,  magnificently  arrayed,  and  the  Altar  with  a  fire 
Hazing  upon  it,  as  an  emblem  of  the  Deity. 

Then  a  new  name  was  given  him,  and  he  was  invested  in  a  white 
robe  and  tiara,  and  received  the  signs,  tokens,  and  lectures.  A 
cross  was  marked  on  his  forehead,  and  an  inverted  level,  or  the 
Tau  Cross,  on  his  breast.  He  received  the  sacred  cord,  and  divers 
amulets  or  talismans ;  and  was  then  invested  with  the  sacred 
Word  or  Sublime  Name,  known  only  to  the  initiated,  the  Trilit- 
eral  A.  U.  M. 

Then  the  multitude  of  emblems  was  explained  to  the  candid- 
ate ;  the  arcana  of  science  hidden  under  them,  and  the  different 
virtues  of  which  the  mythological  figures  were  mere  personifica- 
tions. And  he  thus  learned  the  meaning  of  those  symbols,  which, 
to  the  uninitiated,  were  but  a  maze  of  unintelligible  figures. 

The  third  Degree  was  a  life  of  seclusion,  after  the  Initiate's  chil- 
dren were  capable  of  providing  for  themselves ;  passed  in  the  for- 
est, in  the  practice  of  prayers  and  ablutions,  and  living  only  on 
vegetables.  He  was  then  said  to  be  born  again. 

The  fourth  was  absolute  renunciation  of  the  world,  self-con- 
templation and  self-torture ;  by  which  Perfection  was  thought  to 
be  attained,  and  the  soul  merged  in  the  Deity. 

In  the  second  Degree,  the  Initiate  was  taught  the  Unity  of  the 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  429 

Godhead,  the  happiness  of  the  patriarchs,  the  destruction  by  the 
Deluge,  the  depravity  of  the  heart,  and  the  necessity  of  a  media- 
tor, the  instability  of  life,  the  final  destruction  of  all  created 
things,  and  the  restoration  of  the  world  in  a  more  perfect  form. 
They  inculcated  the  Eternity  of  the  Soul,  explained  the  meaning 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis,  and  held  the  doctrine  of  a 
state  of  future  rewards  and  punishments :  and  they  also  earnestly 
urged  that  sins  could  only  be  atoned  for  by  repentance,  reforma- 
tion, and  voluntary  penance ;  and  not  by  mere  ceremonies  and 
sacrifices. 

The  Mysteries  among  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  came  from 
India,  and  were  founded  on  the  same  principles  and  with  similar 
rites.  The  word  given  to  the  new  Initiate  was  O-MI-TO  Fo,  in 
which  we  recognize  the  original  name  A.  u.  M.,  coupled  at  a  much 
later  time  with  that  of  Fo,  the  Indian  Buddha,  to  show  that  he 
was  the  Great  Deity  Himself. 

The  equilateral  triangle  was  one  of  their  symbols ;  and  so  was 
the  mystical  Y ;  both  alluding  to  the  Triune  God,  and  the  latter 
being  the  ineffable  name  of  the  Deity.  A  ring  supported  by  two 
serpents  was  emblematical  of  the  world,  protected  by  the  power 
and  wisdom  of  the  Creator ;  and  that  is  the  origin  of  the  two  par- 
allel lines  (into  which  time  has  changed  the  two  serpents),  that 
support  the  circle  in  our  Lodges. 

Among  the  Japanese,  the  term  of  probation  for  the  highest  De- 
gree was  twenty  years. 

The  main  features  of  the  Druidical  Mysteries  resembled  those 
of  the  Orient. 

The  ceremonies  commenced  with  a  hymn  to  the  sun.  The  can- 
didates were  arranged  in  ranks  of  threes,  fives,  and  sevens,  accord- 
ing to  their  qualifications ;  and  conducted  nine  times  around  the 
Sanctuary,  from  East  to  West.  The  candidate  underwent  many 
trials,  one  of  which  had  direct  reference  to  the  legend  of  Osiris. 
He  was  placed  in  a  boat,  and  sent  out  to  sea  alone,  having  to  rely 
on  his  own  skill  and  presence  of  mind  to  reach  the  opposite  shore 
in  safety.  The  death  of  Hu  was  represented  in  his  hearing,  with 
every  external  mark  of  sorrow,  while  he  was  in  utter  darkness. 
He  met  with  many  obstacles,  had  to  prove  his  courage,  and  expose 
his  life  against  armed  enemies;  represented  various  animals,  and 
at  last,  attaining  the  permanent  light,  he  was  instructed  by  the 
Arch-Druid  in  regard  to  the  Mysteries,  and  in  the  morality  of  the 


43O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Order,  incited  to  act  bravely  in  war,  taught  the  great  truths  of 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  a  future  state,  solemnly  enjoined 
not  to  neglect  the  worship  of  the  Deity,  nor  the  practice  of  rigid 
morality ;  and  to  avoid  sloth,  contention,  and  folly. 

The  aspirant  attained  only  the  exoteric  knowledge  in  the  first 
two  Degrees.  The  third  was  attained  only  by  a  few,  and  they  per- 
sons of  rank  and  consequence,  and  after  long  purification,  and 
study  of  all  the  arts  and  sciences  known  to  the  Druids,  in  solitude, 
for  nine  months.  This  was  the  symbolical  death  and  burial  of 
these  Mysteries. 

The  dangerous  voyage  upon  the  actual  open  sea,  in  a  small  boat 
covered  with  a  skin,  on  the  evening  of  the  2gth  of  April,  was  the 
last  trial,  and  closing  scene,  of  initiation.  If  he  declined  this 
trial,  he  was  dismissed  with  contempt.  If  he  made  it  and  suc- 
ceeded, he  was  termed  thrice-born,  was  eligible  to  all  the  dignities 
of  the  State,  and  received  complete  instruction  in  the  philosophi- 
cal and  religious  doctrines  of  the  Druids. 

The  Greeks  also  styled  the  ExoTtrr^,  Tyrf-ovo^,  thrice-born ; 
and  in  India  perfection  was  assigned  to  the  Yogee  who  had  ac- 
complished many  births. 

The  general  features  of  the  initiations  among  the  Goths  were 
the  same  as  in  all  the  Mysteries.  A  long  probation,  of  fasting  and 
mortification,  circular  processions,  representing  the  march  of  the 
celestial  bodies,  many  fearful  tests  and  trials,  a  descent  into  the 
infernal  regions,  the  killing  of  the  God  Balder  by  the  Evil  Prin- 
ciple, *Lok,  the  placing  of  his  body  in  a  boat  and  sending  it  abroad 
upon  the  waters  ;  and,  in  short,  the  Eastern  Legend,  under  differ- 
ent names,  and  with  some  variations. 

The  Egyptian  Anubis  appeared  there,  as  the  dog  guarding  the 
gates  of  death.  The  candidate  was  immured  in  the  representa- 
tion of  a  tomb ;  and  when  released,  goes  in  search  of  the  body  of 
Balder,  and  finds  him,  at  length,  restored  to  life,  and  seated  upon 
a  throne.  He  was  obligated  upon  a  naked  sword  (as  is  still  the 
custom  in  the  Rit  Moderne},  and  sealed  his  obligation  by  drink- 
ing mead  out  of  a  human  skull. 

Then  all  the  ancient  primitive  truths  were  made  known  to  him, 
so  far  as  they  had  survived  the  assaults  of  time :  and  he  was  in- 
formed as  to  the  generation  of  the  Gods,  the  creation  of  the  world, 
the  deluge, and  the  resurrection, of  which  that  of  Balder  was  a  type. 

He  was  marked  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  a  ring  was  given 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  431 

to  him  as  a  symbol  of  the  Divine  Protection ;  and  also  as  an  em- 
blem of  Perfection ;  from  which  comes  the  custom  of  giving  a 
.ring  to  the  Aspirant  in  the  I4th  Degree. 

The  point  within  a  Circle,  and  the  Cube,  emblem  of  Odin,  were 
explained  to  him ;  and  lastly,  the  nature  of  the  Supreme  God, 
"the  author  of  everything  that  existeth,  the  Eternal;  the  Ancient, 
the  Living  and  Awful  Being,  the  Searcher  into  concealed  things, 
the'  Being  that  never  changeth ;"  with  whom  Odin  the  Conqueror 
was  by  the  vulgar  confounded :  and  the  Triune  God  of  the  In- 
dians was  reproduced,  as  ODIN,  the  Almighty  FATHER,  FREA, 
(Rhca  or  Phre),  his  wife  (emblem  of  universal  matter),  and  Thor 
his  son  (the  Mediator).  Here  we  recognize  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Hor 
or  Horus.  .Around  the  head  of  Thor,  "as  if  to  show  his  eastern 
origin,  twelve  stars  were  arranged  in  a  circle. 

He  was  also  taught  the  ultimate  destruction  of  the  world,  and 
the  rising  of  a  new  one,  in  which  the  brave  and  virtuous  shall  en- 
joy everlasting  happiness  and  delight:  as  the  means  of  securing 
which  happy  fortune,  he  was  taught  to  practise  the  strictest  mo- 
rality and  virtue. 

The  Initiate  was  prepared  to  receive  the  great  lessons  of  all  the 
Mysteries,  by  long  trials,  or  by  abstinence  and  chastity.  For 
many  days  he  was  required  to  fast  and  be  continent,  and  to  drink 
liquids  calculated  to  diminish  his  passions  and  keep  him  chaste. 

Ablutions  we're  also  required,  symbolical  of  the  purity  necessary 
to  enable  the  soul  to  escape  from  its  'bondage  in  matter.  Sacred 
baths  and  preparatory  baptisms  were  used,  lustrations,  immer- 
sions, lustral  sprinklings,  and  purifications  of  every  kind.  At 
Athens  they  bathed  in  the  Ilissus,  which  thence  became  a  sacred 
river ;  and  before  entering  the  Temple  of  Eleusis,  all  were  re- 
quired to  wash  their  hands  in  a  vase  of  lustral  water  placed  near 
the  entrance.  Clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart  were  required  of  the 
candidates.  Apuleius  bathed  seven  times  in  the  sea,  symbolical 
of  the  Seven  Spheres  through  which  the  Soul  must  reascend:  and 
the  Hindus  must  bathe  in  the  sacred  river  Ganges. 

Clemens  of  Alexandria  cites  a  passage  of  Menander,  who  speaks 
of  a  purification  by  sprinkling  three  times  with  salt  and  water. 
Sulphur,  resin,  and  the  laurel  also  served  for  purification,  as  did 
air,  earth,  water,  and  fire.  The  Initiates  at  Heliopolis,  in  Syria, 
says  Lucian,  sacrificed  the  sacred  lamb,  symbol  of  Aries,  then  the 
sign  of  the  Vernal  Equinox ;  ate  his  flesh,  as  the  Israelites  did  at 


432  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

the  Passover;  and  then  touched  his  head  and  feet  to  theirs,  and 
knelt  upon  the  fleece.  Then  they  bathed  in  warm  water,  drank  of 
the  same,  and  slept  upon  the  ground. 

There  was  a  distinction  between  the  lesser  and  greater  Myste- 
ries. One  must  have  been  for  some  years  admitted  to  the  former, 
before  he  could  receive  the  latter,  which  were  but  a  preparation 
for  them,  the  Vestibule  of  the  Temple,  of  which  those  of  Eleusis 
were  the  Sanctuary.  There,  in  the  lesser  Mysteries,  they  were 
prepared  to  receive  the  holy  truths  taught  in  the  greater.  The 
Initiates  in  the  lesser  were  called  simply  Mystes,  or  Initiates ;  but 
those  in  the  greater,  Epoptes,  or  Seers.  An  ancient  poet  says  that 
the  former  were  an  imperfect  shadow  of  the  latter,  as  sleep  is  of 
Death.  After  admission  to  the  former,  the  Initiate  was  taught 
lessons  of  morality,  and  the  rudiments  of  the  sacred  science,  the 
most  sublime  and  secret  part  of  which  was  reserved  for  the  Epopt, 
who  saw  the  Truth  in  its  nakedness,  while  the  Mystes  only  viewed 
it  through  a  veil  and  under  emblems  fitter  to  excite  than  to  satisfy 
his  curiosity. 

Before  communicating  the  first  secrets  and  primary  dogmas  of 
initiation,  the  priests  required  the  candidate  to  take  a  fearful  oath 
never  to  divulge  the  secrets.  Then  he  made  his  vows,  prayers,  and 
sacrifices  to  the  Gods.  The  skins  of  the  victims  consecrated  to 
Jupiter  were  spread  on  the  ground,  and  he  was  made  to  set  his 
feet  upon  them.  He  was  then  taught  some  enigmatic  formulas,  as 
answers  to  questions,  by  which  to  make  himself  known.  He  was 
then  enthroned,  invested  with  a  purple  cincture,  and  crowned  with 
flowers,  or  branches  of  palm  or  olive. 

We  do  not  certainly  know  the  time  that  was  required  to  elapse 
between  the  admission  to  the  Lesser  and  Greater  Mysteries  of 
Eleusis.'  Most  writers  fix  it  at  five  years.  It  was  a  singular  mark 
of  favor  when  Demetrius  was  made  Mystes  and  Epopt  in  one  and 
the  same  ceremony.  When  at  length  admitted  to  the  Degree  of 
Perfection,  the  Initiate  was  brought  face  to  face  with  entire  nature, 
and  learned  that  the  soul  was  the  whole  of  man ;  that  earth  was 
but  his  place  of  exile ;  that  Heaven  was  his  native  country ;  that 
for  the  soul  to  be  born  is  really  to  die :  and  that  death  was  for  it  the 
return  to  a  new  life.  Then  he  entered  the  sanctuary ;  but  he  did 
not  receive  the  whole  instruction  at  once.  It  continued  through 
several  years.  There  were,  as  it  were,  many  apartments,  through 
which  he  advanced  by  degrees,  and  between  which  thick  veils  in- 


PRINCE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE.  433 

tervened.  There  were  Statues  and  Paintings,  says  Proclus,  in  the 
inmost  sanctuary,  showing  the  forms  assumed  by  the  Gods. 
Finally  the  last  veil  fell,  the  sacred  covering  dropped  from  the 
image  of  the  Goddess,  and  she  stood  revealed  in  all  her  splendor, 
surrounded  by  a  divine  light,  which,  filling  the  whole  sanctuary, 
dazzled  the  eyes  and  penetrated  the  soul  of  the  Initiate.  Thus  is 
symbolized  the  final  revelation  of  the  true  doctrine  as  to  the  nature 
of  Deity  and  of  the  soul,  and  of  the  relations  of  each  to  matter. 

This  was  preceded  by  frightful  scenes,  alternations  of  fear  and 
joy,  of  light  and  darkness ;  by  glittering  lightning  and  the  crash 
of  thunder,  and  apparitions  of  spectres,  or  magical  illusions,  im- 
pressing at  once  the  eyes  and  ears.  This  Claudian  describes,  in 
his  poem  on  the  rape  of  Proserpine,  where  he  alludes  to  what 
passed  in  her  Mysteries.  "The  temple  is  shaken,"  he  cries ; 
"fiercely  gleams  the  lightning,  by  which  the  Deity  announces  his 
presence.  Earth  trembles ;  and  a  terrible  noise  is  heard  in  the 
midst  of  these  terrors.  The  Temple  of  the  Son  of  Cecrops  re- 
sounds with  long-continued  roars;  Eleusis  uplifts  her  sacred 
torches ;  the  serpents  of  Triptolemus  are  heard  to  hiss ;  and  fear- 
ful Hecate  appears  afar." 

The  celebration  of  the  Greek  Mysteries  continued,  according  to 
the  better  opinion,  for  nine  days. 

On  the  first  the  Initiates  met.  It  was  the  day  of  the  full  moon,  of 
the  month  Boedromion ;  when  the  moon  was  full  at  the  end  of  the 
sign  Aries,  near  the  Pleiades  and  the  place  of  her  exaltation  in 
Taurus. 

The  second  day  there  was  a  procession  to  the  sea,  for  purifica- 
tion by  bathing. 

The  third  was  occupied  with  offerings,  expiatory  sacrifices,  and 
other  religious  rites,  such  as  fasting,  mourning,  continence,  etc. 
A  mullet  was  immolated,  and  offerings  of  grain  and  living  ani- 
mals made. 

On  the  fourth  they  carried  in  procession  the  mystic  wreath  of 
flowers,  representing  that  which  Proserpine  dropped  when  seized 
by  Pluto,  and  the  Crown  of  Ariadne  in  the  Heavens.  It  was 
borne  on  a  triumphal  car  drawn  by  oxen ;  and  women  followed 
bearing  mystic  chests  or  boxes,  wrapped  with  purple  cloths,  con- 
taining grains  of  sesame,  pyramidal  biscuits,  salt,  pomegranates 
and  the  mysterious  serpent,  and  perhaps  the  mystic  phallus. 

On  the  fifth  was  the  superb  procession  of  torches,  commemora- 


434  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

tive  of  the  search  for  Proserpine  by  Ceres ;  the  Initiates  marching 
by  trios,  and  each  bearing  a  torch;  while  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
cession marched  the  Dadoukos. 

The  sixth  was  consecrated  to  lakchos,  the  young  Light-God, 
son  of  Ceres,  reared  in  the  sanctuaries  and  bearing  the  torch  of 
the  Sun-God.  The  chorus  in  Aristophanes  terms  him  the  lumin- 
ous star  that  lights  the  nocturnal  initiation.  He  was  brought 
from  the  sanctuary,  his  head  crowned  with  myrtle,  and  borne  from 
the  gate  of  the  Ceramicus  to  Eleusis,  along  the  sacred  way,  amid 
dances, sacred  songs,every  mark  of  joy, and  mystic  cries  of  lakchos. 

On  the  seventh  there  were  gymnastic  exercises  and  combats,  the 
victors  in  which  were  crowned  and  rewarded. 

On  the  eighth  was  the  feast  of  ^Esculapius. 

On  the  ninth  the  famous  libation  was  made  for  the  souls  of  the 
departed.  The  Priests,  according  to  Athenseus,  filled  two  vases, 
placed  one  in  the  East  and  one  in  the  West,  toward  the  gates  of 
day  and  night,  and  overturned  them,  pronouncing  a  formula  of 
mysterious  prayers.  Thus  they  invoked  Light  and  Darkness,  the 
two  great  principles  of  nature. 

During  all  these  days  no  one  could  be  arrested,  nor  any  suit 
brought,  on  pain  of  death,  or  at  least  a  heavy  fine :  and  no  one 
was  allowed,  by  the  display  of  unusual  wealth  or  magnificence,  to 
endeavor  to  rival  this  sacred  pomp.  Everything  was  for  religion. 

Such  were  the  Mysteries  ;  and  such  the  Old  Thought,  as  in  scat- 
tered and  widely  separated  fragments  it  has  come  down  to  us. 
The  human  mind  still  speculates  upon  the  great  mysteries  of  na- 
ture, and  still  finds  its  ideas  anticipated  by  the  ancients,  whose 
profoundest  thoughts  are  to  be  looked  for,  not  in  their  philoso- 
phies, but  in  their  symbols,  by  which  they  endeavored  to  express 
the  great  ideas  that  vainly  struggled  for  utterance  in  words,  as 
they  viewed  the  great  circle  of  phenomena, — Birth,  Life,  Death, 
or  Decomposition,  and  New  Life  out  of  Death  and  Rottenness, — 
to  them  the  greatest  of  mysteries.  Remember,  while  you  study 
their  symbols,  that  they  had  a  profounder  sense  of  these  wonders 
than  we  have.  To  them  the  transformations  of  the  worm  were  a 
greater  wonder  than  the  stars ;  and  hence  the  poor  dumb  scara- 
baeus  or  beetle  was  sacred  to  them.  Thus  their  faiths  are  con- 
densed into  symbols  or  expanded  into  allegories,  which  they  under- 
stood, but  were  not  always  able  to  explain  in  language ;  for  there 
are  thought?  and  ideas  which  no  language  ever  spoken  by  man  has 
words  to  express. 


XXV. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT. 

THIS  Degree  is  both  philosophical  and  moral.  While  it  teaches 
the  necessity  of  reformation  as  well  as  repentance,  as  a  means  of 
obtaining  mercy  and  forgiveness,  it  is  also  devoted  to  an  explana- 
tion of  the  symbols  of  Masonry;  and  especially  to  those  which 
are  connected  with  that  ancient  and  universal  legend,  of  which 
that  of  Khir-Om  Abi  is  but  a  variation ;  that  legend  which,  repre- 
senting a  murder  or  a  death,  and  a  restoration  to  life,  by  a  drama 
in  which  figure  Osiris,  Isis  and  Horus,  Atys  and  Cybele,  Adonis 
and  Venus,  the  Cabiri,  Dionusos,  and  many  another  representative 
of  the  active  and  passive  Powers  of  Nature,  taught  the  Initiates 
in  the  Mysteries  that  the  rule  of  Evil  and  Darkness  is  but  tempo- 
rary, and  that  that  of  Light  and  Good  will  be  eternal. 

Maimonides  says  :  "In  the  days  of  Enos,  the  son  of  Seth.  men 
fell  into  grievous  errors,  and  even  Enos  himself  partook  of  their 
infatuation.  Their  language  was,  that  since  God  has  placed  on 
high  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  used  them  as  His  ministers,  it  was 
evidently  His  will  that  they  should  receive  from  man  the  same 


43^  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

veneration  as  the  servants  of  a  great  prince  justly  claim  from  the 
subject  multitude.  Impressed  with  this  notion,  they  began  to 
build  temples  to  the  Stars,  to  sacrifice  to  them,  and  to  worship 
them,  in  the  vain  expectation  that  they  should  thus  please  the 
Creator  of  all  things.  At  first,  indeed,  they  did  not  suppose  thf 
Stars  to  be  the  only  Deities,  but  adored  in  conjunction  with  them 
the  Lord  God  Omnipotent.  In  process  of  time,  however,  that 
great  and  venerable  Name  was  totally  forgotten,  and  the  whole 
human  race  retained  no  other  religion  than  the  idolatrous  wor- 
ship of  the  Host  of  Heaven." 

The  first  learning  in  the  world  consisted  chiefly  in  symbols, 
The  wisdom  of  the  Chaldaeans,  Phoenicians,  Egyptians,  Jews ;  ot 
Zoroaster,  Sanchoniathon,  Pherecydes,  Syrus,  Pythagoras,  Socra- 
tes, Plato,  of  all  the  ancients,  that  is  come  to  our  hand,  is  sym- 
bolic. It  was  the  mode,  says  Serranus  on  Plato's  Symposium,  of 
the  Ancient  Philosophers,  to  represent  truth  by  certain  symbols 
and  hidden  images.  - 

"All  that  can  be  said  concerning  the  Gods,"  says  Strabo,  "must 
be  by  the  exposition  of  old  opinions  and  fables ;  it  being  the  cus- 
tom of  the  ancients  to  wrap  up  in  enigma  and  allegory  their 
thoughts  and  discourses  concerning  Nature;  which  are  therefore 
not  easily  explained." 

As  you  learned  in  the  24th  Degree,  my  Brother,  the  ancient 
Philosophers  regarded  the  soul  of  man  as  having  had  its  origin 
in  Heaven.  That  was,  Macrobius  says,  a  settled  opinion  among 
them  all ;  and  they  held  it  to  be  the  only  true  wisdom,  for  the 
soul,  while  united  with  the  body,  to  look  ever  toward  its  source, 
and  strive  to  return  to  the  place  whence  it  came.  Among  the 
fixed  stars  it  dwelt,  until,  seduced  by  the  desire  of  animating  a 
body,  it  descended  to  be  imprisoned  in  matter.  Thenceforward  it 
has  no  other  resource  than  recollection,  and  is  ever  attracted 
toward  its  birth-place  and  home.  The  means  of  return  are  to  be 
sought  for  in  itself.  To  re-ascend  to  its  source,  it  must  do  and 
suffer  in  the  body. 

Thus  the  Mysteries  taught  the  great  doctrine  of  the  divine  nature 
and  longings  alter  immortality  of  the  soul,  of  the  nobility  of  its 
origin,  the  grandeur  of  its  destiny,  its  superiority  over  the  ani- 
mals who  have  no  aspirations  heavenward.  If  they  struggled  in 
vain  to  express  its  nature,  by  comparing  it  to  Fire  and  Light,-- 
if  they  erred  as  to  its  original  place  of  abode,  and  the  mode  01  its 


KNIGHT  OF  THE   BRAZEN    SERPENT.  43? 

descent,  and  the  path  which,  descending  and  ascending,  it  pursued 
among  the  stars  and  spheres,  these  were  the  accessories  of  the 
Great  Truth,  and  mere  allegories  designed  to  make  the  idea  more 
impressive,  and,  as  it  were,  tangible,  to  the  human  mind. 

Let  us,  in  order  to  understand  this  old  Thought,  first  follow  the 
soul  in  its  descent.  The  sphere  or  Heaven  of  the  fixed  stars  was 
that  Holy  Region,  and  those  Elysian  Fields,  that  were  the  native 
domicile  of  souls,  and  the  place  to  which  they  re-ascended,  when 
they  had  recovered  their  primitive  purity  and  simplicity.  From  that 
luminous  region  the  soul  set  forth,  when  it  journeyed  toward  the 
body ;  a  destination  which  it  did  not  reach  until  it  had  undergone 
three  degradations,  designated  by  the  name  of  Deaths ;  and  until 
it  had  passed  through  the  several  spheres  and  the  elements.  All 
souls  remained  in  possession  of  Heaven  and  of  happiness,  so  long 
as  they  were  wise  enough  to  avoid  the  contagion  of  the  body,  and 
to  keep  themselves  from  any  contact  with  matter.  But  those  who, 
from  that  lofty  dbocie,  where  they  were  lapped  in  eternal  light,  have 
looked  longingly  toward  the  body,  and  toward  that  which  we  here 
below  call  life,  but  which  is  to  the  soul  a  real  death;  and  who  have 
conceived  for  it  a  secret  desire, — those  souls,  victims  of  their  con- 
cupiscence, are  attracted  by  degrees  toward  the  inferior  regions  of 
the  world,  by  the  mere  weight  of  thought  and  of  that  terrestrial 
desire.  The  soul,  perfectly  incorporeal,  does  not  at  once  invest 
itself  with  the  gross  envelope  of  the  body,  but  little  by  little,  by  suc- 
cessive and  insensible  alterations,  and  in  proportion  as  it  removes 
further  and  further  from  the  simple  and  perfect  substance  in 
which  it  dwelt  at  first.  It  first  surrounds  itself  with  a  body  com- 
posed of  the  substance  of  the  stars ;  and  afterward,  as  it  descends 
through  the  several  spheres,  with  ethereal  matter  more  and  more 
gross,  thus  by  degrees  descending  to  an  earthly  body;  and  its 
n limber  of  degradations  or  deaths  being  the  same  as  that  of  the 
spheres  which  it  traverses. 

The  Galaxy,  Macrobius  says,  crosses  the  Zodiac  in  two  opposite 
points.  Cancer  and  Capricorn,  the  tropical  points  in  the  sun's 
course,  ordinarily  called  the  Gates  of  the  Sun.  These  two  tropics, 
before  his  time,  corresponded  with  those  constellations,  but  in  his 
day  with  Gemini  and  Sagittarius,  in  consequence  of  the  preces- 
sion of  the  equinoxes :  but  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  remained 
unchanged ;  and  the  Milky  Way  crossed  at  the  signs  Cancer  and 
Capricorn,  though  not  at  those  constellations. 
29 


MORALS    AND    DOGMA. 

Through  these  gates  souls  were  supposed  to  descend  to  earth 
and  re-ascend  to  Heaven.  One,  Macrobius  says,  in  hig  dream  of 
Scipio,  was  styled  the  Gate  of  Men ;  and  the  other,  the  Gate  of 
the  Gods.  Cancer  was  the  former,  because  souls  descended  by  it 
to  the  earth ;  and  Capricorn  the  latter,  because  by  it  they  re- 
ascended  to  their  seats  of  immortality,  and  became  Gods.  From 
the  Milky  Way,  according  to  Pythagoras,  diverged  the  route  to 
the  dominions  of  Pluto.  Until  they  left  the  Galaxy,  they  were 
not  deemed  to  have  commenced  to  descend  toward  the  terrestrial 
bodies.  From  that  they  departed,  and  to  that  they  returned. 
Until  they  reached  the  sign  Cancer,  they  had  not  left  it,  and  were 
still  Gods.  When  they  reached  Leo,  they  commenced  their 
apprenticeship  for  their  future  condition ;  and  when  they  were 
at  Aquarius,  the  sign  opposite  Leo,  they  were  furthest  removed 
from  human  life. 

The  soul,  descending  from  the  celestial  limits,  where  the  Zodiac 
and  Galaxy  unite,  loses  its  spherical  shape,  the  shape  of  all  Divine 
Nature,  and  is  lengthened  into  a  cone,  as  a  point  is  lengthened 
into  a  line ;  and  then,  an  indivisible  monad  before,  it  divides  itself 
and  becomes  a  duad — that  is,  unity  becomes  division,  disturbance, 
and  conflict.  Then  it  begins  to  experience  the  disorder  which 
reigns  in  matter,  to  which  it  unites  itself^  becoming,  as  it  were, 
intoxicated  by  draughts  of  grosser  matter :  of  which  inebriation 
the  cup  of  Bakchos,  between  Cancer  and  Leo,  is  a  symbol.  It  is 
for  them  the  cup  of  forgetfulness.  They  assemble,  says  Plato,  in 
the  fields  of  oblivion,  to  drink  there  the  water  of  the  river  Ameles, 
which  causes  men  to  forget  everything.  This  fiction  is  also  found 
in  Virgil.  "If  souls,"  says  Macrobius,  "carried  with  them  into 
the  bodies  they  occupy  all  the  knowledge  which  they  had  acquired 
of  divine  things,  during  their  sojourn  in  the  Heavens,  men  would 
not  differ  in  opinion  as  to  the  Deity ;  but  some  of  them  forget 
more,  and  some  less,  of  that  which  they  had  learned." 

W7e  smile  at  these  notions  of  the  ancients :  but  we  must  learn 
to  look  through  these  material  images  and  allegories,  to  the  ideas, 
struggling  for  utterance,  the  great  speechless  thoughts  which  they 
envelop :  and  it  is  well  for  us  to  consider  whether  we  ourselves 
have  yet  found  out  any  better  way  of  representing  to  ourselves  the 
soul's  origin  and  its  advent  into  this  body,  so  entirely  foreign  to 
it ;  if,  indeed,  we  have  ever  thought  about  it  at  all ;  or  have  not 
ceased  to  think,  in  despair. 


KNIGHT   OF   THE    BRAZEN    SERPENT.  439 

The  highest  and  purest  portion  of  matter,  which  nourishes  and 
constitutes  divine  existences,  is  what  the  poets  term  nectar,  the  bev- 
erage of  the  Gods.  The  lower,  more  disturbed  and  grosser  portion, 
is  what  intoxicates  souls.  The  ancients  symbolized  it  as  the  River 
Lethe,  dark  stream  of  oblivion.  How  do  ttr  explain  the  soul's 
forgetfulness  of  its  antecedents,  or  reconcile  that  utter  absence 
of  remembrance  of  its  former  condition,  with  its  essential  immor- 
tality ?  In  truth,  we  for  the  most  part  dread  and  shrink  from  any 
attempt  at  explanation  of  it  to  ourselves. 

Dragged  down  by  the  heaviness  produced  by. this  inebriating 
draught,  the  soul  falls  along  the  zodiac  and  the  milky  way  to  the 
lower  spheres,  and  in  its  descent  not  only  takes,  in  each  sphere,  a 
new  envelope  of  the  material  composing  the  luminous  bodies  of 
the  planets,  but  receives  there  the  different  faculties  which  it  is  to 
exercise  while  it  inhabits  the  body. 

In  Saturn,  it  acquires  the  power  of  reasoning  and  intelligence, 
or  what  is  termed  the  logical  and  contemplative  faculty.  From 
Jupiter  it  receives  the  power  of  action.  Mars  gives  it  valor,  enter- 
prise, and  impetuosity.  From  the  Sun  it  receives  the  senses  and 
imagination,  which  produce  sensation,  perception,  and  thought. 
Venus  inspires  it  with  desires.  Mercury  gives  it  the  faculty  of 
expressing  and  enunciating  what  it  thinks  and  feels.  And,  on 
entering  the  sphere  of  the  Moon,  it  acquires  the  force  of  genera- 
tion and  growth.  This  lunary  sphere,  lowest  and  basest  to  divine 
bodies,  is  first  and  highest  to  terrestrial  bodies.  And  the  lunary 
body  there  assumed  by  the  soul,  while,  as  it  were,  the  sediment  of 
celestial  matter,  is  also  the  first  substance  of  animal  matter. 

The  celestial  bodies,  Heaven,  the  Stars,  and  the  other  Divine  ele- 
ments, ever  aspire  to  rise.  The  soul  reaching  the  region  which 
mortality  inhabits,  tends  toward  terrestrial  bodies,  and  is  deemed 
to  die.  Let  no  one,  says  Macrobius,  be  surprised  that  we  so  fre- 
quently speak  of  the  death  of  this  soul,  which  yet  we  call  immor- 
tal. It  is  neither  annulled  nor  destroyed  by  such  death :  but 
merely  enfeebled  for  a  time ;  and  does  not  thereby  forfeit  its  pre- 
rogative of  immortality ;  for  afterward,  freed  from  the  body,  when 
it  has  been  purified  from  the  vice-stains  contracted  during  that 
connection,  it  is  re-established  in  all  its  privileges,  and  returns  to 
the  luminous  abode  of  its  immortality. 

On  its  return,  it  restores  to  each  sphere  through  which  it  as- 
cends, the  passions  and  earthly  faculties  received  from  them :  to 


44O  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

the  Moon,  the  faculty  of  increase  and  diminution  of  the  body ;  to 
Mercury,  fraud,  the  architect  of  evils ;  to  Venus,  the  seductive  love 
of  pleasure ;  to  the  Sun,  the  passion  for  greatness  and  empire ;  to 
Mars,  audacity  and  temerity ;  to  Jupiter,  avarice ;  and  to  Saturn, 
falsehood  and  deceit :  and  at  last,  relieved  of  all,  it  enters  naked 
and  pure  into  the  eighth  sphere  or  highest  Heaven. 

All  this  agrees  with  the  doctrine  of  Plato,  that  the  soul  cannot 
re-enter  into  Heaven,  until  the  revolutions  of  the  Universe  shall 
have  restored  it  to  its  primitive  condition,  and  purified  it  from  the 
effects  of  its  contact  with  the  four  elements. 

This  opinion  of  the  pre-existence  of  souls,  as  pure  and  celestial 
substances,  before  their  union  with  our  bodies,  to  put  on  and  ani- 
mate which  they  descend  from  Heaven,  is  one  of  great  antiquity.  A 
modern  Rabbi,  Manasseh  Ben  Israel,  says  it  was  always  the  belief 
of  the  Hebrews.  It  was  that  of  most  philosophers  who  admitted 
the  immortality  of  the  soul :  and  therefore  it  was  taught  in  the 
Mysteries ;  for,  as  Lactantius  says,  they  could  not  see  how  it  was 
possible  that  the  soul  should  exist  after  the  body,  if  it  had  not 
existed  before  it,  and  if  its  nature  was  not  independent  of  that  of 
the  body.  The  same  doctrine  was  adopted  by  the  most  learned  of 
the  Greek  Fathers,  and  by  many  of  the  Latins :  and  it  would 
probably  prevail  largely  at  the  present  day,  if  men  troubled  them- 
selves to  think  upon  this  subject  at  all,  and  to  inquire  whether  the 
soul's  immortality  involved  its  prior  existence. 

Some  philosophers  held  that  the  soul  was  incarcerated  in  the 
body,  by  way  of  punishment  for  sins  committed  by  it  in  a  prior 
state.  How  they  reconciled  this  with  the  same  soul's  unconscious- 
ness of  any  such  prior  state,  or  of  sin  committed  there,  does  not 
appear.  Others  held  that  God,  of  his  mere  will,  sent  the  soul  to 
inhabit  the  body.  The  Kabalists  united  the  two  opinions.  They 
held  that  there  are  four  worlds,  Azilnth,  Briarth,  Jczirath,  and 
Asiath;  the  world  of  emanation,  that  of  creation,  that  of  forms, 
and  the  material  world ;  one  above  and  more  perfect  than  the 
other,  in  that  order,  both  as  regards  their  own  nature  and  that  of 
the  beings  who  inhabit  them.  All  souls  are  originally  in  the  world 
Aziluth,  the  Supreme  Heaven,  abode  of  God,  and  of  pure  and  im- 
mortal spirits.  Those  who  descend  from  it  without  fault  of  their 
own,  by  God's  order,  are  gifted  with  a  divine  fire,  which  preserves 
them  from  the  contagion  of  matter,  and  restores  them  to  Heaven 
so  soon  as  their  mission  is  ended.  Those  who  descend  through 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  441 

their  own  fault,  go  from  world  to  world,  insensibly  losing  their 
love  of  Divine  things,  and  their  self-contemplation ;  until  they 
reach  the  world  Aziath,  falling  by  their  own  weight.  This  is  a 
pure  Platonism,  clothed  with  the  images  and  words  peculiar  to  the 
Kabalists.  It  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Essenes,  who,  says  Por- 
phyry, "believe  that  souls  descend  from  the  most  subtile  ether, 
attracted  to  bodies  by  the  seductions  of  matter."  It  was  in  sub- 
stance the  doctrine  of  Origen ;  and  it  came  from  the  Chaldaeans, 
who  largely  studied  the  theory  of  the  Heavens,  the  spheres,  and 
the  influences  of  the  signs  and  constellations. 

The  Gnostics  made  souls  ascend  and  descend  through  eight 
Heavens,  in  each  of  which  were  certain  Powers  that  opposed  their 
return,  and  often  drove  them  back  to  earth,  when  not  sufficiently 
purified.  The  last  of  these  Powers,  nearest  the  luminous  abode 
of  souls,  was  a  serpent  or  dragon. 

In  the  ancient  doctrine,  certain  Genii  were  charged  with  the 
duty  of  conducting  souls  to  the  bodies  destined  to  receive  them, 
and  of  withdrawing  them  from  those  bodies.  According  to  Plu- 
tarch, these  were  the  functions  of  Proserpine  and  Mercury.  Tn 
Plato,  a  familiar  Genius  accompanies  man  at  his  birth,  follows  and 
watches  him  all  his  life,  and  at  death  conducts  him  to  the  tribunal 
of  the  Great  Judge.  These  Genii  are  the  media  of  communication 
between  man  and  the  Gods ;  and  the  soul  is  ever  in  their  presence. 
This  doctrine  is  taught  in  the  oracles  of  Zoroaster :  and  these 
Genii  were  the  Intelligences  tViat  resided  in  the  planets. 

Thus  the  secret  science  and  mysterious  emblems  of  initiation 
were  connected  with  the  Heavens,  the  Spheres,  and  the  Constel- 
lations :  and  this  connection  must  be  studied  by  whomsoever 
would  understand  the  ancient  mind,  and  be  enabled  to  interpret 
the  allegories,  and  explore  the  meaning  of  the  symbols,  in  which 
the  old  sages  endeavored  to  delineate  the  ideas  that  struggled 
within  them  for  utterance,  and  could  be  but  insufficiently  and  in- 
adequately expressed  by  language,  whose  words  are  images  of 
those  things  alone  that  can  be  grasped  by  and  are  within  the  em- 
pire of  the  senses. 

It  is  not  possible  for  us  thoroughly  to  appreciate  the  feelings 
with  which  the  ancients  regarded  the  Heavenly  bodies,  and  the 
ideas  to  which  their  observation  of  the  Heavens  gave  rise,  because 
we  cannot  put  ourselves  in  their  places,  look  at  the  stars  with  theii 
eyes  in  the  world's  youth,  and  divest  ourselves  of  the  knowledge 


442  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

which  even  the  commonest  of  us  have,  that  makes  us  regard  the 
Stars  and  Planets  and  all  the  Universe  of  Suns  and  Worlds,  as  a 
mere  inanimate  machine  and  aggregate  of  senseless  orbs,  no  more 
astonishing,  except  in  degree,  than  a  clock  or  an  orrery.  We  won- 
der and  are  amazed  at  the  Power  and  Wisdom  (to  most  men  it 
seems  only  a  kind  of  Infinite  Ingenuity)  of  the  MAKER  :  they  won- 
dered at  the  Work,  and  endowed  it  with  Life  and  Force  and  mys- 
terious Powers  and  mighty  Influences. 

Memphis,  in  Egypt,  was  in  Latitude  29°  5"  North,  and  in  Lon- 
gitude 30°  1 8'  East.  Thebse,  in  Upper  Egypt,  in  Latitude  25°  45' 
North,  and  Longitude  32°  43'  East.  Babylon  was  in  Latitude  32° 
30'  North,  and  Longitude  44°  23'  East :  while  Saba,  the  ancient 
Sabsean  capital  of  Ethiopia,  was  about  in  Latitude  15°  North. 

Through  Egypt  ran  the  great  River  Nile,  coming  from  beyond 
Ethiopia,  its  source  in  regions  wholly  unknown,  in  the  abodes  of 
heat  and  fire,  and  its  course  from  South  to  North,  Its  inunda- 
tions had  formed  the  alluvial  lands  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt, 
which  they  continued  to  raise  higher  and  higher,  and  to  fertilize 
by  their  deposits.  At  first,  as  in  all  newly-settled  countries,  those 
inundations,  occurring  annually  and  always  at  the  same  period  of 
the  year,  were  calamities :  until,  by  means  of  levees  and  drains  and 
artificial  lakes  for  irrigation,they  became  blessings, and  were  looked 
for  with  joyful  anticipation,  as  they  had  before  been  awaited  with 
terror.  Upon  the  deposit  left  by  the  Sacred  River,  as  it  withdrew 
into  its  banks,  the  husbandman  sowed  his  seed ;  and  the  rich  soil 
and  the  genial  sun  insured  him  an  abundant  harvest. 

Babylon  lay  on  the  Euphrates,  which  ran  from  Southeast  to 
Northwest,  blessing,  as  all  rivers  in  the  Orient  do,  the  arid  country 
through  which  it  flowed  ;  but  its  rapid  and  uncertain  overflows 
bringing  terror  and  disaster. 

To  the  ancients,  as  yet  inventors  of  no  astronomical  instruments. 
and  looking  at  the  Heavens  with  the  eyes  of  children,  this  earth 
was  a  level  plain  of  unknown  extent.  About  its  boundaries  there 
was  speculation,  but  no  knowledge.  The  inequalities  of  its  surface 
were  the  irregularities  of  a  plane.  That  it  was  a  globe,  or  that 
anything  lived  on  its  under  surface,  or  on  what  it  rested,  they 
had  no  idea.  Every  twenty-four  hours  the  sun  came  up  from  be- 
yond the  Eastern  rim  of  the  world,  and  travelled  across  the  sky, 
over  the  earth,  always  South  of.  but  sometimes  nearer  and  some- 
times further  from  the  point  overhead ;  and  sunk  below  the 


KNIGHT   OF   THE    BRAZEN    SERPENT.  443 

world's  Western  rim.  With  him  went  light,  and  after  him  fol- 
lowed darkness. 

And  every  twenty-four  hours  appeared  in  the  Heavens  another 
body,  visible  chiefly  at  night,  but  sometimes  even  when  the  sun 
shone,  which  likewise,  as  if  following  the  sun  at  a  greater  or  less 
distance,  travelled  across  the  sky ;  sometimes  as  a  thin  crescent, 
and  thence  increasing  to  a  full  orb  resplendent  with  silver  light ; 
and  sometimes  more  and  sometimes  less  to  the  Southward  of  the 
point  overhead,  v/ithin  the  same  limits  as  the  Sun. 

Man,  enveloped  by  the  thick  darkness  of  profoundest  night, 
when  everything  around  him  has  disappeared,  and  he  seems  alone 
with  himself  and  the  black  shades  that  surround  him,  feels  his 
existence  a  blank  and  nothingness,  except  so  far  as  memory  recalls 
to  him  the  glories  and  splendors  of  light.  Everything  is  dead  to 
him,  and  he,  as  it  were,  to  Nature.  How  crushing  and  overwhelm- 
ing the  thought,  the  fear,  the  dread,  that  perhaps  that  darkness 
may  be  eternal,  and  that  day  may  possibly  never  return ;  if  it  ever 
occurs  to  his  mind,  while  the  solid  gloom  closes  up  against  him 
like  a  wall !  What  then  can  restore  him  to  life,  to  energy,  to  ac- 
tivity, to  fellowship  and  communion  with  the  great  world  which 
God  has  spread  around  him,  and  which  perhaps  in  the  darkness 
may  be  passing  away?  LIGHT  restores  him  to  himself  and  to 
nature  which  seemed  lost  to  him.  Naturally,  therefore,  the  prim- 
itive men  regarded  light  as  the  principle  of  their  real  existence, 
without  which  life  would  be  but  one  continued  weariness  and  de- 
spair. This  necessity  for  light,  and  its  actual  creative  energy, 
were  felt  by  all  men :  and  nothing  was  more  alarming  to  them 
than  its  absence.  It  became  their  first  Divinity,  a  single  ray  of 
which,  flashing  into  the  dark  tumultuous  bosom  of  chaos,  caused 
man  and  all  the  Universe  to  emerge  from  it.  So  all  the  poets  sung 
who  imagined  Cosmogonies ;  such  was  the  first  dogma  of  Orpheus, 
Moses,  and  the  Theologians.  Light  was  Ormiml,  adored  by  the 
Persians,  and  Darkness  Ahriman,  origin  of  all  evils.  Light  was 
the  life  of  the  Universe,  the  friend  of  man.  the  substance  of  the 
Gods  and  of  the  Soul. 

The  sky  was  to  them  a  great,  solid,  concave  arch  ;  a  hemisphere 
of  unknown  material,  at  an  unknown  distance  above  the  flat  level 
earth  ;  and  along  it  journeyed  in  their  courses  the  Sun,  the  Moon, 
the  Planets,  and  the  Stars. 

The  Sun  was  to  them  a  great  globe  of  fire,  of  unknown  dimen- 


444  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

sions,  at  an  unknown  distance.  The  Moon  was  a  mass  of  softer 
light;  the  stars  and  planets  lucent  bodies,  armed  with  unknown 
and  supernatural  influences. 

It  could  not  fail  to  be  soon  observed,  that  at  regular  intervals 
the  days  and  nights  were  equal ;  and  that  two  of  these  intervals 
measured  the  same  space  of  time  as  elapsed  between  the  success- 
ive inundations,  and  between  the  returns  of  spring-time  and  har- 
vest. Nor  could  it  fail  to  be  perceived  that  the  changes  of  the 
moon  occurred  regularly;  the  same  number'of  days  always  elaps- 
ing between  the  first  appearance  of  her  silver  crescent  in  the  West 
at  evening  and  that  of  her  full  orb  rising  in  the  East  at  the  same 
hour;  and  the  same  again,  between  that  and  the  new  appearance 
of  the  crescent  in  the  West. 

It  was  also  soon  observed  that  the  Sun  crossed  the  Heavens  in 
a  different  line  each  day,  the  days  being  longest  and  the  nights 
shortest  when  the  line  of  his  passage  was  furthest  North,  and  the 
days  shortest  and  nights  longest  when  that  line  was  furthest 
South:  that  his  progress  North  and  South  wras  perfectly  regular, 
marking  four  periods  that  were  always  the  same. — those  \vhen  the 
days  and  nights  were  equal,  or  the  Vernal  and  Autumnal  Equi- 
noxes ;  that  when  the  days  were  longest,  or  the  Summer  Solstice ; 
and  that  when  they  were  shortest,  or  the  Winter  Solstice. 

With  the  Vernal  Equinox,  or  about  the  25th  of  March  of  our 
Calendar,  they  found  that  there  unerringly  came  soft  winds,  the 
return  of  warmth,  caused  by  the  Sun  turning  back  +o  the  North- 
ward from  the  middle  ground  of  his  course,  the  vegetation  of  the 
new  year,  and  the  impulse  to  amatory  action  on  the  part  of  the 
animal  creation.  Then  the  Bull  and  the  Ram,  animals  most  val- 
uable to  the  agriculturist,  and  symbols  themselves  of  vigorous 
generative  power,  recovered  their  vigor,  the  birds  mated  and 
builded  their  nests,  the  seeds  germinated,  the  grass  grew,  and  the 
trees  put  forth  leaves.  With  the  Summer  Solstice,  when  the  Sun 
reached  the  extreme  northern  limit  of  his  course,  came  great  heat, 
and  burning  winds,  and  lassitude  and  exhaustion  :  then  vegetation 
withered,  man  longed  for  the  cool  breezes  of  Spring  and  Autumn, 
and  the  cool  water  of  the  wintry  Nile  or  Euphrates,  and  the  Lion 
soueht  for  that  element  far  from  his  home  in  the  desert. 

With  the  Autumnal  Equinox  came  ripe  harvests,  and  fruits  of 
the  tree  and  vine,  and  falling  leaves,  and  cola  cvenir/rs  presaging 
wintry  frosts;  and  the  Principle  and  Powers  of  Darkness,  pre- 


KMGHT   OF   THE   BRAZEX    SliKl'ENT.  445 

vailing  over  those  of  Light,  drove  the  Sun  further  to  the  South, 
so  that  the  nights  grew  longer  than  the  days.  And  at  the  Winter 
Solstice  the  earth  was  wrinkled  with  frost,  the  trees  were  leafless, 
and  the  Sun,  reaching  the  most  Southern  point  in  his  career, 
seemed  to  hesitate  whether  to  continue  descending,  to  leave  the 
world  to  darkness  and  despair,  or  to  turn  upon  his  steps  and 
retrace  his  course  to  the  Northward,  bringing  back  seed-time 
and  Spring,  and  green  leaves  and  flowers,  and  all  the  delights  of 
love. 

Thus,  naturally  and  necessarily,  time  was  divided,  first  into 
days,  and  then  into  moons  or  months,  and  years ;  and  with  these 
divisions  and  the  movements  of  the  Heavenly  bodies  that  marked 
them,  were  associated  and  connected  all  men's  physical  enjoy- 
ments and  privations.  Wholly  agricultural,  and  in  their  frail 
habitations  greatly  at  the  mercy  of  the  elements  and  the  changing 
seasons,  the  primitive  people  of  the  Orient  were  most  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  recurrence  of  the  periodical  phenomena  presented  by 
the  two  great  luminaries  of  Heaven,  on  whose  regularity  all  their 
prosperity  depended. 

And  the  attentive  observer  soon  noticed  that  the  smaller  lights 
of  Heaven  were,  apparently,  even  more  regular  than  the  Sun  and 
Moon,  and  foretold  with  unerring  certainty,  by  their  risings  and 
settings,  the  periods  of  recurrence  of  the  different  phenomena  and 
seasons  on  which  the  physical  wrell-being  of  all  men  depended. 
They  soon  felt  the  necessity  of  distinguishing  the  individual  stars, 
or  groups  of  stars,  and  giving  them  names,  that  they  might 
understand  each  other,  when  referring  to  and  designating  them. 
Necessity  produced  designations  at  once  natural  and  artificial. 
Observing  that,  in  the  circle  of  the  year,  the  renewal  and  periodi- 
cal appearance  of  the  productions  of  the  earth  were  constantly  asso- 
ciated, not  only  with  the  courses  of  the  Sun,  but  also  with  the 
rising  and  Setting  of  certain  Stars,  and  with  their  position  rela- 
tively to  the  Sun,  the  centre  to  which  they  referred  the  whole 
starry  host,  the  mind  naturally  connected  the  celestial  and  terres- 
trial objects  that  were  in  fact  connected:  and  they  commenced 
by  giving  to  particular  Stars  or  groups  of  Stars  the  names  of  those 
terrestrial  objects  which  seemed  connected  with  them ;  and  for 
those  which  still  remained  unnamed  by  this  nomenclature,  they, 
to  complete  a  system,  assumed  arbitrary  and  fanciful  names. 

Thus  the  Ethiopian  of  Thebes  or  Saba  styled  those  Stars  under 


446  MORALS    AND    DOGMA. 

which  the  Nile  commenced  to  overflow,  Stars  of  Inundation,  or 
that  poured  out  water  (AQUARIUS). 

Those  Stars  among  which  the  Sun  was,  when  he  had  reached 
the  Northern  Tropic  and  began  to  retreat  Southward,  were  termed, 
from  his  retrograde  motion,  the  Crab  (CANCER). 

As  he  approached,  in  Autumn,  the  middle  point  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  extremes  of  his  journeying,  the  days  and 
nights  became  equal ;  and  the  Stars  among  which  he  was  then 
found  were  called  Stars  of  the  Balance  (LIBRA). 

Those  stars  among  which  the  Sun  was,  when  the  Lion,  driven 
from  the  Desert  by  thirst,  came  to  slake  it  at  the  Nile,  were  called 
Stars  of  the  Lion  (LEO). 

Those  among  which  the  Sun  was  at  harvest,  were  called  those 
of  the  Gleaning  Virgin,  holding  a  Sheaf  of  Wheat  ( VIRGO). 

Those  among  which  he  was  found  in  February,  when  the  Ewes 
brought  forth  their  young, were  called  Stars  of  the  Lamb  (ARIES). 

Those  in  March,  when  it  was  time  to  plough,  were  called  Stars 
of  the  Ox  (TAURUS). 

Those  under  which  hot  and  burning  winds  came  from  the 
desert,  venomous  like  poisonous  reptiles,  were  called  Stars  of  the 
Scorpion  ( SCORPIO). 

Observing  that  the  annual  return  of  the  rising  of  the  Nile  was 
always  accompanied  by  the  appearance  of  a  beautiful  Star,  which  at 
that  period  showed  itself  in  the  direction  of  the  sources  of  that 
river,  and  seemed  to  warn  the  husbandman  to  be  careful  not  to  be 
surprised  by  the  inundation,  the  Ethiopian  compared  this  act  of 
that  Star  to  that  of  the  Animal  which  by  barking  gives  warning 
of  danger,  and  styled  it  the  Dog  (SiRius). 

Thus  commencing,  and  as  astronomy  came  to  be  more  studied, 
imaginary  figures  were  traced  all  over  the  Heavens,  to  which  the 
different  Stars  were  assigned.  Chief  among  them  were  those  that 
lay  along  the  path  which  the  Sun  travelled  as  he  climbed  toward 
the  North  and  descended  to  the  South :  lying  within  certain 
limits  and  extending  to  an  equal  distance  on  each  side  of  the  line 
of  equal  nights  and  clays.  This  belt,  curving  like  a  Serpent,  was 
termed  the  Zodiac,  and  divided  into  twelve  Signs. 

At  the  Vernal  Equinox.  2455  years  before  our  Era,  the  Sun  was 
entering  the  sign  and  constellation  Taurus,  or  the  Bull ;  having 
passed  through,  since  he  commenced,  at  the  Winter  Solstice,  to 
ascend  Northward,  the  Signs  Aquarius,  Pisces  and  Aries;  on  enter- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  URAXKN   SERPENT.  447 

ing  the  first  of  which  he  reached  the  lowest  limit  of  his  journey 
Southward. 

From  TAURUS,  he  passed  through  Gemini  and  Cancer,  and 
reached  LEO  when  he  arrived  at  the  terminus  of  his  journey 
Northward.  Thence,  through  Leo,  Virgo,  and  Libra,  he  entered 
SCORPIO  at  the  Autumnal  Equinox,  and  journeyed  Southward 
through  Scorpio,  .Sagittarius,  and  Capricornus  to  AQUARIUS,  the 
terminus  of  his  journey  South. 

The  path  by  which  he  journeyed  through  these  signs  became 
the  Ecliptic;  and  that  which  passes  through  the  two  equinoxes, 
the  Equator. 

They  knew  nothing  of  the  immutable  laws  of  nature ;  and 
whenever  the  Sun  commenced  to  tend  Southward,  they  feared  lest 
he  might  continue  to  do  so,  and  by  degrees  disappear  forever,  leav- 
ing the  earth  to  be  ruled  forever  by  darkness,  storm,  and  cold. 

Hence  they  rejoiced  when  he  commenced  to  re-ascend  after  the 
Winter  Solstice,  struggling  against  the  malign  influences  of  Aqua- 
rius and  Pisces,  and  amicably  received  by  the  Lamb.  And  when 
at  the  Vernal  Equinox  he  entered  Taurus,  they  still  more  rejoiced 
at  the  assurance  that  the  days  would  again  be  longer  than  the 
nights,  that  the  season  of  seed-time  had  come,  and  the  Summer 
and  harvest  would  follow. 

And  they  lamented  when,  after  the  Autumnal  Equinox,  the 
malign  influence  of  the  venomous  Scorpion,  and  vindictive  Ar- 
cher, and  the  filthy  and  ill-omened  He-Goat  dragged  him  down 
toward  the  Winter  Solstice. 

Arriving  there,  they  said  he  had  been  slain,  and  had  gone  to  the 
realm  of  darkness.  Remaining  there  three  days,  he  rose  again, 
and  again  ascended  Northward  in  the  heavens,  to  redeem  the 
earth  from  the  gloom  and  darkness  of  Winter,  which  soon  became 
emblematical  of  sin,  and  evil,  and  suffering;  as  the  Spring,  Sum- 
mer, and  Autumn  became  emblems  of  happiness  and  immortality. 

Soon  they  personified  the  Sun,  and  worshipped  him  under  the 
name  of  OSIRIS,  and  transmuted  the  legend  of  his  descent  among 
the  Winter  Signs,  into  a  fable  of  his  death,  his  descent  into  the  in- 
fernal regions,  and  his  resurrection. 

The  Moon  became  Isis,  the  wife  of  Osiris  ;  and  \Vinter,  as  well  as 
the  desert  or  the  ocean  into  which  the  Sun  descended,  became 
TYPHON,  the  Spirit  or  Principle  of  Evil,  warring  against  and 
destroying  Osiris. 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

From  the  journey  of  the  Sun  through  the  twelve  signs  came  the 
legend  of  the  twelve  labors  of  Hercules,  and  the  incarnations  of 
Vishnu  and  Buddha.  Hence  came  the  legend  of  the  murder  of 
Khurum,  representative  of  the  Sun,  by  the  three  Fellow-crafts, 
symbols  of  the  three  Winter  signs,  Capricornus,  Aquarius,  and 
Pisces,  who  assailed  him  at  the  three  gates  of  Heaven  and  slew  him 
at  the  Winter  Solstice.  Hence  the  search  for  him  by  the  nine  Fel- 
low-crafts, the  other  nine  signs,  his  finding,  burial,  and  resurrection. 

The  celestial  Taurus,  opening  the  new  year,  was  the  Creative 
Bull  of  the  Hindus  and  Japanese,  breaking  with  his  horn  the  egg 
out  of  which  the  world  is  born.  Hence  the  bull  APIS  was  wor- 
shipped by  the  Egyptians,  and  reproduced  as  a  golden  calf  by 
Aaron  in  the  desert.  Hence  the  cow  was  sacred  to  the  Hindus. 
Hence,  from  the  sacred  and  beneficent  signs  of  Taurus  and  Leo, 
the  human-headed  winged  lions  and  bulls  in  the  palaces  at  Kou- 
younjik  and  Nimroud,  like  which  were  the  Cherubim  set  by  Sol- 
omon in  his  Temple :  and  hence  the  twelve  brazen  or  bronze  oxen, 
on  which  the  laver  of  brass  was  supported. 

The  Celestial  Vulture  or  Eagle,  rising  and  setting  with  the 
Scorpion,  was  substituted  in  its  place,  in  many  cases,  on  account  of 
the  malign  influences  of  the  latter :  and  thus  the  four  great  periods 
of  the  year  were  marked  by  the  Bull,  the  Lion,  the  Alan  (Aqua- 
rius) and  the  Eagle;  which  were  upon  the  respective  standards  of 
Ephraim,  Judah,  Reuben,  and  Dan ;  and  still  appear  on  the  shield 
of  American  Royal  Arch  Masonry. 

Afterward  the  Ram  or  Lamb  became  an  object  of  adoration, 
when,  in  his  turn,  he  opened  the  equinox,  to  deliver  the  world  from 
the  wintry  reign  of  darkness  and  evil. 

Around  the  central  and  simple  idea  of  the  annual  death  and 
resurrection  of  the  Sun  a  multitude  of  circumstantial  details  soon 
clustered.  Some  were  derived  from  other  astronomical  phenom- 
ena ;  while  many  wrere  merely  poetical  ornaments  and  inventions. 

Besides  the  Sun  and  Moon,  those  ancients  also  saw  a  beautiful 
Star,  shining  with  a  soft,  silvery  light,  always  following  the  Sun  at 
no  great  distance  when  he  set.  or  preceding  him  when  he  rose. 
Another  of  a  red  and  angry  color,  and  still  another  more  kingly 
and  brilliant  than  all.  early  attracted  their  attention,  by  their  free 
movements  among  the  fixed  hosts  of  Heaven :  and  the  latter  by 
his  unusual  brilliancy,  and  the  regularity  wit1^  which  he  rose  and 
set.  These  were  Venns,  Mars,  and  Jupiter.  Mercury  and  Saturn 


KNIGHT   OF   THE    KKAZEN    SEKl'ENT.  449 

could  scarcely  have  been  noticed  in  the  world's  infancy,  or  until 
astronomy  began  to  assume  the  proportions  of  a  science. 

In  the  projection  of  the  celestial  sphere  by  the  astronomical 
priests,  the  zodiac  and  constellations,  arranged  in  a  circle,  pre- 
sented their  halves  in  diametrical  opposition  ;  and  the  hemisphere 
of  Winter  was  said  to  be  adverse, opposed, contrary, to  that  of  Sum- 
mer. Over  the  angels  of  the  latter  ruled  a  king  ( OSIRIS  or  OR- 
MUZD)  ,  enlightened,  intelligent,  creative,  and  beneficent.  Over  the 
fallen  angels  or  evil  genii  of  the  former,  the  demons  or  Devs  of 
the  subterranean  empire  of  darkness  and  sorrow,  and  its  stars, 
ruled  also  a  chief.  In  Egypt  the  Scorpion  first  ruled,  the  sign 
next  the  Balance,  and  long  the  chief  of  the  Winter  signs  ;  and  then 
the  Polar  Bear  or  Ass,  called  Typhon,  that  is, deluge,  on  account  of 
the  rains  which  inundated  the  earth  while  that  constellation  dom- 
ineered. In  Persia,  at  a  later  day,  it  was  the  serpent,  which,  per- 
sonified as  Ahriman,  was  the  Evil  Principle  of  the  religion  of  Zo- 
roaster. 

> 

The  Sun  does  not  arrive  at  the  same  moment  in  each  year  at 
the  equinoctial  point  on  the  equator.  The  explanation  of  his 
anticipating  that  point  belongs  to  the  science  of  astronomy ;  and 
to  that  we  refer  you  for  it.  The  consequence  is.  what  is  termed 
the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  by  means  of  which  the  Sun  is 
constantly  changing  his  place  in  the  zodiac,  at  each  vernal  equinox  ; 
so  that  now,  the  signs  retaining  the  names  which  they  had  300 
years  before  Christ,  they  and  the  constellations  do  not  correspond ; 
the  Sun  being  now  in  the  constellation  Pisces,  when  he  is  in  the 
sign  Aries. 

The  annual  amount  of  precession  is  50  seconds  and  a  little 
over  [50"  i.] .  The  period  of  a  complete  Revolution  of  the  Equinoxes, 
25.856  years.  The  precession  amounts  to  30°  or  a  sign,  in  2155.6 
years.  So  that,  as  the  sun  now  enters  Pisces  at  the  Vernal  Equi- 
nox, he  entered  Aries  at  that  period,  300  years  B.  C.,  and  Taurus 
2455  B.  C.  And  the  division  of  the  Ecliptic,  now  called  Taurus, 
lies  in  the  Constellation  Aries  :  while  the  sign  Gemini  is  in  the 
Constellation  Taurus.  Four  thousand  six  hundred  and  ten  years 
before  Christ,  the  sun  entered  Gemini  at  the  Vernal  Equinox. 

At  the  two  periods.  2455  and  300  years  before  Christ,  and  now, 
the  entrances  of  the  sun  at  the  Equinoxes  and  Solstices  into  the 
signs,  were  and  are  as  follows : — 


45°  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

B.  C.  2455. 

Vern.  Equinox,  he  entered  Taurus     .  .  from  Aries. 

Summer  Solstice  .     .     .     Leo     .     .  .  from  Cancer. 

Autumnal  Equinox   .     .     Scorpio    .  .  from  Libra. 

Winter  Solstice     .     .     .     Aquarius  .  from  Capricornus. 

B.  C.  300. 

Vern.  Eq Aries        .     .  from  Pisces. 

Summer  Sols Cancer     .     .  from  Gemini. 

Autumn  Eq Libra       .     .  from  Virgo. 

Winter  Sols Capricornus  from  Sagittarius. 

1872. 

Vern.  Eq Pisces       .  .  from  Aquarius. 

Sum.  Sols Gemini     .  .  from  Taurus. 

Aut.  Eq Virgo       .  .  from  Leo. 

Winter  Sols Sagittarius  .  from  Scorpio. 

From  confounding  signs  with  causes  came  the  worship  of  the 
sun  and  stars.  "If,"  says  Job,  "I  beheld  the  sun  when  it  shined, 
or  the  moon  progressive  in  brightness ;  and  my  heart  hath  been 
secretly  enticed,  or  my  mouth  hath  kissed  my  hand,  this  were  an 
iniquity  to  be  punished  by  the  Judge ;  for  I  should  have  denied 
the  God  that  is  above." 

Perhaps  we  are  not,  on  the  whole,  much  wiser  than  those  sim- 
ple men  of  the  old  time.  For  what  do  we  know  of  effect  and 
cause, .  except  that  one  thing  regularly  or  habitually  follozvs 
another? 

So,  because  the  heliacal  rising  of  Sirius  preceded  the  rising  of 
the  Nile,  it  was  deemed  to  cause  it ;  and  other  stars  were  in  like 
manner  held  to  cause  extreme  heat,  bitter  cold,  and  watery  storm. 

A  religious  reverence  for  the  zodiacal  Hull  [TAURUS]  appears, 
from  a  very  early  period,  to  have  been  pretty  general, — perhaps  it 
was  universal,  throughout  Asia ;  from  that  chain  or  region  of 
Caucasus  to  which  it  gave  name ;  and  which  is  still  known  under 
the  appellation  of  Mount  Taurus,  to  the  Southern  extremities  of 
the  Indian  Peninsula ;  extending  itself  also  into  Europe,  and 
through  the  Eastern  parts  of  Africa. 

This  evidently  originated  during  those  remote  ages  of  the  world, 
when  the  colure  of  the  vernal  equinox  passed  across  the  stars  in 
the  head  of  the  sign  Taurus  [among  which  was  Aldebaran]  ;  a 


KNIGHT    OF    THE    BRAZEN    SERPENT.  451 

period  when,  as  the  most  ancient  monuments  of  all  the  oriental 
nations  attest,  the  light  of  arts  and  letters  first  shone  forth. : 

The  Arabian  word  AL-DE-BARAN,  means  the  foremost,  or  lead- 
ing, star:  and  it  could  only  have  been  so  named,  when  it  did  pre- 
cede, or  lead,  all  others.  The  year  then  opened  with  the  sun  in 
Taurus ;  and  the  multitude  of  ancient  sculptures,  both  in  Assyria 
and  Egypt,  wherein  the  bull  appears  with  lunette  or  crescent 
horns,  and  the  disk  of  the  sun  between  them,  are  direct  allusions 
to  the  important  festival  of  the  first  new  moon  of  the  year :  and 
there  was  everywhere  an  annual  celebration  of  the  festival  of  the 
first  new  moon,  when  the  year  opened  with  Sol  and  Luna  in 
Taurus. 

David  sings:  "Blow  the  trumpet  in  the  New  Moon;  in  the  time 
appointed ;  on  our  solemn  feast-day :  for  this  is  a  statute  unto 
Israel,  and  a  law  of  the  God  of  Jacob.  This  he  ordained  to  Jo- 
seph, for  a  testimony,  when  he  came  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt." 

The  reverence  paid  to  Taurus  continued  long  after,  by  the  pre- 
cession of  the  Equinoxes,  the  colure  of  the  vernal  equinox  had 
come  to  pass  through  Aries.  The  Chinese  still  have  a  temple, 
called  "The  Palace  of  the  horned  Bull" ;  and  the  same  symbol  is 
worshipped  in  Japan  and  all  over  Hindostan.  The  Cimbrians 
carried  a  brazen  bull  with  them,  as  the  image  of  their  God,  when 
they  overran  Spain  and  Gaul ;  and  the  representation  of  the  Crea- 
tion, by  the  Deity  in  the  shape  of  a  bull,  breaking  the  shell  of  an 
egg  with  his  horns,  meant  Taurus,  opening  the  year,  and  bursting 
the  symbolical  shell  of  the  annually-recurring  orb  of  the  new 
year. 

Theophilus  says  that  the  Osiris  of  Egypt  was  supposed  to  be 
dead  or  absent  fifty  days  in  each  year.  Landseer  thinks  that  this 
was  because  the  Sabaean  priests  were  accustomed  to  see,  in  the 
lower  latitudes  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  the  first  or  chief  stars  of 
the  Husbandman  f  BOOTES]  sink  achronically  beneath  the  Western 
horizon  ;  and  then  to  begin  their  lamentations,  or  hold  forth  the 
signal  for  others  to  weep:  and  when  his  prolific  virtues  were  sup- 
posed to  be  transferred  to  the  vernal  sun,  bacchanalian  revelry 
became  devotion. 

Before  the  colure  of  the  Vernal  Equinox  had  passed  into  Aries, 
and  after  it  had  left  Aldebaran  and  the  Hyades.  the  Pleiades  were, 
for  seven  or  eight  centuries,  the  leading  stars  of  the  Sabaean  year. 
And  thus  we  see,  on  the  monuments,  the  disk  and  crescent,  svm- 


45-2  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

bols  of  the  sun  and  moon  in  conjunction,  appear  successively, — 
first  on  the  head,  and  then  on  the  neck  and  back  of  the  Zodiacal 
Bull,  and  more  recently  on  the  forehead  of  the  Ram. 

The  diagrammatical  character  or  symbol,  still  in  use  to  denote 
Taurus,  a,  is  this  very  crescent  and  disk:  a  symbol  that  has  come 
down  to  us  from  those  remote  ages  when  this  memorable  conjunc- 
tion in  Taurus,  by  marking  the  commencement,  at  once  of  the 
Sabsean  year  and  of  the  cycle  of  the  Chaldean  Saros,  so  pre-emi- 
nently distinguished  that  sign  as  to  become  its  characteristic  sym- 
bol. On  a  bronze  bull  from  China,  the  crescent  is  attached  to  the 
back  of  the  Bull,  by  means  of  a  cloud,  and  a  curved  groove  is  pro- 
vided for  the  occasional  introduction  of  the  disk  of  the  sun,  when 
solar  and  lunar  time  were  coincident  and  conjunctive,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  year,  and  of  the  lunar  cycle.  When  that  was 
made,  the  year  did  not  open  with  the  stars  in  the  head  of  the  Bull, 
but  when  the  colure  of  the  vernal  equinox  passed  across  the  mid- 
dle or  later  degrees  of  the  asterism  Taurus,  and  the  Pleiades  were, 
in  China,  as  in  Canaan,  the  leading  stars  of  the  year. 

The  crescent  and  disk  combined  always  represent  the  conjunc- 
tive Sun  and  Moon ;  and  when  placed  on  the  head  of  the  Zodiacal 
Bull,  the  commencement  of  the  cycle  termed  SARDS  by  the  Chal- 
deans, and  Metonic  by  the  Greeks ;  and  supposed  to  be  alluded  to 
in  Job,  by  the  phrase,  "Mazzaroth  in  his  season" ;  that  is  to  say, 
when  the  first  new  Moon  and  new  Sun  of  the  year  were  coinci- 
dent, which  happened  once  in  eighteen  years  and  a  fraction. 

On  the  sarcophagus  of  Alexander,  the  same  symbol  appears  on 
the  head  of  a  Ram,  \yhich,  in  the  time  of  that  monarch,  was  the 
learding  sign.  So  too  in  the  sculptured  temples  of  the  Upper  Nile, 
the  crescent  and  disk  appear,  not  on  the  head  of  Taurus,  but  on 
the  forehead  of  the  Ram  or  the  Ram-headed  God,  whom  the  Gre- 
cian Mythologists  called  Jupiter  Ammon,  really  the  Sun  in  Aries. 

If  we  now  look  for  a  moment  at  the  individual  stars  which 
composed  and  were  near  to  the  respective  constellations,  we  may 
find  something  that  will  connect  itself  with  the  symbols  of  the 
Ancient  Mysteries  and  of  Masonry. 

Tt  is  to  be  noticed  that  when  the  Sun  is  in  a  particular  constel- 
lation, no  part  of  that  constellation  will  be  seen,  except  just  before 
sunrise  and  just  after  sunset:  and  then  only  the  edge  of  it:  but 
the  constellations  opposite  to  it  will  be  visible.  When  the  Sun  is 
in  Taurus,  for  example,  that  is.  when  Taurus  sets  u'ith  the  Sun. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  453 

Scorpio  rises  as  he  sets,  and  continues  visible  throughout  the  night. 
And  if  Taurus  rises  and  sets  with  the  Sun  to-day,  he  will,  six 
months  hence,  rise  at  sunset  and  set  at  sunrise ;  for  the  stars  thus 
gain  on  the  Sun  two  hours  a  month. 

Going  back  to  the  time  when,  watched  by  the  Chaldean  shep- 
herds, and  the  husbandmen  of  Ethiopia  and  Egypt, 
"The  milk-white  Bull  with  golden  horns 

"Led  on  the  new-born  year," 

we  see  in  the  neck  of  TAURUS,  the  Pleiades,  and  in  his  face  the 
Hyades,  "which  Greciafrom  their  showering  names, "and  of  whom 
the  brilliant  Aldebaran  is  the  chief;  while  to  the  southwestward 
is  that  most  splendid  of  all  the  constellations,  Orion,  with  Betel- 
gueux  in  his  right  shoulder,  Bellatrix  in  his  left  shoulder,  Rigel 
on  the  left  foot,  and  in  his  belt  the  three  stars  known  as  the  Three 
Kings,  and  now  as  the  Yard  and  Ell.  Orion,  ran  the  legend; 
persecuted  the  Pleiades;  and  to  save  them  from  his  fury,  Jupittr 
placed  them  in  the  Heavens,  where  he  still  pursues  them,  but  in 
vain.  They,  with  Arcturus  and  the  Bands  of  Orion,  are  mentioned 
in  the  Book  of  Job.  They  are  usually  called  the  Seven  Stars, 
and  it  is  said  there  ivere  seven,  before  the  fall  of  Troy ;  though 
now  only  six  are  visible. 

The  Pleiades  were  so  named  from  a  Greek  word  signifying  to 
sail.  In  all  ages  they  have  been  observed  for  signs  and  seasons. 
Virgil  says  that  the  sailors  gave  names  to  "the  Pleiades,  Hyades, 
and  the  Northern  Car:  Plciadas,  Hyadas,  Clarainquc  Lycaonis 
Arcton."  And  Palinurus,  he  says, — 

Arcturum,  pluviasqne  Hyadas,  Geminosque  Triones, 
Armatumque  auro  circumspicit  Oriona, — 

studied  Arcturus  and  the  rainy  Hyades  and  the  Twin  Triones,  and 
Orion  cinctured  with  gold. 

Taurus  was  the  prince  and  leader  of  the  celestial  host  for  more 
than  two  thousand  years ;  and  when  his  head  set  with  the  Sun 
about  the  last  of  May,  the  Scorpion  was  seen  to  ris-e  in  the  South- 
east. 

The  Pleiades  were  sometimes  called  Vergilice,  or  the  Virgins  of 
Spring ;  because  the  Sun  entered  this  cluster  of  stars  in  the  season 
of  blossoms.  Their  Syrian  name  was  Snccoth,  or  Succothbeneth, 
derived  from  a  Chaldean  woid  signifying  to  speculate  or  observe. 

The  Hyades  are  five  stars  in  the  form  of  a  V,  1 1  °  southeast  of 
30 


454  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  Pleiades.  The  Greeks  counted  them  as  seven.  When  the 
Vernal  Equinox  was  in  Taurus,  Aldebaran  led  up  the  starry  host ; 
and  as  he  rose  in  the  East,  Aries  was  about  27°  high. 

When  he  was  close  upon  the  meridian,  the  Heavens  presented 
their  most  magnificent  appearance.  Capella  was  a  little  further 
from  the  meridian,  to  the  north ;  and  Orion  still  further  from  it 
to  the  southward.  Procyon,  Sirius,  Castor  and  Pollux  had  climbed 
about  half-way  from  the  horizon  to  the  meridian.  Regulus  had 
just  risen  upon  the  ecliptic.  The  Virgin  still  lingered  below  the 
horizon.  Fomalhaut  was  half-way  to  the  meridian  in  the  South- 
west; and  to  the  Northwest  were  the  brilliant  constellations,  Per- 
seus, Cepheus,  Cassiopeia,  and  Andromeda;  while  the  Pleiades  had 
just  passed  the  meridian. 

ORION  is  visible  to  all  the  habitable  world.  The  equinoctial 
line  passes  through  the  centre  of  it.  When  Aldebaran  rose  in 
the  East,  the  Three  Kings  in  Orion  followed  him ;  and  as  Taurus 
set,  the  Scorpion,  by  whose  sting  it  was  said  Orion  died,  rose  in  the 
East. 

Orion  rises  at  noon  about  the  pth  of  March.  His  rising  was 
accompanied  with  great  rains  and  storms,  and  it  became  very  ter- 
rible to  mariners. 

In  Bootes,  called  by  the  ancient  Greeks  Lyca-on,  from  lukos,  a 
wolf,  and  by  the  Hebrews,  Caleb  Anubach,  the  Barking  Dog,  is 
the  Great  Star  ARCTURUS,  which,  when  Taurus  opened  the  year, 
corresponded  with  a  season  remarkable  for  its  great  heat. 

Next  comes  GEMINI,  the  Twins,  two  human  figures,  in  the  heads 
of  which  are  the  bright  Stars  CASTOR  and  POLLUX,  the  Dioscuri, 
and  the  Cabiri  of  Samothrace,  patrons  of  navigation ;  while  South 
of  Pollux  are  the  brilliant  Stars  SIRIUS  and  PROCYON,  the  greater 
and  lesser  Dog:  and  still  further  South.  Canopus,  in  the  Ship 
Argo. 

Sirius  is  apparently  the  largest  and  brightest  Star  in  the  Heav- 
ens. When  the  Vernal  Equinox  was  in  Taurus,  he  rose  heliacally, 
that  is,  just  before  the  Sun,  when,  at  the  Summer  Solstice,  the 
Sun  entered  Leo,  about  the  2ist  of  June,  fifteen  days  previous  to 
the  swelling  of  the  Nile.  The  heliacal  rising  of  Canopus  was  also 
a  precursor  of  the  rising  of  the  Nile.  Procyon  was  the  forerunner 
of  Sirius,  and  rose  before  him. 

There  are  no  important  Stars  in  CANCER.  In  the  Zodiacs  of 
Esne  and  Denrlera,  and  in  most  of  the  astrological  remains  of 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN   SERPENT.  455 

Egypt,  the  sign  of  this  constellation  was  a  beetle  (Scarabaus), 
which  thence  became  sacred,  as  an  emblem  of  the  gate  through 
which  souls  descended  from  Heaven.  In  the  crest  of  Cancer  is  a 
cluster  of  Stars  formerly  called  Prasepc,  the  Manger,  on  each 
side  of  which  is  a  small  Star,  the  two  of  which  were  called  Aselli, 
little  asses. 

In  Leo  are  the  splendid  Stars,  REGULUS,  directly  on  the  ecliptic, 
and  DENEBOLA  in  the  Lion's  tail.  Southeast  of  Regulus  is  the 
fine  Star  COR  HYDR.E. 

The  combat  of  Hercules  with  the  Nemaean  lion  was  his  first 
labor.  It  was  the  first  sign  into  which  the  Sun  passed,  after  fall- 
ing below  the  Summer  Solstice ;  from  which  time  he  struggled  to 
re-ascend. 

The  Nile  overflowed  in  this  sign.  It  stands  first  in  the  Zodiac 
of  Dendera,  and  is  in  all  the  Indian  and  Egyptian  Zodiacs. 

In  the  left  hand  of  VIRGO  (Isis  or  Ceres)  is  the  beautiful  Star 
SPICA  Virginis,  a  little  South  of  the  ecliptic.  VIXDEMIATRIX,  of 
less  magnitude,  is  in  the  right  arm ;  and  Northwest  of  Spica,  in 
Bootes  (the  husbandman,  Osiris),  is  the  splendid  Star  ARCTU- 

RUS. 

The  division  of  the  first  Decan  of  the  Virgin,  Aben  Ezra  says, 
represents  a  beautiful  Virgin  with  flowing  hair,  sitting  in  a  chair, 
with  two  ears  of  corn  in  her  hand,  and  suckling  an  infant.  In 
an  Arabian  MS.  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris,  is  a  picture  of  the 
Twelve  Signs.  That  of  Virgo  is  a  young  girl  with  an  infant  by 
her  side.  Virgo  was  Isis ;  and  her  representation,  carrying  a  child 
(Horus)  in  her  arms,  exhibited  in  her  temple,  was  accompanied 
by  this  inscription:  "I  AM  ALL  THAT  is,  THAT  WAS,  AND  THAT 
SHALL  BE;  and  the  fruit  which  I  brought  forth  is  the  Sun." 

Nine  months  after  the  Sun  enters  Virgo,  he  reaches  the  Twins. 
When  Scorpio  begins  to  rise,  Orion  sets :  when  Scorpio  comes  to 
the  meridian,  Leo  begins  to  set,  Typhon  reigns,  Osiris  is  slain,  and 
Isis  (the  Virgin)  his  sister  and  wife,  follows  him  to  the  tomb, 
weeping. 

The  Virgin  and  Bootes,  setting  heliacally  at  the  Autumnal  Equi- 
nox, delivered  the  v/orld  to  the  v.'intry  constellations,  and  intro- 
duced into  it  the  genius  of  Evil,  .represented  by  Ophiucus,  the 
Serpent. 

At  the  moment  of  the  Winster  Solstice,  the  Virgin  rose  helia- 
cally (with  the  Sun),  having  the  Sun  (Horus)  in  her  bosom. 


456  M  ORALS  AND  DOG  M  A. 

In  LIBRA  are  four  Stars  of  the  second  and  third  magnitude, 
which  we  shall  mention  hereafter.  They  are  Zuben-es-Chamali, 
Zuben-el-Gemabi,  Zuben-hak-rabi,  and  Zuben-el-Gubi.  Near  the 
last  of  these  is  the  brilliant  and  malign  Star,  ANTARES  in  Scor- 
pio. 

In  SCORPIO,  ANTARES,  of  the  ist  magnitude,  and  remarkably 
red,  was  one  of  the  four  great  Stars,  FOMALHAUT,  in  Cetus, 
ALDEBARAN  in  Taurus,  REGULUS  in  Leo,  and  ANTARES,  that 
formerly  answered  to  the  Solstitial  and  Equinoctial  points,  and 
were  much  noticed  by  astronomers.  This  sign  was  sometimes 
represented  by  a  Snake,  and  sometimes  by  a  Crocodile,  but  gen- 
erally by  a  Scorpion,  which  last  is  found  on  the  Mithriac  Monu- 
ments, and  on  the  Zodiac  of  Dendera.  It  was  considered  a  sign 
accursed,  and  the  entrance  of  the  Siin  into  it  commenced  the 
reign  of  Typhon. 

In  Sagittarius,  Capricornus,  and  Aquarius  there  are  no  Stars 
of  importance. 

Near  Pisces  is  the  brilliant  Star  FOMALHAUT.  No  sign  in  the 
Zodiac  is  considered  cf  more  malignant  influence  than  this.  It 
was  deemed  indicative  of  Violence  and  Death.  Both  the  Syrians 
and  Egyptians  abstained  from  eating  fish,  out  of  dread  and  abhor- 
rence ;  and  when  the  latter  would  represent  anything  as  odious,  or 
express  hatred  by  Hieroglyphics,  they  painted  a  fish. 

In  Auriga  is  the  bright  Star  CAPELLA,  which  to  the  Egyptians 
never  set. 

And,  circling  ever  round  the  North  Pole  are  Seven  Stars,  known 
as  Ursa  Major,  or  the  Great  Bear,  which  have  been  an  object  of 
universal  observation  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  They  were  vener- 
ated alike  by  the  Priests  of  Bel,  the  Magi  of  Persia,  the  Shepherds 
of  Chaldea,  and  the  Phoenician  navigators,  as  well  as  by  the  astron- 
omers of  Egypt.  Two  of  them,  MERAK  and  DUBHE,  always 
point  to  the  North  Pole. 

The  Phoenicians  and  Egyptians,  says  Eusebius,  were  the  first 
who  ascribed  divinity  to  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  Stars,  and  regarded 
them  as  the  sole  causes  of  the  production  and  destruction  of  all 
beings.  From  them  went  abroad  over  all  the  world  all  known 
opinions  as  to  the  generation  and  descent  cf  the  Gods.  Only  the 
Hebrews  looked  beyond  the  visible  world  to  an  invisible  Creator. 
.All  the  rest  of  the  world  regarded  as  Gods  those  luminous  bodies 
tint  blaze  in  the  firmament,  offered  them  sacrifices,  bowed  down 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN*  SERPENT.  457 

before  them,  and  raised  neither  their  souls  nor  their  worship  above 
the  visible  heavens. 

The  Chaldeans,  Canaanites,  and  Syrians,  among  whom  Abraham 
lived,  did  the  same.  The  Canaanites  consecrated  horses  and  char- 
iots to  the  Sun.  The  inhabitants  of  Emesa  in  Phoenicia  adored 
him  under  the  name  of  Elagabalus;  and  the  Sun,  as  Hercules,  was 
the  great  Deity  of  the  Tyrians.  The  Syrians  worshipped,  with  fear 
and  dread,  the  Stars  of  the  Constellation  Pisces,  and  consecrated 
images  of  them  in  their  temples.  The  Sun  as  Adonis  was  worship- 
ped in  Byblos  and  about  Mount  Libanus.  There  was  a  magnificent 
Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Palmyra,  which  was  pillaged  by  the  soldiers 
of  Aurelian,  who  rebuilt  it  and  dedicated  it  anew.  The  Pleiades, 
under  the  name  of  Succoth-Beneth,  were  worshipped  by  the  Baby- 
lonian colonists  who  settled  in  the  country  of  the  Samaritans.  Sat- 
urn, under  the  name  of  Rcmphan.was  worshipped  among  the  Copts. 
The  planet  Jupiter  was  worshipped  as  Bel  or  Baal ;  Mars  as  Malec, 
Melech,  or  Moloch;  Venus  as  Ashtaroth  or  Astarte,  and  Mercury 
as  Nebo,  among  the  Syrians,  Assyrians,  Phoenicians,  and  Canaanites. 

Sanchoniathon  says  that  the  earliest  Phoenicians  adored  the  Sun, 
whom  they  deemed  sole  Lord  of  the  Heavens ;  and  honored  him 
under  the  name  of  BEEL-SAMIN,  signifying  King  of  Heaven.  They 
raised  columns  to  the  dements,  fire,  and  air  or  wind,  and  worshipped 
them ;  and  Sabseism,  or  the  worship  of  the  Stars,  flourished  every- 
where in  Babylonia.  The  Arabs,  under  a  sky  always  clear  and 
serene,  adored  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  Stars.  Abulfaragius  so  informs 
us,  and  that  each  of  the  twelve  Arab  Tribes  invoked  a  particular 
Star  as  its  Patron.  The  Tribe  Hamyar  was  consecrated  to  the  Sun, 
the  Tribe  Cennah  to  the  Moon ;  the  Tribe  Misa  was  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  beautiful  Star  in  Taurus,  Aldebaran ;  the  Tribe  Tai 
under  that  of  Canopus  ;  theTribe  Kais,of  Sirius  ;  the  Tribes  Lacha- 
musand  Idamus.of  Jupiter;  the  Tribe Asad, of  Mercury  ;  and  so  on. 

The  Saracens,  in  the  time  of  Heraclius,  worshipped  Venus, 
whom  they  called  CABAR,  or  The  Great;  and  they  swore  by  the 
Sun,  Moon,  and  Stars.  Shahristan,  an  Arabic  author,  says  that  the 
Arabs  and  Indians  before  his  time  had  temples  dedicated  to  the 
seven  Planets.  Abulfaragius  says  that  the  seven  great  primitive 
nations,  from  \vhom  all  others  descended,  the  Persians,  Clialda?ans, 
Greeks,  Egyptians,  Turks,  Indians,  and  Chinese,  all  originally  were 
Sabaeists,  and  worshipped  the  Stars.  They  all.  he  says,  like  the 
Chaldaeans,  prayed,  turning  toward  the  North  pole,  three  times  a 


45$  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

day,  at  Sunrise,  Noon,  and  Sunset,  bowing  themselves  three  times 
before  the  Sun.  They  invoked  the  Stars  and  the  Intelligences 
which  inhabited  them,  offered  them  sacrifices,  and  called  the  fixed 
stars  and  planets  gods.  Philo  says  that  the  Chaldseans  regarded 
the  stars  as  sovereign  arbiters  of  the  order  of  the  world,  and  did  not 
look  beyond  the  visible  causes  to  any  invisible  and  intellectual  being. 
They  regarded  NATURE  as  the  great  divinity,  that  exercised  its 
powers  through  the  action  of  its  parts,  the  Sun,  Moon,  Planets,  and 
Fixed  Stars,  the  successive  revolutions  of  the  seasons,  and  the  com- 
bined action  of  Heaven  and  Earth.  The  great  feast  of  the  Sabaeans 
was  when  the  Sun  reached  the  Vernal  Equinox :  and  they  had 
five  other  feasts,  at  the  times  when  the  five  minor  planets  entered 
the  signs  in  which  they  had  their  exaltation. 

Diodorus  Siculus  informs  us  that  the  Egyptians  recognized  two 
great  Divinities,  primary  and  eternal,  the  Sun  and  Moon,  which 
they  thought  governed  the  world,  and  from  which  everything  re- 
ceives its  nourishment  and  growth :  that  on  them  depended  all 
the  great  work  of  generation,  and  the  perfection  of  all  effects  pro- 
duced in  nature.  We  know  that  the  two  great  Divinities  of  Egypt 
were  Osiris  and  Isis,  the  greatest  agents  of  nature ;  according  to 
some,  the  Sun  and  Moon,  and  according  to  others,  Heaven  and 
Earth,  or  the  active  and  passive  principles  of  generation. 

And  we  learn  from  Porphyry  that  Chgeremon,  a  learned  priest  of 
Egypt,  and  many  other  learned  men  of  that  nation,  said  that  the 
Egyptians  recognized  as  gods  the  stars  composing  the  zodiac,  and 
all  those  that  by  their  rising  or  setting  marked  its  divisions ;  the 
subdivisions  of  the  signs  into  decans,  .the  horoscope  and  the  stars 
that  presided  therein,  and  which  were  called  Potent  Chiefs  of 
Heaven :  that  considering  the  Sun  as  the  Great  God,  Architect, 
and  Ruler  of  the  World,  they  explained  not  only  the  fable  of 
Osiris  and  Isis,  but  generally  all  their  sacred  legends,  by  the  stars, 
by  their  appearance  and  disappearance,  by  their  ascension,  by  the 
phases  of  the  moon,  and  the  increase  and  diminution  of  her  light ; 
by  the  march  of  the  sun,  the  division  of  time  and  the  heavens  into 
two  parts,  one  assigned  to  darkness  and  the  other  to  light ;  by  the 
Nile  and,  in  fine,  by  the  whole  round  of  physical  causes. 

Lucian  tells  us  that  the  bull  Apis,  sacred  to  the  Egyptians,  was 
the  image  of  the  celestial  Bull,  or  Taurus;  and  that  Jupiter 
Ammon,  horned  like  a  ram,  was  an  image  of  the  constellation 
Aries.  And  Clemens  of  Alexandria  assures  us  that  the  four  prin- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN   SERPENT.  459 

cipal  sacred  animals,  carried  in  their  processions,  were  emblems  of 
the  four  signs  or  cardinal  points  which  fixed  the  seasons  at  the 
equinoxes  and  solstices,  and  divided  into  four  parts  the  yearly 
march  of  the  sun.  They  worshipped  fire  also,  and  water,  and  the 
Nile,  which  river  they  styled  Father,  Preserver  of  Egypt,  sacred 
emanation  from  the  Great  God  Osiris ;  and  in  their  hymns  in  which 
they  called  it  the  god  crowned  with  millet  (which  grain,  repre- 
sented by  the  pschent,  was  part  of  the  head-dress  of  their  kings), 
bringing  with  him  abundance.  The  other  elements  were  also 
revered  by  them :  and  the  Great  Gods,  whose  names  are  found 
inscribed  on  an  ancient  column,  are  the  Air,  Heaven,  the  Earth, 
the  Sun,  the  Moon,  Night,  and  Day.  And,  in  fine,  as  Eusebius 
says,  they  regarded  the  Universe  as  a  great  Deity,  composed  of  a 
great  number  of  gods,  the  different  parts  of  itself. 

The  same  worship  of  the  Heavenly  Host  extended  into  every 
part  of  Europe,  into  Asia  Minor,  and  among  the  Turks,  Scythians, 
and  Tartars.  The  ancient  Persians  adored  the  Sun  as  Mithras, 
and  also  the  Moon,  Venus,  Fire,  Earth,  Air,  and  Water ;  and, 
having  no  statues  or  altars,  they  sacrificed  on  high  places  to  the 
Heavens  and  to  the  Sun.  On  seven  ancient  pyrea  they  burned  in- 
cense to  the  Seven  Planets,  and  considered  the  elements  to  be 
divinities.  In  the  Zend-Avesta  we  find  invocations  addressed  to 
Mithras,  the  stars,  the  elements,  trees,  mountains,  and  every  part 
of  nature.  The  Celestial  Bull  is  invoked  there,  to  which  the 
Moon  unites  herself;  and  the  four  great  stars,  Taschter,  Satevis, 
Haftorang,  and  Yenant,  the  great  Star  Rapitan,  and  the  other  con- 
stellations which  watch  over  the  different  portions  of  the  earth. 

The  Magi,  like  a  multitude  of  ancient  nations,  worshipped  fire, 
above  all  the  other  elements  and  powers  of  nature.  In  India,  the 
Ganges  and  the  Indus  were  worshipped,  and  the  Sun  was  the  Great 
Divinity.  They  worshipped  the  Moon  also,  and  kept  up  the  sacred 
fire.  In  Ceylon,  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  other  planets  were  worship- 
ped :  in  Sumatra,  the  Sun,  called  Iri,  and  the  Moon,  called  Handa. 
And  the  Chinese  built  Temples  to  Heaven,  the  Earth,  and  genii 
of  the  air,  of  the  water,  of  the  mountains,  and  of  the  stars,  to  the 
sea-dragon,  and  to  the  planet  Mars. 

The  celebrated  Labyrinth  was  built  in  honor  of  the  Sun ;  and 
its  twelve  palaces,  like  the  twelve  superb  columns  of  the  Temple 
at  Hieropolis,  covered  with  symbols  relating  to  the  twelve  signs 
and  the  occult  qualities  of  the  elements,  were  consecrated  to  the 
twelve  gods  or  tutelary  genii  of  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac.  The 


MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

figure  of  the  pyramid  and  that  of  the  obelisk,  resembling  the 
shape  of  a  flame,  caused  these  monuments  to  be  consecrated  to  the 
Sun  and  to  Fire.  And  Timseus  of  Locria  says :  "The  equilateral 
triangle  enters  into  the  composition  of  the  pyramid,  which  has 
•four  equal  faces  and  equal  angles,  and  which  in  this  is  like  fire,  the 
most  subtle  and  mobile  of  the  elements."  They  and  the  obelisks 
were  erected  in  honor  of  the  Sun,  termed  in  an  inscription  upon 
one  of  the  latter,  translated  by  the  Egyptian  Hermapion,  and  to 
be  found  in  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  "Apollo  the  strong,  Son  of 
God,  He  who  made  the  world,  true  Lord  of  the  diadems,  who  pos- 
sesses Egypt  and  fills  it  with  His  glory." 

The  two  most  famous  divisions  of  the  Heavens,  by  seven,  which 
is  that  of  the  planets,  and  by  twelve,  which  is  that  of  the  signs, 
are  found  on  the  religious  monuments  of  all  the  people  of  the  an- 
cient world.  The  twelve  Great  Gods  of  Egypt  are  met  with  every- 
where. They  were  adopted  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  and  the 
latter  assigned  one  of  them  to  each  sign  of  the  Zodiac.  Their 
images  were  seen  at  Athens,  where  an  altar  \vas  erected  to  each ; 
and  they  were  painted  on  the  porticos.  The  People  of  the  North 
had  their  twelve  Azes,  or  Senate  of  twelve  great  gods,  of  whom 
Odin  was  chief.  The  Japanese  had  the  same  number,  and  like 
the  Egyptians  divided  them  into  classes,  seven,  who  were  the  most 
ancient,  and  five,  afterward  added :  both  of  which  numbers  are 
well  known  and  consecrated  in  Masonry. 

There  is  no  more  striking  proof  of  the  universal  adoration  paid 
the  stars  and  constellations,  than  the  arrangement  of  the  Hebrew 
camp  in  the  Desert,  and  the  allegory  in  regard  to  the  twelve  Tribes 
of  Israel,  ascribed  in  the  Hebrew  legends  to  Jacob.  The  Hebrew 
camp  was  a  quadrilateral,  in  sixteen  divisions,  of  which  the  cen- 
tral four  were  occupied  by  images  of  the  four  elements.  The  four 
divisions  at  the  four  angles  of  the  quadrilateral  exhibited  the  four 
signs  that  the  astrologers  call  fixed,  and  which  they  regard  as  sub- 
ject to  the  influence  of  the  four  great  Royal  Stars,  Regulus  in 
Leo,  Aldebaran  in  Taurus,  Antares  in  Scorpio,  and  Fomalhaut  in 
the  mouth  of  Pisces,  on  which  falls  the  water  poured  out  by  Aqua- 
rius ;  of  which  constellations  the  Scorpion  was  represented  in  the 
Hebrew  blazonry  by  the  Celestial  Vulture  or  Eagle,  that  rises  at 
the  same  time  \vith  it  and  is  its  paranatellon.  The  other  signs 
were  arranged  on  the  four  faces  of  the  quadrilateral,  and  in  the 
parallel  and  interior  divisions, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  461 

There  is  an  astonishing  coincidence  between  the  characteristics 
assigned  by  Jacob  to  his  sons,  and  those  of  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac, 
or  the  planets  that  have  their  domicile  in  those  signs. 

Reuben  is  compared  to  running  water,  unstable,  and  that  cannot 
excel ;  and  he  answers  to  Aquarius,  his  ensign  being  a  man.  The 
water  poured  out  by  Aquarius  flows  toward  the  South  Pole,  and  it 
is  the  first  of  the  four  Royal  Signs,  ascending  from  the  Winter 
Solstice. 

The  Lion  (Leo)  is  the  device  of  Judah;  and  Jacob  compares 
him  to  that  animal,  whose  constellation  in  the  Heavens  is  the 
domicile  of  the  Sun ;  the  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah ;  by  whose 
grip,  when  that  of  apprentice  and  that  of  fellow-craft, — of  Aqua- 
rius at  the  Winter  Solstice  and  of  Cancer  at  the  Vernal  ^Equinox, — 
had  not  succeeded  in  raising  him,  Khurum  was  lifted  out  of  the 
grave. 

Ephraim,  on  whose  ensign  appears  the  Celestial  Bull,  Jacob 
compares  to  the  ox.  Dan,  bearing  as  his  device  a  Scorpion,  he 
compares  to  the  Cerastes  or  horned  Serpent,  synonymous  in  astro- 
logical language  with  the  vulture  or  pouncing  eagle ;  and  which 
bird  was  often  substituted  on  the  flag  of  Dan,  in  place  of  the  ven- 
omous scorpion,  on  account  of  the  terror  which  that  reptile  in- 
spired, as  the  symbol  of  Typhon  and  his  malign  influences ; 
wherefore  the  Eagle,  as  its  paranatellon,  that  is,  rising  and  setting 
at  the  same  time  with  it,  was  naturally  used  in  its  stead.  Hence 
the  four  famous  figures  in  the  sacred  pictures  of  the  Jews  and 
Christians,  and  in  Royal  Arch  Masonry,  of  the  Lion,  the  Ox,  the 
Man,  and  the  Eagle,  the  four  creatures  of  the  Apocalypse,  copied 
there  from  Ezekiel,  in  whose  reveries  and  rhapsodies  they  are  seen 
revolving  around  blazing  circles. 

The  Ram,  domicile  of  Mars,  chief  of  the  Celestial  Soldiery  and 
of  the  twelve  Signs,  is  the  device  of  Gad,  whom  Jacob  character- 
izes as  a  warrior,  chief  of  his  army. 

Cancer,  in  which  are  the  stars  termed  AsclH,  or  little  asses,  is 
the  device  of  the  flag  of  Issachar,  whom  Jacob  compares  to  an  ass. 

Capricorn,  of  old  represented  with  the  tail  of  a  fish,  and  called 
by  astronomers  the  Son  of  Neptune,  is  the  device  of  Zcbulon.  of 
whom  Jacob  says  that  he  dwells  on  the  shore  of  the  sea. 

Sagittarius,  chasing  the  Celestial  Wolf,  is  the  emblem  of  Benja- 
min, whom  Jacob  compares  to  a  hunter:  and  in  that  constellation 
the  Romans  placed  the  domicile  of  Diana  the  huntress.  Virgo, 


4O2  MOkALS   AND  DOGMA. 

the  domicile  of  Mercury,  is  borne  on  the  flag  of  Naphtali,  whose 
eloquence  and  agility  Jacob  magnifies,  both  of  which  are  attri- 
butes of  the  Courier  of  the  Gods.  And  of  Simeon  and  Levi,  he 
speaks  as  united,  as  are  the  two  fishes  that  make  the  Constellation 
Pisces,  which  is  their  armorial  emblem. 

Plato,  in  his  Republic,  followed  the  divisions  of  the  Zodiac  and 
the  planets.  So  also  did  Lycurgus  at  Sparta,  and  Cecrops  in  the 
Athenian  Commonwealth.  Chun,  the  Chinese  legislator,  divided 
China  into  twelve  Tcheou,  and  specially  designated  twelve  moun- 
tains. The  Etruscans  divided  themselves  into  twelve  Cantons. 
Romulus  appointed  twelve  Lictors.  There  were  twelve  tribes  of 
Ishmael  and  twelve  disciples  of  the  Hebrew  Reformer.  The  New 
Jerusalem,  of  the  Apocalypse  has  twelve  gates. 

The  Souciet,  a  Chinese  book,  speaks  of  a  palace  composed  of 
four  buildings,  whose  gates  looked  toward  the  four  corners  of  the 
world.  That  on  the  East  was  dedicated  to  the  new  moons  of  the 
months  of  Spring ;  that  on  the  West  to  those  of  Autumn ;  that 
on  the  South  to  those  of  Summer ;  and  that  on  the  North  to  those 
of  Winter :  and  in  this  palace  the  Emperor  and  his  grandees  sac- 
rificed a  lamb,  the  animal  that  represented  the  Sun  at  the  Vernal 
Equinox. 

Among  the  Greeks,  the  march  of  the  Choruses  in  their  theatres 
represented  the  movements  of  the  Heavens  and  the  planets,  and 
the  Strophe  and  Anti-Strophe  imitated,  Aristoxenes  says,  the 
movements  of  the  Stars.  The  number  five  was  sacred  among  the 
Chinese,  as  that  of  the  planets  other  than  the  Sun  and  Moon.  As- 
trology consecrated  the  numbers  twelve,  seven,  thirty,  and  three 
hundred  and  sixty ;  and  everywhere  seven,  the  number  of  the 
planets,  was  as  sacred  as  twelve,  that  of  the  signs,  the  months,  the 
oriental  cycles,  and  the  sections  of  the  horizon.  We  shall  speak- 
more  at  large  hereafter,  in  another  Degree,  as  to  these  and  other 
numbers,  to  which  the  ancients  ascribed  mysterious  powers. 

The  Signs  of  the  Zodiac  and  the  Stars  appeared  on  many  of  the 
ancient  coins  and  medals.  On  the  public  seal  of  the  Locrians, 
Ozoles  was  Hesperus,  or  the  planet  Venus.  On  the  medals  of  An- 
tioch  on  the  Orontes  was  the  ram  and  crescent :  and  the  Ram  was 
the  special  Deity  of  Syria,  assigned  to  it  in  the  division  of  the 
earth  among  the  twelve  signs.  Oft  the  Cretan  coins  was  the  Equi- 
noctial Bull :  and  he  also  appeared  on  those  of  the  Mamertins  and 
of  Athens.  Sagittarius  appeared  nn  those  of  the  Persians.  In 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN   SERPENT.  463 

India  the  twelve  signs  appeared  upon  the  ancient  coins.  The 
Scorpion  was  engraved  on  the  medals  of  the  Kings  of  Comagena, 
and  Capricorn  on  those  of  Zeugma,  Anazorha,  and  other  cities. 
On  the  medals  of  Antoninus  are  found  nearly  all  the  signs  of  the 
Zodiac. 

Astrology  was  practised  among  all  the  ancient  nations.  In  Egypt, 
the  book  of  Astrology  was  borne  reverentially  in  the  religious  pro- 
cessions ;  in  which  the  few  sacred  animals  were  also  carried,  as  em- 
blems of  the  equinoxes  and  solstices.  The  same  science  flourished 
among  the  Chaldeans,  and  over  the  whole  of  Asia  and  Africa. 
When  Alexander  invaded  India,  the  astrologers  of  the  Oxydraces 
came  to  him  to  disclose  the  secrets  of  their  science  of  Heaven  and 
the  Stars.  The  Brahmins  whom  Apollonius  consulted,  taught  him 
the  secrets  of  Astronomy,  with  the  ceremonies  and  prayers  where- 
by to  appease  the  gods  and  learn  the  future  from  the  stars.  In 
China,  astrology  taught  the  mode  of  governing  the  State  and 
families.  In  Arabia  it  was  deemed  the  mother  of  the  sciences ;  and 
old  libraries  are  full  of  Arabic  books  on  this  pretended  science.  It 
flourished  at  Rome.  Constantine  had  his  horoscope  drawn  by  the 
astrologer  Yalens.  It  was  a  science  in  the  middle  ages,  and  even 
to  this  day  is  neither  forgotten  nor  unpractised.  Catherine  de 
Medici  was  fond  of  it.  Louis  XIV.  consulted  his  horoscope,  and 
the  learned  Casini  commenced  his  career  as  an  astrologer. 

The  ancient  Sabaeans  established  feasts  in  honor  of  each  planet, 
on  the  day,  for  each,  when  it  entered  its  place  of  exaltation,  or 
reached  the  particular  degree  in  the  particular  sign  of  the  zodiac 
in  which  astrology  had  fixed  the  place  of  its  exaltation ;  that  is,  the 
place  in  the  Heavens  where  its  influence  was  supposed  to  be  great- 
est, and  where  it  acted  on  Nature  with  the  greatest  energy.  The 
place  of  exaltation  of  the  Sun  was  in  Aries,  because,  reaching  that 
point,  he  awakens  all  Nature,  and  warms  into  life  all  the  germs  of 
vegetation ;  and  therefore  his  most  solemn  feast  among  all  nations, 
for  many  years  before  our  Era,  was  fixed  at  the  time  of  his  entrance 
into  that  sign.  In  Egypt,  it  was  called  the  Feast  of  Eire  and 
Light.  It  was  the  Passover,  when  the  Paschal  Lamb  was  slain  and 
eaten,  among  the  Jews,  and  Neurouz  among  the  Persians.  The 
Romans  preferred  the  place  of  domiciled  that  of  exaltation  ;  and 
celebrated  the  feasts  of  the  planets  under  the  signs  that  were  their 
houses.  The  Chaldeans,  whom,  and  not  the  Egyptians,  the  Sabae- 
ans followed  in  this,  preferred  the  places  of  exaltation. 


464  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Saturn,  from  the  length  of  time  required  for  his  apparent  revolu- 
tion, was  considered  the  most  remote,  and  the  Moon  the  nearest 
planet.  After  the  Moon  came  Mercury  and  Venus,  then  the  Sun, 
and  then  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn. 

So  the  risings  and  settings  of  the  Fixed  Stars,  and  their  conjunc- 
tions with  the  Sun,  and  their  first  appearance  as  they  emerged  from 
his  rays,  fixed  the  epochs  for  the  feasts  instituted  in  their  honor ; 
and  the  Sacred  Calendars  of  the  ancients  were  regulated  accord- 
ingly. 

In  the  Roman  games  of  the  circus,  celebrated  in  honor  of  the 
Sun  and  of  entire  Nature,  the  Sun,  Moon,  Planets,  Zodiac,  Ele- 
ments, and  the  most  apparent  parts  and  potent  agents  of  Nature 
were  personified  and  represented,  and  the  courses  of  the  Sun  in 
the  Heavens  were  imitated  in  the  Hippodrome ;  his  chariot  being 
drawn  by  four  horses  of  different  colors,  representing  the  four  ele- 
ments and  seasons.  The  courses  were  from  East  to  West,  like  the 
circuits  round  the  Lodge,  and  seven  in  number,  to  correspond 
with  the  number  of  planets.  The  movements  of  the  Seven  Stars 
that  revolve  around  the  pole  were  also  represented,  as  were  those  of 
Capella,  which  by  its  heliacal  rising  at  the  moment  when  the 
Sun  reached  the  Pleiades,  in  Taurus,  announced  the  commence- 
ment of  the  annual  revolution  of  the  Sun. 

The  intersection  of  the  Zodiac  by  the  colures  at  the  Equinoctial 
and  Solstitial  points,  fixed  four  periods,  each  of  which  has,  by  one 
or  more  nations,  and  in  some  cases  by  the  same  nation  at  different 
periods,  been  taken  for  the  commencement  of  the  year.  Some 
adopted  the  Vernal  Equinox,  because  then  day  began  to  prevail 
over  night,  and  light  gained  a  victory  over  darkness.  Sometimes 
the  Summer  Solstice  was  preferred ;  because  then  day  attained  its 
maximum  of  duration,  and  the  acme  of  its  glory  and  perfection.  In 
Egypt,  another  reason  was,  that  then  the  Nile  began  to  overflow, 
at  the  heliacal  rising  of  Sirius.  Some  preferred  the  Autumnal 
Equinox,  because  then  the  harvests  were  gathered,  and  the  hopes 
of  a  new  crop  were  deposited  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth  And  some 
preferred  the  Winter  Solstice,  because  then,  the  shortest  day  hav- 
ing arrived,  their  length  commenced  to  increase,  and  Light  began 
the  career  destined  to  end  in  victory  at  the  Vernal  Equinox. 

The  Sun  was  figuratively  said  to  die  and  be  born  again  at  the 
Winter  Solstice ;  the  games  of  the  Circus,  in  honor  of  the  invin- 
cible God-Sun,  were  then  celebrated,  and  the  Roman  year,  estab- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  465 

lished  or  reformed  by  Numa,  commenced.  Many  peoples  of  Italy 
commenced  their  year,  Macrobius  says,  at  that  time ;  and  repre- 
sented by  the  four  ages  of  man  the  gradual  succession  of  periodi- 
cal increase  and  diminution  of  day,  and  the  light  of  the  Sun; 
likening  him  to  an  infant  born  at  the  Winter  Solstice,  a  young 
man  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  a  robust  man  at  the  Summer  Solstice, 
and  an  old  man  at  the  Autumnal  Equinox. 

This  idea  was  borrowed  from  the  Egyptians,  who  adored  the 
Sun  at  the  Winter  Solstice,  under  the  figure  of  an  infant. 

The  image  of  the  Sign  in  which  each  of  the  four  seasons  com- 
menced, became  the  form  under  which  was  figured  the  Sun  of  that 
particular  season.  The  Lion's  skin  was  worn  by  Hercules ;  the 
horns  of  the  Bull  adorned  the  forehead  of  Bacchus  ;  and  the  au- 
tumnal serpent  wound  its  long  folds  round  the  Statue  of  Serapis, 
2500  years  before  our  era ;  when  those  Signs  corresponded  with 
the  commencement  of  the  Seasons.  When  other  constellations 
replaced  them  at  those  points,  by  means  of  the  precession  of  the 
Equinoxes,  those  attributes  were  changed.  Then  the  Ram  fur- 
nished the  horns  for  the  head  of  the  Sun,  under  the  name  of  Ju- 
piter Ammon.  He  was  no  longer  born  exposed  to  the  waters  of 
Aquarius,  like  Bacchus,  nor  enclosed  in  an  urn  like  the  God  Ca- 
nopus ;  but  in  the  Stables  of  Augeas  or  the  Celestial  Goat.  He 
then  completed  his  triumph,  mounted  on  an  ass,  in  the  constella- 
tion Cancer,  which  then  occupied  the  Solstitial  point  of  Summer. 

Other  attributes  the  images  of  the  Sun  borrowed  from  the  con- 
stellations which,  by  their  rising  and  setting,  fixed  the  points  of 
departure  of  the  year,  and  the  commencements  of  its  four  princi- 
pal divisions. 

First  the  Bull  and  afterward  the  Ram  (called  by  the  Persians 
the  Lamb),  was  regarded  as  the  regenerator  of  Nature,  through 
his  union  with  the  Sun.  Each,  in  his  turn,  was  an  emblem  of  the 
Sun  overcoming  the  winter  darkness,  and  repairing  the  disorders 
of  Nature,  which  every  year  was  regenerated  under  these  Signs, 
after  the  Scorpion  and  Serpent  of  Autumn  had  brought  upon  it 
barrenness,  disaster,  and  darkness.  Mithras  w?s  represented  sit- 
ting on  a  Bull ;  and  that  animal  was  an  image  of  Osiris :  while 
the  Greek  Bacchus  armed  his  front  with  its  horns,  and  was  pic- 
tured with  its  tail  and  feet. 

The  Constellations  also  became  noteworthy  to  the  husbandman, 
which  by  their  rising  or  setting,  at  morning  or  evening,  indicated 


460  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  coming  of  this  period  of  renewed  fruitfulness  and  new  life. 
Capella,  or  the  kid  Amalthea,  whose  horn  is  called  that  of  abun- 
dance, and  whose  place  is  over  the  equinoctial  point,  or  Taurus ; 
and  the  Pleiades,  that  long  indicated  the  Seasons,  and  gave  rise  to 
a  multitude  of  poetic  fables,  were  the  most  observed  and  most  cele- 
brated in  antiquity. 

The  original  Roman  year  commenced  at  the  Vernal  Equinox. 
July  was  formerly  called  Quintilis,  the  5th  month,  and  August 
Sextilis,  the  6th,  as  September  is  still  the  7th  month,  October  the 
8th,  and  so  on.  The  Persians  commenced  their  year  at  the  same 
time,  and  celebrated  their  great  feast  of  Neurouz  when  the  Sun 
entered  Aries  and  the  Constellation  Perseus  rose, — Perseus,  who 
first  brought  down  to  earth  the  heavenly  fire  consecrated  in  their 
temples :  and  all  the  ceremonies  then  practised  reminded  men  of 
the  renovation  of  Nature  and  the  triumph  of  Ormuzd,  the  Light- 
God,  over  the  powers  of  Darkness  and  Ahriman  their  Chief. 

The  Legislator  of  the  Jews  fixed  the  commencement  of  their 
year  in  the  month  Xisan,  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  at  which  season 
the  Israelites  marched  out  of  Egypt  and  were  relieved  of  their 
long  bondage ;  in  commemoration  of  which  Exodus,  they  ate  the 
Paschal  Lamb  at  that  Equinox.  And  when  Bacchus  and  his  army 
had  long  marched  in  burning  deserts,  they  were  led  by  a  Lamb  or 
Ram  into  beautiful  meadows,  and  to  the  Springs  that  watered  the 
Temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon.  For,  to  the  Arabs  and  Ethiopians, 
whose  great  Divinity  Bacchus  was,  nothing  was  so  perfect  a  type 
of  Elysium  as  a  Country  abounding  in  springs  and  rivulets. 

Orion,  on  the  same  meridian  with  the  Stars  of  Taurus,  died  of 
the  sting  of  the  celestial  Scorpion,  that  rises  when  he  sets ;  as 
dies  the  Bull  of  Mithras  in  Autumn :  and  in  the  Stars  that  corre- 
spond with  the  Autumnal  Equinox  we  find  those  malevolent  genii 
that  ever  war  against  the  Principle  of  good,  and  that  take  from 
the  Sun  and  the  Heavens  the  fruit-producing  power  that  they 
communicate  to  the  earth. 

With  the  Vernal  Equinox,  dear  to  the  sailor  as  to  the  husband- 
man, came  the  Stars  that,  with  the  Sun,  open  navigation,  and  rule 
the  stormy  Seas.  Then  the  Twins  plunge  into  the  solar  fires,  or 
disappear  at  setting,  going  down  with  the  Sun  into  the  bosom  of 
the  waters.  And  these  tutelary  Divinities  of  mariners,  the  Dios- 
curi or  Chief  Cabiri  of  Samothrace,  sailed  with  Jason  to  possess 
themselves  of  the  golden-fleeced  ram,  or  Aries,  whose  rising  in  the 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  467 

morning  announced  the  Sun's  entry  into  Taurus,  when  the  Ser- 
pent-bearer Jason  rose  in  the  evening,  and,  in  aspect  with  the 
Dioscuri,  was  deemed  their  brother.  And  Orion,  son  of  Neptune, 
and  most  potent  controller  of  the  tempest-tortured  ocean,  an- 
nouncing sometimes  calm  and  sometimes  tempest,  rose  after  Tau- 
rus, rejoicing  in  the  forehead  of  the  new  year. 

The  Summer  Solstice  was  not  less  an  important  point  in  the 
Sun's  march  than  the  Vernal  Equinox,  especially  to  the  Egyp- 
tians, to  whom  it  not  only  marked  the  end  and  term  of  the  in- 
creasing length  of  the  days  and  of  the  domination  of  light,  and 
the  maximum  of  the  Sun's  elevation ;  but  also  the  annual  recur- 
rence of  that  phenomenon  peculiar  to  Egypt,  the  rising  of  the 
Nile,  which,  ever  accompanying  the  Sun  in  his  course,  seemed  to 
rise  and  fall  as  the  days  grew  longer  and  shorter,  being  lowest  at 
the  Winter  Solstice,  and  highest  at  that  of  Summer.  Thus  the 
Sun  seemed  to  regulate  its  swelling;  and  the  time  of  his  arrival 
at  the  solstitial  point  being  that  of  the  first  rising  of  the  Nile, 
was  selected  by  the  Egyptians  as  the  beginning  of  a  year  which 
they  called  the  Year  of  God,  and  of  the  Sothiac  Period,  or  the 
period  of  Sothis,  the  Dog-Star,  who,  rising  in  the  morning,  fixed 
that  epoch,  so  important  to  the  people  of  Egypt.  This  year  was 
also  called  the  Heliac,  that  is  the  Solar  year,  and  the  Canicular 
year ;  and  it  consisted  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days,  with- 
out intercalation ;  so  that  at  the  end  of  four  years,  or  of  four 
times  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days,  making  1460  days,  it 
needed  to  add  a  day,  to  make  four  complete  revolutions  of  the. 
Sun.  To  correct  this,  some  Nations  made  every  fourth  year  con- 
sist, as  we  do  now,  of  366  days :  but  the  Egyptians  preferred  to 
add  nothing  to  the  year  of  365  days,  which,  at  the  end  of  120 
years,  or  of  30  times  4  years,  was  short  30  days  or  a  month  ;  that 
is  to  say,  it  required  a  month  more  to  complete  the  120  revolutions 
of  the  Sun,  though  so  many  were  counted,  that  is,  so  many  years. 
Of  course  the  commencement  of  the  I2ist  year  would  not  corre- 
spond with  the  Summer  Solstice,  but  would  precede  it  by  a  month  : 
so  that,  when  the  Sun  arrived  at  the  Solstitial  point  whence  he  at 
first  set  out,  and  whereto  he  must  needs  return,  to  make  in  reality 
1 20  years,  or  120  complete  revolutions,  the  first  month  of  the 
I2ist  year  would  have  ended. 

Thus,  if  the  commencement  of  the  year  went  back  30  days 
every  120  years,  this  commencement  of  the  year,  continuing  to 


468  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

recede,  would,  at  the  end  of  12  times  120  years,  or  of  1460  years, 
get  back  to  the  Solstitial  point,  or  primitive  point  of  departure  of 
the  period.  The  Sun  would  then  have  made  but  1459  revolutions, 
though  1460  were  counted ;  to  make  up  which,  a  year  more  would 
need  to  be  added.  So  that  the  Sun  would  not  have  made  his  1460 
revolutions  until  the  end  of  1461  years  of  365  days  each, — each 
revolution  being  in  reality  not  365  days  exactly,  but  365^- 

This  period  of  1461  years,  each  of  365  days,  bringing  back  the 
commencement  of  the  Solar  year  to  the  Solstitial  point,  at  the 
rising  of  Sirius,  after  1460  complete  Solar  revolutions,  was  called 
in  Egypt  the  Sothiac  period,  the  point  of  departure  whereof  was 
the  Summer  Solstice,  first  occupied  by  the  Lion  and  afterward  by 
Cancer,  under  which  sign  is  Sirius,  which  opened  the  period.  It 
was,  says  Porphyry,  at  this  Solstitial  New  Moon,  accompanied  by 
the  rising  of  Seth  or  the  Dog-Star,  that  the  beginning  of  the  year 
was  fixed,  and  that  of  the  generation  of  all  things,  or,  as  it  were, 
the  nat?.l  hour  of  the  world. 

Not  Sirius  alone  determined  the  period  of  the  rising  of  the  Nile.. 
Aquarius,  his  urn,  and  the  stream  flowing  from  it,  in  opposition 
to  the  sign  of  the  Summer  Solstice  then  occupied  by  the  Sun, 
opened  in  the  evening  the  march  of  Night,  and  received  the  full 
Moon  in  his  cup.  Above  him  and  with  him  rose  the  feet  of  Peg- 
asus, struck  wherewith  the  waters  flow  forth  that  the  Muses 
drink.  The  Lion  and  the  Dog,  indicating,  were  supposed  to  cause 
the  inundation,  and  so  were  worshipped.  While  the  Sun  passed 
through  Leo,  the  waters  doubled  their  depth  ;  and  the  sacred  foun- 
tains poured  their  streams  through  the  heads  of  lions.  Hydra, 
rising  between  Sirius  and  Leo,  extended  under  three  si^ns.  Its 
head  rose  with  Cancer,  and  its  tail  with  the  feet  of  the  Virgin  and 
the  beginning  of  Libra :  and  the  inundation  continued  while  the 
Sun  passed  along  its  whole  extent. 

The  successive  contest  of  light  and  darkness  for  the  possession 
of  the  lunar  disk,  each  being  by  turns  victor  and  vanquished,  ex- 
actly resembled  what  passed  upon  the  earth  bv  t^e  action  of  the 
Sun  and  his  journeys  from  one  Solstice  to  t^e  other.  The  lunnry 
revolution  presented  the  same  periods  of  lieht  and  darkness  as 
the  rear,  and  was  the  obiect  of  the  same  relieion?  fictions.  Above 
the  Moon,  Pliny  said,  everything  is  pure,  and  filled  with  eternal 
light.  There  ends  the  cone  of  shadow  which  the  earth  projects, 
and  which  produces  night;  there  ends  the  sojourn  of  night  and 


KNIGHT  OF   THE  BRAZEN   SERPENT.  469 

darkness ;  to  it  the  air  extends ;  but  there  we  enter  the  pure  sub- 
stance. 

The  Egyptians  assigned  to  the  Moon  the  demiu/gic  or  creative 
force  of  Osiris,  who  united  himself  to  her  in  the  spring,  when  the 
Sun  communicated  to  her  the  principles  of  generation  which  she 
afterward  disseminated  in  the  air  and  all  the  elements-  The 
Persians  considered  the  Moon  to  have  been  impregnated  by  the 
Celestial  Bull,  first  of  the  signs  of  spring.  In  all  ages,  the  Moon 
has  been  supposed  to  have  great  influence  upon  vegetation,  and  the 
birth  and  growth  of  animals ;  and  the  belief  is  as  widely  enter- 
tained now  as  ever,  and  that  influence  regarded  as  a  mysterious 
and  inexplicable  one.  Not  the  astrologers  alone,  but  Naturalists 
like  Pliny,  Philosophers  like  Plutarch  and  Cicero,  Theologians 
like  the  Egyptian  Priests,  and  Metaphysicians  like  Proclus,  be- 
lieved firmly  in  these  lunar  influences. 

"The  Egyptians,"  says  Diodorus  Siculus,  "acknowledged  two 
great  gods,  the  Sun  and  Moon,  or  Osiris  and  Isis,  who  govern  the 
world  and  regulate  its  administration  by  the  dispensation  of  the 
seasons.  . .  .Such  is  the  nature  of  these  two  great  Divinities,  that 
they  impress  an  active  and  fecundating  force,  by  which  the  gene- 
ration of  beings  is  effected ;  the  Sun,  by  heat  and  that  spiritual 
principle  that  forms  the  breath  of  the  winds ;  the  Moon  by  humid- 
ity and  dryness ;  and  both  by  the  forces  of  the  air  which  they 
share  in  common.  By  this  beneficial  influence  everything  is  born, 
grows,  and  vegetates.  Wherefore  this  whole  huge  body,  in  which 
nature  resides,  is  maintained  by  the  combined  action  of  the  Sun 
and  Moon,  and  their  five  qualities, — the  principles  spiritual,  fiery, 
dry,  humid,  and  airy." 

So  five  primitive  powers,  elements,  or  elementary  qualities,  arc 
united  with  the  Sun  and  Moon  in  the  Indian  theology, — air,  spirit. 
fire,  water,  and  earth:  and  the  same  five  elements  are  recognized 
by  the  Chinese.  The  Phoenicians,  like  the  Egyptians,  regarded 
the  Sun  and  Moon  and  Stars  as  sole  causes  of  generation  and 
destruction  here  below. 

The  Moon,  like  the  Sun,  changed  continually  the  track  in  which 
she  crossed  the  Heavens,  moving  ever  to  and  fro  between  the  upper 
and  lower  limits  of  the  Zodiac;  and  her  different  places,  phases, 
and  aspects  there,  and  her  relations  with  the  Sun  and  the  constel- 
lations, have  been  a  fruitful  source  of  mythological  fables. 

All  the  planets  had  what  astrology  termed  their  houses,  in  the 


47°  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Zodiac.  The  House  of  the  Sun  was  in  Leo,  and  that  of  the  Moort 
in  Cancer.  Each  other  planet  had  two  signs  ;  Mercury  had  Gemini 
and  Virgo ;  Venus,  Taurus  and  Libra ;  Mars,  Aries  and  Scorpio ; 
Jupiter,  Pisces  and  Sagittarius ;  and  Saturn,  Aquarius  and  Cap- 
ricornus.  From  this  distribution  of  the  signs  also  came  many 
mythological  emblems  and  fables ;  as  also  many  came  from  the 
places  of  exaltation  of  the  planets.  Diana  of  Ephesus,  the  Moon, 
wore  the  image  of  a  crab  on  her  bosom,  because  in  that  sign  was 
the  Moon's  domicile ;  and  lions  bore  up  the  throne  of  Horus,  the 
Egyptian  Apollo,  the  Sun  personified,  for  a  like  reason :  while  the 
Egyptians  consecrated  the  tauriform  scarabseus  to  the  Moon, 
because  she  had  her  place  of  exaltation  in  Taurus ;  and  for  the 
same  reason  Mercury  is  said  to  have  presented  Isis  with  a  helmet 
like  a  bull's  head. 

A  further  division  of  the  Zodiac  was  of  each  sign  into  three 
parts  of  10°  each,  called  Decans,  or,  in  the  whole  Zodiac.  36  parts, 
among  which  the  seven  planets  were  apportioned  anew,  each 
planet  having  an  equal  number  of  Decans,  except  the  first,  which, 
opening  and  closing  the  series  of  planets  five  times  repeated,  nec- 
essarily had  one  Decan  more  than  the  others.  This  subdivision 
was  not  invented  until  after  Aries  opened  the  Vernal  Equinox ; 
and  accordingly  Mars,  having  his  house  in  Aries,  opens  the  series 
of  decans  and  closes  it ;  the  planets  following  each  other,  five  times 
in  succession,  in  the  following  order,  Mars,  the  Sun,  Venus,  Mer- 
cury, the  Moon,  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  etc. ;  so  that  to  each  sign 
are  assigned  three  planets,  each  occupying  10  degrees.  To  each 
Decan  a  God  or  Genius  was  assigned,  making  thirty-six  in  all, 
one  of  whom,  the  Chaldeans  said,  came  down  upon  earth  every  ten 
days,  remained  so  many  days,  and  re-ascended  to  Heaven.  This 
division  is  found  on  the  Indian  sphere,  the  Persian,  and  that  Bar- 
baric one  which  Aben  Ezra  describes.  Each  genius  of  the  Decans 
had  a  name  and  special  characteristics.  They  concur  and  aid  in  the 
effects  produced  by  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  other  planets  charged  with 
the  administration  of  the  world :  and  the  doctrine  in  regard  to 
them,  secret  and  august  as  it  was  held,  was  considered  of  the 
gravest  importance ;  and  its  principles,  Firmicus  says,  were  not 
entrusted  by  the  ancients,  inspired  as  they  were  by  the  Deity,  to 
any  but  the  Initiates,  and  to  them  only  with  great  reserve,  and  a 
kind  of  fear,  and  when  cautiously  enveloped  with  an  obscure  veil, 
that  they  might  not  come  to  be  known  by  the  profane. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN   SERPENT.  4?  I 

With  these  Decans  were  connected  the  paranatcllcns  or  those 
stars  outside  of  the  Zodiac,  that  rise  and  set  at  the  same  moment 
with  the  several  divisions  of  10°  of  each  sign.  As  there  were  an- 
ciently only  forty-eight  celestial  figures  or  constellations,  of  which 
twelve  were  in  the  Zodiac,  it  follows  that  there  were,  outside  of  the 
Zodiac,  thirty-six  other  asterisms,  paranatellons  of  the  several 
thirty-six  Decans.  For  example,  as  when  Capricorn  set,  Sirius 
ainJ  Procyon,  or  Canis  Major  and  Canis  Minor,  rose,  they  were  the 
Paranatellons  of  Capricorn,  though  at  a  great  distance  from  it  in 
the  heavens.  The  rising  of  Cancer  was  known  from  the  setting 
of  Corona  Borealis  and  the  rising  of  the  Great  and  Little  Dog, 
its  three  paranatellons. 

The  risings  and  settings  of  the  Stars  are  always  spoken  of  as 
connected  with  the  Sun.  In  that  connection  there  are  three  kinds 
of  them,  cosmical,  achronical,  and  heliacal,  important  to  be  dis- 
tinguished by  all  who  would  understand  this  ancient  learning. 

When  any  Star  rises  or  sets  with  the  same  degree  of  the  same 
sign  of  the  Zodiac  that  the  Sun  occupies  at  the  time,  it  rises  and 
sets  simultaneously  with  the  Sun,  and  this  is  termed  rising  or  set- 
ting costnically ;  but  a  star  that  so  rises  and  sets  can  never  be 
seen,  on  account  of  the  light  that  precedes,  and  is  left  behind  by 
the  Sun.  It  is  therefore  necessary,  in  order  to  know  his  place 
in  the  Zodiac,  to  observe  stars  that  rise  just  before  or  set  just 
after  him. 

A  Star  that  is  in  the  East  when  night  commences,  and  in  the 
West  when  it  ends,  is  said  to  rise  and  set  achronically.  A  Star  so 
rising  or  setting  was  in  opposition  to  the  Sun,  rising  at  the  end  of 
evening  twilight,  and  setting  at  the  beginning  of  morning  twi- 
light, and  this  happened  to  each  Star  but  once  a  year,  because 
the  Sun  moves  from  West  to  East,  with  reference  to  the  Stars,  one 
degree  a  day. 

When  a  Star  rises  as  night  ends  in  the  morning,  or  sets  as  night 
commences  in  the  evening,  it  is  said  to  rise  or  set  heliacally, 
because  the  Sun  (Helios}  seems  to  touch  it  with  his  luminous 
atmosphere.  A  Star  thus  re-appears  after  a  disappearance,  often, 
of  several  months,  and  thenceforward  it  rises  an  hour  earlier  each 
day.  gradually  emerging  from  the  Sun's  rays,  until  at  the  end  of 
three  months  it  precedes  the  Sun  six  hours,  and  rises  at  midnight. 
A  Star  sets  heliacally,  when  no  longer  remaining  visible  above  the 
western  horizon  after  sunset,  the  dav  arrives  when  thev  cease  to 


4/2  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

be  seen  setting  in  the  West.  They  so  remain  invisible,  until  the 
Sun  passes  so  far  to  the  Eastward  as  not  to  eclipse  them  with  his 
light ;  and  tnen  they  re-appear,  but  in  the  East,  about  an  hour 
and  a  half  before  sunrise :  and  this  is  their  heliacal  rising.  In 
this  interval,  the  cosmical  rising  and  setting  take  place. 

Besides  the  relations  of  the  constellations  and  their  paranatel- 
lons  with  the  houses  and  places  of  exaltation  of  the  Planets,  and 
with  their  places  in  the  respective  Signs  and  Decans,  the  Stars 
were  supposed  to  produce  different  effects-  according  as  they  rose 
or  set,  and  according  as  they  did  so  either  cosmically,  achronically, 
or  heliacally ;  and  also  according  to  the  different  seasons  of  the 
year  in  which  these  phenomena  occurred ;  and  these  differences 
were  carefully  marked  on  the  old  Calendars ;  and  many  things  in 
the  ancient  allegories  are  referable  to  them. 

Another  and  most  important  division  of  the  Stars  was  into 
good  and  bad,  beneficent  and  malevolent.  With  the  Persians,  the 
former,  of  the  Zodiacal  Constellations,  were  from  Aries  to  Virgo, 
inclusive ;  and  the  latter  from  Libra  to  Pisces,  inclusive.  Hence 
the  good  Angels  and  Genii,  and  the  bad  Angels,  Devs,  Evil  Genii, 
Devils,  Fallen  Angels,  Titans,  and  Giants  of  the  Mythology.  The 
other  thirty-six  Constellations  were  equally  divided,  eighteen  on 
each  side,  or,  with  those  of  the  Zodiac,  twenty-four. 

Thus  the  symbolic  Egg,  that  issued  from  the  mouth  of  the 

..  <j  O  ' 

invisible  Egyptian  God  KNEPH  ;  known  in  the  Grecian  Mysteries 
as  the  Orphic  Egg;  from  which  issued  the  God  CHUMONG  of  the 
Coresians,  and  the  Egyptian  OSIRIS,  and  PHANES,  God  and  Prin- 
ciple of  Light;  from  which,  broken  by  the  Sacred  Bull  of  the 
Japanese,  the  world  emerged  ;  and  which  the  Greeks  placed  at  the 
feet  of  BACCHUS  TAURI-CORXUS  ;  the  Magian  Egg  of  ORMUZD, 
from  which  came  the  Amshaspands  and  Devs ;  was  divided  into 
two  halves,  and  equally  apportioned  between  the  Good  and  Evil 
Constellations  and  Angels.  Those  of  Spring,  as  for  example  Aries 
and  Taurus,  Auriga  and  Capella,  were  the  beneficent  stars ;  and 
those  of  Autumn,  as  the  Babnce,  Scorpio,  the  Serpent  of  Ophiu- 
cus,  and  the  Dragon  of  the  Hesperides,  were  types  and  subjects  of 
the  Evil  Principle,  and  regarded  as  malevolent  causes  of  the  ill 
effects  experienced  in  Autumn  and  Winter.  Thus  are  explained 
the  mysteries  of  the  journeyings  of  the  human  soul  through  the 
spheres,  when  it  descends  to  the  earth  by  the  Sign  of  the  Serpent, 
and  returns  to  the  Empire  of  light  by  that  of  the  Lamb  or  Bull. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  473 

The  creative  action  of  Heaven  was  manifested,  and  all  its  de- 
miurgic energy  developed,  most  of  all  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  to 
which  refer  all  the  fables  that  typify  the  victory  of  Light  over 
Darkness,  by  the  triumphs  of  Jupiter,  Osiris,  Ormuzd,  and  Apollo. 
Always  the  triumphant  god  takes  the  form  of  the  Bull,  the  Ram, 
or  the  Lamb.  Then  Jupiter  wrests  from  Typhon  his  thunderbolts, 
of  which  that  malignant  Deity  had  possessed  himself  during  the 
Winter.  Then  the  God  of  Light  overwhelms  his  foe,  pictured  as  a 
huge  Serpent.  Then  Winter  ends  ;  the  Sun,  seated  on  the  Bull 
and  accompanied  by  Orion,  blazes  in  the  Heavens.  All  nature 
rejoices  at  the  victory ;  and  Order  and  Harmony  are  everywhere 
re-established,  in  place  of  the  dire  confusion  that  reigned  while 
gloomy  Typhon  domineered,  and  Ahriman  prevailed  against 
Ormuzd. 

The  universal  Soul  of  the  World,  motive  power  of  Heaven  and 
of  the  Spheres,  it  was  held,  exercises  its  creative  energy  chiefly 
through  the  medium  of  the  Sun,  during  his  revolution  along  the 
signs  of  the  Zodiac,  with  which  signs  unite  the  paranatellons  that 
modify  their  influence,  and  concur  in  furnishing  the'symbolic  at- 
tributes of  the  Great  Luminary  that  regulates  Nature  and  is  the 
depository  of  her  greatest  powers.  The  action  of  this  Universal 
Soul  of  the  World  is  displayed  in  the  movements  of  the  Spheres, 
and  above  all  in  that  of  the  Sun,  in  the  successions  of  the  risings 
and  settings  of  the  Stars,  and  in  their  periodical  returns.  By  these 
are  explainable  all  the  metamorphoses  of  that  Soul,  personified  as 
Jupiter,  as  Bacchus,  as  Vishnu,  or  as  Buddha,  and  all  the  various 
attributes  ascribed  to  it ;  and  also  the  worship  of  those  animals 
that  were  consecrated  in  the  ancient  Temples,  representatives  on 
earth  of  the  Celestial  Signs,  and  supposed  to  receive  by  transmis- 
sion from  them  the  rays  and  emanations  which  in  them  flow  from 
the  Universal  Soul. 

All  the  old  Adorers  of  Nature,  the  Theologians,  AstroTogera, 
and  Poets,  as  well  as  the  most  distinguished  Philosophers,  sup- 
posed that  the  Stars  were  so  many  animated  and  intelligent  being:;, 
or  eternal  bodies,  active  causes  of  effect  here  below,  animated  by  21 
living  principle,  and  directed  by  an  intelligence  that  was  itself  but 
an  emanation  from  and  a  part  of  the  life  and  universal  intel- 
ligence of  the  world  :  and  we  find  in  the  hierarchical  order  and 
distribution  of  their  eternal  and  divine  Intelligences,  known  by 
the  names  of  Gods,  Angels,  and  Genii,  the  same  distributions  and 


474  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  same  divisions  as  those  by  which  the  ancients  divided  the  visi- 
ble Universe  and  distributed  its  parts.  And  the  famous  divisions 
by  seven  and  by  twelve,  appertaining  to  the  planets  and  the  signs 
of  the  zodiac,  is  everywhere  found  in  the  hierarchical  order 
of  the  Gods,  and  Angels,  and  the  other  Ministers  that  are  the 
depositaries  of  that  Divine  Force  which  moves  and  rules  the 
world. 

These,  and  the  other  Intelligences  assigned  to  the  other  Stars, 
have  absolute  dominion  over  all  parts  of  Nature ;  over  the  elements, 
the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms,  over  man  and  all  his  actions, 
over  his  virtues  and  vices,  and  over  good  and  evil,  which  divide  be- 
tween them  his  life.  The  passions  of  his  soul  and  the  maladies 
of  his  body,— these  and  the  entire  man  are  dependent  on  the  heav- 
ens and  the  genii  that  there  inhabit,  who  preside  at  his  birth,  con- 
trol his  fortunes  during  life,  and  receive  his  soul  or  active  and 
intelligent  part  when  it  is  to  be  re-united  to  the  pure  life  of  the 
lofty  Stars.  And  all  through  the  great  body  of  the  world  are  dis- 
seminated portions  of  the  universal  Soul,  impressing  movement  on 
everything  that  seems  to  move  of  itself,  giving  life  to  the  plants 
and  trees,  directing  by  a  regular  and  settled  plan  the  organization 
and  development  of  their  germs,  imparting  constant  mobility  to 
the  running  waters  and  maintaining  their  eternal  motion,  impell- 
ing the  winds  and  changing  their  direction  or  stilling  them,  calm- 
ing and  arousing  the  ocean,  unchaining  the  storms,  pouring  out 
the  fires  of  volcanoes,  or  with  earthquakes  shaking  the  roots  of 
huge  mountains  and  the  foundations  of  vast  continents ;  by  means 
of  a  force  that,  belonging  to  Nature,  is  a  mystery  to  man. 

And  these  invisible  Intelligences,  like  the  stars,  are  marshalled 
in  two  great  divisions,  under  the  banners  of  the  two  Principles  of 
Good  and  Evil,  Light  and  Darkness  :  under  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman, 
Osiris  and  Typhon.  The  Evil  Principle  was  the  motive  power  of 
brute  matter ;  and  it,  personified  as  Ahriman  and  Typhon,  had  its 
hosts  and  armies  of  Devs  and  Genii,  Fallen  Angels  and  Malevo- 
lent Spirits,  who  waged  continual  war  with  the  Good  Principle,  the 
Principle  of  Empyreal  Light  and  Splendor,  Osiris,  Ormuzd,  Jupi- 
ter or  Dionusos,  with  his  bright  hosts  of  Amshaspands,  Izeds. 
Angels,  and  Archangels  ;  a  warfare  that  goes  on  from  birth  until 
death,  in  the  soul  of  every  man  that  lives. 

We  have  heretofore,  in  the  24th  Degree,  recited  the  principal  in- 
cidents in  the  legend  of  Osiris  and  Ids,  and  it  remains  but  to  point 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRA/KN   SKRPKNT.  475 

out  the  astronomical  phenomena  which  it  has  converted  into 
mythological  facts. 

The  Sun,  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  was  the  fruit-compelling  star 
that  by  his  warmth  provoked  generation  and  poured  upon  the  sub- 
lunary world  all  the  blessings  of  Heaven ;  the  beneficent  god, 
tutelary  genius  of  universal  vegetation,  that  communicates  to  the 
dull  earth  new  activity,  and  stirs  her  great  heart,  long  chilled  by 
Winter  and  his  frosts,  until  from  her  bosom  burst  all  the  greenness 
and  perfume  of  spring,  making  her  rejoice  in  leafy  forests  and 
grassy  lawns  and  flower-enamelled  meadows,  and  the  promise  of 
abundant  crops  of  grain  and  fruits  and  purple  grapes  in  their 
due  season. 

He  was  then  called  Osiris,  Husband  of  Isis,  God  of  Cultivation 
and  Benefactor  of  Men,  pouring  on  them  and  on  the  earth  the 
choicest  blessings  within  the  gift  of  the  Divinity.  Opposed  to  him 
was  Typhon,  his  antagonist  in  the  Egyptian  mythology,  as 
Ahriman  was  the  foe  of  Ormuzd,  the  Good  Principle,  in  the  the- 
ology of  the  Persians. 

The  first  inhabitants  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  as  Diodorus  Siculus 
informs  us,  saw  in  the  Heavens  two  first  eternal  causes  of  things, 
or  great  Divinities,  one  the  Sun,  whom  they  called  Osiris,  and  the 
other  the  Moon,  whom  they  called  Isis ;  and  these  they  considered 
the  causes  of  all  the  generations  of  earth.  This  idea,  we  learn 
from  Eusebius,  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  Phoenicians.  On  these 
two  great  Divinities  the  administration  of  the  world  depended. 
All  sublunary  bodies  received  from  them  their  nourishment  and 
increase,  during  the  annual  revolution  which  they  controlled,  and 
the  different  seasons  into  which  it  was  divided. 

To  Osiris  and  Isis,  it  was  held,  were  owing  civilization,  the 
discovery  of  agriculture,  laws,  arts  of  all  kinds,  religious  worship, 
temples,  the  invention  of  letters,  astronomy,  the  gymnastic  arts. 
and  music ;  and  thus  they  were  the  universal  benefactors.  Osiris 
travelled  to  civilize  the  countries  which  he  passed  through,  and 
communicate  to  them  his  valuable  discoveries.  He  built  cities, 
and  taught  men  to  cultivate  the  earth.  Wheat  and  wine  were  his 
first  presents  to  men.  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  partook  of  the 
blessings  which  he  communicated,  and  the  most  remote  regions  of 
India  remembered  him,  and  claimed  him  as  one  of  their  great  god?- 

You  have  learned  how  Typhon,  his  brother,  slew  him.  His  body 
was  cut  into  pieces,  all  of  which  were  collected  by  Isis,  except  his 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

organs  of  generation,  which  had  been  thrown  into  and  devoured  in 
the  waters  of  the  river  that  every  year  fertilized  Egypt.  The  other 
portions  were  buried  by  Isis,  and  over  them  she  erected  a  tomb. 
Thereafter  she  remained  single,  loading  her  subjects  with  blessings. 
She  cured  the  sick,  restored  sight  to  the  blind,  made  the  paralytic 
whole,  and  even  raised  the  dead.  From  her  Horus  or  Apollo 
learned  divination  and  the  science  of  medicine. 

Thus  the  Egyptians  pictured  the  beneficent  action  of  the  two 
luminaries  that,  from  the  bosom  of  the  elements,  produced  all 
animals  and  men,  and  all  bodies  that  are  born,  grow,  and  die  in 
the  eternal  circle  of  generation  arid  destruction  here  below. 

When  the  Celestial  Bull  opened  the  new  year  at  the  Vernal  Equi- 
nox, Osiris,  united  with  the  Moon,  communicated  to  her  the  seeds 
of  fruitfulness  which  she  poured  upon  the  air,  and  therewith  im- 
pregnated the  generative  principles  which  gave  activity  to  universal 
vegetation.  Apis,  represented  by  a  bull,  was  the  living  and  sensible 
image  of  the  Sun  or  Osiris,  when  in  union  with  Isis  or  the  Moon 
at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  concurring  with  her  in  provoking  everything 
that  lives  to  generation.  This  conjunction  of  the  Sun  with  the 
Moon  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  in  the  constellation  Taurus,  required 
the  Bull  Apis  to  have  on  his  shoulder  a  mark  resembling  the 
Crescent  Moon.  And  the  fecundating  influence  of  these  two  lumi- 
naries was  expressed  by  images  that  would  now  be  deemed  gross 
and  indecent,  but  which  then  were  not  misunderstood. 

Everything  good  in  Nature  comes  fromOsiris, — order, harmony, 
and  the  favorable  temperature  of  the  seasons  and  celestial  periods. 
From  Typhon  come  the  stormy  passions  and  irregular  impulses 
that  agitate  the  brute  and  material  part  of  man ;  maladies  of  the 
body,  and  violent  shocks  that  injure  the  health  and  derange  the 
system ;  inclement  weather,  derangement  of  the  seasons,  and 
eclipses.  Osiris  and  Typhon  were  the  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  of 
the  Persians ;  principles  of  good  and  evil,  of  light  and  darkness, 
ever  at  war  in  the  administration  of  the  Universe. 

Osiris  was  the  image  of  generative  power.  This  was  expressed 
by  his  symbolic  statues,  and  by  the  sign  into  which  he  entered  nt 
the  Vernal  Equinox.  He  especially  dispensed  the  humid  principle 
of  Nature,  generative  element  of  all  things ;  and  the  Nile  and  all 
moisture  were  regarded  as  emanations  from  him.  without  which 
there  could  be  no  vegetation. 

That  Osiris  and  Isis  were  the  Sun  and  Moon,  is  attested  by  many 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  477 

ancient  writers ;  by  Diogenes  Laertius,  Plutarch,  Lucian,  Suidas, 
Macrobius,  Martianus  Capella,  and  others.  His  power  was  sym- 
bolized by  an  Eye  over  a  Sceptre.  The  Sun  was  termed  by  the 
Greeks  the  Eye  of  Jupiter,  and  the  Eye  of  the  World ;  and  his  is 
the  All-Seeing  Eye  in  our  Lodges.  The  oracle  of  Claros  styled 
him  King  of  the  Stars  and  of  the  Eternal  Eire,  that  engenders 
the  year  and  the  seasons,  dispenses  rain  and  winds,  and  brings 
about  daybreak  and  night.  And  Osiris  was  invoked  as  the  God 
that  resides  in  the  Sun  and  is  enveloped  by  his  rays,  the  invisible 
and  eternal  force  that  modifies  the  sublunary  world  by  means  of 
the  Sun. 

Osiris  was  the  same  God  known  as  Bacchus,  Dionusos,  and  Se- 
rapis.  Serapis  is  the  author  of  the  regularity  and  harmony  of  the 
world.  Bacchus,  jointly  with  Ceres  (identified  by  Herodotus  with 
Isis)  presides  over  the  distribution  of  all  our  blessings ;  and  from 
the  two  emanates  everything  beautiful  and  good  in  Nature.  One 
furnishes  the  germ  and  principle  of  every  good ;  the  other  receives 
and  preserves  it  as  a  deposit ;  and  the  latter  is  the  function  of  the 
Moon  in  the  theology  of  the  Persians.  In  each  theology,  Persian 
and  Egyptian,  the  Moon  acts  directly  on  the  earth ;  but  she  is 
fecundated,  in  one  by  the  Celestial  Bull  and  in  the  other  by  Osiris, 
with  whom  she  is  united  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  in  the  sign  Tau- 
rus, the  place  of  her  exaltation  or  greatest  influence  on  the  earth. 
The  force  of  Osiris,  says  Plutarch,  is  exercised  through  the  Moon. 
She  is  the  passive  cause  relatively  to  him,  and  the  active  cause 
relatively  to  the  earth,  to  which  she  transmits  the  germs  of  fruit- 
fulness  received  from  him. 

In  Egypt  the  earliest  movement  in  the  waters  of  the  Nile  began 
to  appear  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  when  the  new  Moon  occurred  at 
the  entrance  of  the  Sun  into  the  constellation  Taurus ;  and  thus 
the  Nile  was  held  to  receive  its  fertilizing  power  from  the  com- 
bined action  of  the  equinoctial  Sun  and  the  new  Moon,  meeting 
in  Taurus.  Osiris  was  often  confounded  with  the  Nile,  and  Isis 
with  the  earth  ;  and  Osiris  was  deemed  to  act  on  the  earth,  and 
to  transmit  to  it  his  emanations,  through  both  the  Moon  and  the 
Nile ;  whence  the  fable  that  his  generative  organs  were  thrown 
into  that  river.  Typhon,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  principle  of 
aridity  and  barrenness  :  and  by  his  mutilation  of  Osiris  was  meant 
that  drought  which  caused  the  Nile  to  retire  within  his  bed  and 
shrink  up  in  Autumn. 


MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

Elsewhere  than  in  Egypt,  Osiris  was  the  symbol  of  the  refresh- 
ing rains  that  descend  to  fertilize  the  earth ;  and  Typhon  the  burn- 
ing winds  of  Autumn;  the  stormy  rains  that  rot  the  flowers,  the 
plants,  and  leaves ;  the  short,  cold  days ;  and  everything  injurious 
in  Nature,  and  that  produces  corruption  and  destruction. 

In  short,  Typhon  is  the  principle  of  corruption,  of  darkness,  of 
the  lower  world  from  which  come  earthquakes,  tumultuous  com- 
motions of  the  air,  burning  heat,  lightning,  and  fiery  meteors,  and 
plague  and  pestilence.  Such  too  was  the  Ahriman  of  the  Per- 
sians ;  and  this  revolt  of  the  Evil  Principle  against  the  Principle 
of  Good  and  Light,  lias  been  represented  in  every  cosmogony, 
under  many  varying  forms.  Osiris,  on  the  contrary,  by  the  inter- 
mediation of  Isis,  fills  the  material  world  with  happiness,  purity, 
and  order,  by  which  the  harmony  of  Nature  is  maintained.  It 
was  said  that  he  died  at  the  Autumnal  Equinox,  when  Taurus  or 
the  Pleiades  rose  in  the  evening,  and  that  he  rose  to  life  again  in 
the  Spring,  when  vegetation  was  inspired  with  new  activity. 

Of  course  the  two  signs  of  Taurus  and  Scorpio  will  figure  most 
largely  in  the  mythological  history  of  Osiris,  for  they  marked  the 
two  equinoxes,  2500  years  before  our  Era ;  and  next  to  them  the 
other  constellations,  near  the  equinoxes,  that  fixed  the  limits  of 
the  duration  of  the  fertilizing  action  of  the  Sun ;  and  it  is  also  to 
be  remarked  that  Venus,  the  Goddess  of  Generation,  has  her 
domicile  in  Taurus,  as  the  Moon  has  there  her  place  of  exalta- 
tion. 

When  the  Sun  was  in  Scorpio,  Osiris  lost  his  life,  and  that  fruit- 
fulness  which,  under  the  form  of  the  Bull,  he  had  communicated, 
through  the  Moon,  to  the  Earth.  Typhon,  his  hands  and  feet  hor- 
rid with  serpents,  and  whose  habitat  in  the  Egyptian  planisphere 
was  under  Scorpio,  confined  him  in  a  chest  and  flung  him  into  the 
Nile,  under  the  i/th  degree  of  Scorpio.  Under  that  sign  he  lost 
his  life  and  virility ;  and  he  recovered  them  in  the  Spring,  when  he 
had  connection  with  the  Moon.  When  he  entered  Scorpio,  his 
light  diminished,  Night  reassumed  her  dominion,  the  Nile  shrunk 
within  its  banks,  and  the  earth  lost  her  verdure  and  the  trees  their 
leaves.  Therefore  it  is  that  on  the  Mithriac  Monuments,  the 
Scorpion  bites  the  testicles  of  the  Equinoctial  Bull,  on  which  sits 
Mithras,  the  Sun  of  Spring  and  God  of  Generation ;  and  that,  on 
the  same  monuments,  we  see  two  trees,  one  covered  with  young 
leaves,  and  at  its  foot  a  little  bull  and  a  torch  burning;  and  the 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BR/VZEN  SERPENT.  479 

other  loaded  with  fruit,  and  at  its  foot  a  Scorpion,  and  a  torch  re- 
versed and  extinguished. 

Ormuzd  or  Osiris,  the  beneficent  Principle  that  gives  the  world 
light,  was  personified  by  the  Sun,  apparent  source  of  light.  Dark- 
ness, personified  by  Typhon  or  Ahriman,  was  his  natural  enemy. 
The  Sages  of  Egypt  described  the  necessary  and  eternal  rivalry  or 
opposition  of  these  principles,  ever  pursuing  one  the  other,  and 
one  dethroning  the  other  in  every  annual  revolution,  and  at  a  par- 
ticular period,  one  in  the  Spring  under  the  Bull,  and  the  other  in 
Autumn  under  the  Scorpion,  by  the  legendary  history  of  Osiris 
and  Typhon,  detailed  to  us  by  Diodorus  and  Synesius ;  in  which 
history  were  also  personified  the  Stars  and  constellations  Orion, 
Capella,  the  Twins,  the  Wolf,  Sirius,  and  Hercules,  whose  risings 
and  settings  noted  the  advent  of  one  or  the  other  equinox. 

Plutarch  gives  us  the  positions  in  the  Heavens  of  the  Sun  and 
Moon,  at  the  moment  when  Osiris  was  murdered  by  Typhon.  The 
Sun,  he  says,  was  in  the  Sign  of  the  Scorpion,  which  he  then  en- 
tered at  the  Autumnal  Equinox.  The  Moon  was  full,  he  adds ;  and 
consequently,  as  it  rose  at  sunset,  it  occupied  Taurus,  which,  op- 
posite to  Scorpio,  rose  as  it  and  the  Sun  sank  together,  so  that  she 
was  then  found  alone  in  the  sign  Taurus,  where,  six  months  be- 
fore, she  had  been  in  union  or  conjunction  with  Osiris,  the  Sun, 
receiving  from  him  those  germs  of  universal  fertilization  which  he 
communicated  to  her.  It  was  the  sign  through  which  Osiris  first 
ascended  into  his  empire  of  light  and  good.  It  rose  with  the  Sun 
on  the  day  of  the  Vernal  Equinox  ;  it  remained  six  months  in  the 
luminous  hemisphere,  ever  preceding  the  Sun  and  above  the  hori- 
zon during  the  day ;  until  in  Autumn,  the  Sun  arriving  at  Scorpio, 
Taurus  was  in  complete  opposition  with  him,  rose  when  he  set,  and 
completed  its  entire  course  above  the  horizon  during  the  night ; 
presiding,  by  rising  in  the  evening,  over  the  commencement  of  the 
long  nights.  Hence  in  the  sad  ceremonies  commemorating  the 
death  of  Osiris,  there  was  borne  in  procession  a  golden  bull  cov- 
ered with  black  crape,  image  of  the  darkness  into  which  the  famil- 
iar sign  of  Osiris  was  entering,  and  which  was  to  spread  over  the 
Northern  regions,  while  the  Sun.  prolonging  the  nights,  was  to  be 
absent,  and  each  to  remain  under  the  dominion  of  Typhon,  Prin- 
ciple of  Evil  and  Darkness. 

Setting  out  from  the  sign  Taurus,  Isis,  as  the  Moon,  went  seek- 
ing for  Osiris  through  all  the  superior  signs,  in  each  of  which  she 


480  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

became  full  in  the  successive  months  from  the  Autumnal  to  the 
Vernal  Equinox,  without  finding  him  in  either.  Let  us  follow  her 
in  her  allegorical  wanderings. 

Osiris  was  slain  by  Typhon  his  rival,  with  whom  conspired  a 
Queen  of  Ethiopia,  by  whom,  says  Plutarch,  were  designated  the 
winds.  The  paranatellons  of  Scorpio,  the  sign  occupied  by  the 
Sun  when  Osiris  was  slain,  were  the  Serpents,  reptiles  which  sup- 
plied the  attributes  of  the  Evil  Genii  and  of  Typhon,  who  him- 
self bore  the  form  of  a  serpent  in  the  Egyptian  planisphere.  And 
in  the  division  of  Scorpio  is  also  found  Cassiopeia,  Queen  of  Ethi- 
opia, whose  setting  brings  stormy  winds. 

Osiris  descended  to  the  shades  or  infernal  regions.  There  he 
took  the  name  of  Serapis,  identical  with  Pluto,  and  assumed  his 
nature.  He  was  then  in  conjunction  with  Serpentarius,  identical 
with  ^Esculapius,  whose  form  he  took  in  his  passage  to  the  lower 
signs,  where  he  takes  the  names  of  Pluto  and  Ades. 

Then  Isis  wept  for  the  death  of  Osiris,  and  the  golden  bull  cov- 
ered with  crape  was  carried  in  procession.  Nature  mourned  the  im- 
pending loss  of  her  Summer  glories,  and  the  advent  of  the  empire 
of  night,  the  withdrawing  of  the  waters,  made  fruitful  by  the  Bull 
in  Spring,  the  cessation  of  the  winds  that  brought  rains  to  swell 
the  Nile,  the  shortening  of  the  clays,  and  the  despoiling  of  the 
earth.  Then  Taurus,  directly  opposite  the  Sun,  entered  into  the 
cone  of  shadow  which  the  earth  projects,  by  which  the  Moon  is 
eclipsed  at  full,  and  with  which,  making  night,  the  Bull  rises  and 
descends  as  if  covered  with  a  veil,  while  he  remains  above  our 
horizon. 

The  body  of  Osiris,  enclosed  in  a  chest  or  coffin,  was  cast  into 
the  Nile.  Pan  and  the  Satyrs,  near  Chemmis,  first  discovered  his 
death,  announced  it  by  their  cries,  and  everywhere  created  sorrow 
and  alarm.  Taurus,  with  the  full  Moon,  then  entered  into  the 
cone  of  shadow,  and  under  him  was  the  Celestial  River,  most  prop- 
erly called  the  Nile,  and  below.  Perseus,  the  God  of  Chemmis,  and 
Auriga,  leading  a  she-goat,  himself  identical  with  Pan,  whose  wife 
Aiga  the  she-goat  was  styled. 

Then  Isis  went  in  search  of  the  body.  She  first  met  certain 
children  who  had  seen  it.  received  from  them  their  information, 
and  gave  them  in  return  the  gift  of  divination.  The  second  full 
Moon  occurred  in  Gemini,  the  Twins,  who  presided  over  the  oracles 
of  Didymus,  and  one  of  whom  was  Apollo,  the  God  of  Divination. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPEN'T.  481 

She  learned  that  Osiris  had,  through  mistake,  had  connection 
with  her  sister  Nephte,  which  she  discovered  by  a  crown  of  leaves 
of  the  melilot,  which  he  had  left  behind  him.  Of  this  connection 
a  child  was  born,  whom  Isis,  aided  by  her  dogs,  sought  for,  found, 
reared,  and  attached  to  herself,  by  the  name  of  Anubis,  her  faithful 
guardian.  The  third  full  Moon  occurs  in  Cancer,  domicile  of  the 
Moon.  The  paranatellons  of  that  sign  are,  the  crown  of  Ariadne 
or  Proserpine,  made  of  leaves  of  the  melilot,  Procyon  and  Canis 
Major,  one  star  of  which  was  called  the  Star  of  Isis,  while  Sirius 
himself  was  honored  in  Egypt  under  the  name  of  Anubis. 

Isis  repaired  to  Byblos,  and  seated  herself  near  a  fountain,  where 
she  was  found  by  the  women  of  the  Court  of  a  King.  She  was 
induced  to  visit  his  Court,  and  became  the  nurse  of  his  son.  The 
fourth  full  Moon  was  in  Leo,  domicile  of  the  Sun,  or  of  Adonis, 
King  of  Byblos.  The  paranatellons  of  this  sign  are  the  flowing 
water  of  Aquarius,  and  Cepheus,  King  of  Ethiopia, called  Regulus, 
or  simply  The  King.  Behind  him  rise  Cassiopeia  his  wife,  Queen 
of  Ethiopia,  Andromeda  his  daughter,  and  Perseus  his  son-in-law, 
all  paranatellons  in  part  of  this  sign,  and  in  part  of  Virgo. 

Isis  suckled  the  child,  not  at  her  breast,  but  with  the  end  of  her 
finger,  at  night.  She  burned  all  the  mortal  parts  of  its  body,  and 
then,  taking  the  shape  of  a  swallow,  she  flew  to  the  great  column 
of  the  palace,  made  of  the  tamarisk-tree  that  grew  up  round  the 
cofHn  containing  the  body  of  Osiris,  and  within  which  it  was  still 
enclosed.  The  fifth  full  Moon  occurred  in  Virgo,  the  true  image  of 
Isis,  and  which  Eratosthenes  calls  by  that  name.  It  pictured  a 
woman  suckling  an  infant,  the  son  of  Isis,  born  near  the  Winter 
Solstice.  This  sign  has  for  paranatellons  the  mast  of  the  Celestial 
Ship,  nnd  the  swallow-tailed  fish  or  sw.llow  above  it, and  a  portion 
of  Perseus,  son-in-law  of  the  King  of  Ethiopia. 

Isis,  having  recovered  the  sacred  coffer,  sailed  from  Byblos  in  a 
vessel  with  the  eldest  son  of  the  King,  toward  Boutos,  where 
Anubis  was.  having  charge  of  her  son  Horus :  and  in  the  morning 
dried  up  a  river,  whence  arose  a  strong  wind.  Landing,  she  hid  the 
coffer  in  a  forest.  Typhon,  hunting  a  wild  boar  by  moonlight. 
discovered  it,  recognized  the  body  of  his  rival,  and  cut  it  into  four- 
teen pieces,  the  number  of  days  between  the  full  and  new  Moon, 
and  in  everyone  of  which  days  the  Moon  loses  a  portion  of  the  light 
that  at  the  commencement  filled  her  whole  disk.  The  sixth  full 
Moon  occurred  in  Libra,  over  the  divisions  separating  which  from 


MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

Virgo  are  the  Celestial  Ship,  Perseus,  son  of  the  King  of  Ethiopia 
and  Bootes,  said  to  have  nursed  Horus.  The  river  of  Orion  that 
sets  in  the  morning  is  also  a  paranatellon  of  Libra,  as  are  Ursa 
Major,  the  Great  Bear  or  Wild  Boar  of  Erymanthus,  and  the 
Dragon  of  the  North  Pole,  or  the  celebrated  Python  from  which 
the  attributes  of  Typhon  were  borrowed.  All  these  surround  the 
full  Moon  of  Libra,  last  of  the  Superior  Signs,  and  the  one  that 
precedes  the  new  Moon  of  Spring,  about  to  be  reproduced  in 
Taurus,  and  there  be  once  more  in  conjunction  with  the  Sun- 

Isis  collects  the  scattered  fragments  of  the  body  of  Osiris,  buries 
them,  and  consecrates  the  phallus,  carried  in  pomp  at  the  Pamylia, 
or  feasts  of  the  Vernal  Equinox,  at  which  time  the  congress  of  Osiris 
and  the  Moon  was  celebrated.  Then  Osiris  had  returned  from  the 
shades,  to  aid  Horus  his  son  and  Isis  his  wife  against  the  forces  of 
Typhon.  He  thus  reappeared,  say  some,  under  the  form  of  a  wolf, 
or,  others  say,  under  that  of  a  horse.  The  Moon,  fourteen  days 
after  she  is  full  in  Libra,  arrives  at  Taurus  and  unites  herself  to 
the  Sun,  whose  fires  she  thereafter  for  fourteen  days  continues  to 
accumulate  on  her  disk  from  new  Moon  to  full.  Then  she  unites 
with  herself  all  the  months  in  that  superior  portion  of  the  world 
where  light  always  reigns,  with  harmony  and  order,  and  she  bor- 
rows from  him  the  force  which  is  to  destroy  the  germs  of  evil  that 
Typhon  had,  during  the  winter,  planted  everywhere  in  nature. 
This  passage  of  the  Sun  into  Taurus,  whose  attributes  he  assumes 
on  his  return  from  the  lower  hemisphere  or  the  shades,  is  marked 
by  the  rising  in  the  evening  of  the  Wolf  and  the  Centaur,  and  by 
the  heliacal  setting  of  Orion,  called  the  Star  of  Horus,  and  which 
thenceforward  is  in  conjunction  with  the  Sun  of  Spring,  in  hi? 
triumph  over  the  darkness  or  Typhon. 

Isis,  during  the  absence  of  Osiris,  and  after  she  had  hidden  the 
coffer  in  the  place  where  Typhon  found  it,  had  rejoined  that  ma- 
lignant enemy ;  indignant  at  which,  Horus  her  son  deprived  her  of 
her  ancient  diadem,  when  she  rejoined  Osiris  as  he  was  about  to  at- 
tack Typhon :  but  Mercury  gave  her  in  its  place  a  helmet  shaped 
like  the  head  of  a  bull.  Then  Horus,  as  a  mighty  warrior,  such  as 
Orion  was  described,  fought  with  and  defeated  Typhon :  who,  in 
the  shape  of  the  Serpent  or  Dragon  of  the  Pole,  had  assailed  his 
father.  So, in  Ovid,  Apollo  destroys  the  same  Python, when  To. fasci- 
nated by  Jupiter,  is  metamorphosed  into  a  cow.  and  placed  in  the 
sign  of  the  Celestial  Bull,  where  she  becomes  Isis.  The  equinoctial 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  483 

year  ends  at  the  moment  when  the  Sun  and  Moon,  at  the  Vernal 
Equinox,  are  united  with  Orion,  the  Star  of  Horus,  placed  in  the 
Heavens  under  Taurus.  The  new  Moon  becomes  young  again  in 
Taurus,  and  shows  herself  as  a  crescent,  for  the  first  time,  in  the 
next  sign,  Gemini,  the  domicile  of  Mercury.  Then  Orion,  in  con- 
junction with  the  Sun,  with  whom  he  rises,  precipitates  the 
Scorpion,  his  rival,  into  the  shades  of  night,  causing  him  to  set 
whenever  he  himself  re-appears  on  the  eastern  horizon,  with  the 
Sun.  Day  lengthens  and  the  germs  of  evil  are  by  degrees  eradi- 
cated:  and  Horus  (from  Aur,  Light)  reigns  triumphant,  symbol- 
izing, by  his  succession  to  the  characteristics  of  Osiris,  the  eternal 
renewal  of  the  Sun's  youth  and  creative  vigor  at  the  Vernal 
Equinox. 

Such  are  the  coincidences  of  astronomical  phenomena  with  the 
legend  of  Osiris  and  Isis ;  sufficing  to  show  the  origin  of  the 
legend,  overloaded  as  it  became  at  length  with  all  the  ornamenta- 
tion natural  to  the  poetical  and  figurative  genius  of  the  Orient. 

Not  only  into  this  legend,  but  into  those  of  all  the  ancient 
nations,  enter  the  Bull,  the  Lamb,  the  Lion,  and  the  Scorpion  or 
the  Serpent ;  and  traces  of  the  worship  of  the  Sun  yet  linger  in 
all  religions.  Everywhere,  even  in  our  Order,  survive  the  equi- 
noctial and  solstitial  feasts.  Our  ceilings  still  glitter  with  the 
greater  and  lesser  luminaries  of  the  Heavens,  and  our  lights,  in 
their  number  and  arrangement,  have  astronomical  references.  In 
all  churches  and  chapels,  as  in  all  Pagan  temples  and  pagodas,  the 
altar  is  in  the  East ;  and  the  ivy  over  the  east  windows  of  old 
churches  is  the  Hedera  Helix  of  Bacchus.  Even  the  cross  had  an 
astronomical  origin  ;  and  our  Lodges  are  full  of  the  ancient  sym- 
bols. 

The  learned  author  of  the  Sabaean  Researches,  Landseer,  advan- 
ces another  theory  in  regard  to  the  legend  of  Osiris ;  in  which  he 
makes  the  constellation  Bootes  play  a  leading  part.  He  observes 
that,  as  none  of  the  stars  were  visible  at  the  same  time  with  the 
Sun,  his  actual  place  in  the  Zodiac,  at  any  given  time,  could  only 
be  ascertained  by  the  Sataean  astronomers  by  their  observations 
of  the  stars,  and  of  their  heliacal  and  achronical  risings  and  set- 
tings. There  were  many  solar  festivals  among  the  Sabaeans,  and 
part  of  them  agricultural  ones ;  and  the  concomitant  signs  oi 
those  festivals  were  the  risings  and  settings  of  the  stars  of  the 
Husbandman.  Rear-driver,  or  Hunter.  BOOTES.  His  stars  were, 


484  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

among'  the  Hierophants,  the  established  nocturnal  indices  or  signs 
of  the  Sun's  place  in  the  ecliptic  at  different  seasons  of  the  year, 
and  the  festivals  were  named,  one,  that  of  the  Aphanism  or  dis- 
appearance ;  another,  that  of  the  Zetesis,  or  search,  etc.,  of  Osiris 
or  Adonis,  that  is,  of  Bootes. 

The  returns  of  certain  stars,  as  connected  with  their  concom- 
itant seasons  of  spring  (or  seed-time)  and  harvest,  seemed  to  the 
ancients,  who  had  not  yet  discovered  that  gradual  change,  result- 
ing from  the  apparent  movement  of  the  stars  in  longitude,  which 
has  been  termed  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  to  be  eternal 
and  immutable ;  and  those  periodical  returns  were  to  the  initiated, 
even  more  than  to  the  vulgar,  celestial  oracles,  announcing  the 
approach  of  those  important  changes,  upon  which  the  prosperity, 
and  even  the  very  existence  of  man  must  ever  depend ;  and  the 
oldest  of  the  Sabaean  constellations  seem  to  have  been,  an  astro- 
nomical Priest,  a  King,  a  Queen,  a  Husbandman,  and  a  Warrior; 
and  these  more  frequently  recur  on  the  Sabsean  cylinders  than  any 
other  constellations  whatever.  The  King  was  Cepheus  or  Chcpheus 
of  Ethiopia :  the  Husbandman,  Osiris,  Bacchus,  Sabazeus,  Noah 
or  Bootes.  To  the  latter  sign,  the  Egyptians  were  nationally,  tra- 
ditionally and  habitually  grateful ;  for  they  conceived  that  from 
Osiris  all  the  greatest  of  terrestrial  enjoyments  were  derived.  The 
stars  of  the  Husbandman  were  the  signal  for  those  successive 
agricultural  labors  on  which  the  annual  produce  of  the  soil 
depended ;  and  they  came  in  consequence  to  be  considered  and 
hailed,  in  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  as  the  genial  stars  of  terrestrial 
productiveness ;  to  which  the  oblations,  prayers,  and  vows  of  the 
pious  Sabaean  were  regularly  offered  up. 

Landseer  says  that  the  stars  in  Bootes,  reckoning  down  to  those 
of  the  5th  magnitude  inclusive,  are  twenty-six,  which,  seeming 
achronically  to  disappear  in  succession,  produced  the  fable  of  the 
cutting  of  Osiris  into  twenty-six  pieces  by  Typhon.  There  are 
more  stars  than  this  in  the  constellation :  but  no  more  that  the 
ancient  votaries  of  Osiris,  even  in  the  clear  atmosphere  of  the 
Sabnean  climates,  could  observe  without  telescopes. 

Plutarch  savs  Osiris  was  cut  into  fourteen  pieces :  Diodorus, 
into  twenty-sir;  in  regard  to  which,  and  to  the  whole  legend, 
Landsecr's  ideas,  van-ing  from  those  commonly  entertained,  are 
as  follows : 

Typhon,  Landseer  thinks,  was  the  ocean,  which  the  ancients 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  485 

fabled  or  believed  surrounded  the  Earth,  and  into  which  all  the 
stars  in  their  turn  appear  successively  to  sink ;  [perhaps  it  was 
DARKNESS  personified,  which  the  ancients  called  TYPHON.  He 
was  hunting  by  moonlight,  says  the  old  legend,  when  he  met  with 
Osiris.] 

The  ancient  Saba  must  have  been  near  latitude  15°  north. 
Axoum  is  nearly  in  14°,  and  the  Western  Saba  or  Meroe  is  to  the 
north  of  that.  Forty-eight  centuries  ago,  Aldebaran,  the  leading 
star  of  the  year,  had,  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  attained  at  daylight 
in  the  morning,  an  elevation  of  about  14  degrees,  sufficient  for  him 
to  have  ceased  to  be  combust,  that  is,  to  have  emerged  from  the 
Sun's  rays,  so  as  to  be  visible.  The  ancients  allowed  twelve  days 
for  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  to  emerge  from  the  solar  rays  ;  and 
there  is  less  twilight,  the  further  South  we  go. 

At  the  same  period,  too,  Cynosura  was  not  the  pole-star,  but 
Alpha  Draconis  was ;  and  the  stars  rose  and  set  with  very  different 
degrees  of  obliquity  from  thoseoftheirpresentrisings  and  settings. 
By  having  a. globe  constructed  with  circumvolving  poles,  capable  of 
any  adjustment  with  regard  to  the  colures,  Mr.  Landseer  ascer- 
tained that,  at  that  remote  period,  in  lat.  15°  north,  the  26  stars  in 
Bootes,  or  27,  including  Arcturus,  did  not  set  achronically  in  suc- 
cession; but  several  set  simultaneously  in  couples,  and  six  by  threes 
simultaneously ;  so  that,  in  all,  there  were  but  fourteen  separate 
settings  or  disappearances,  corresponding  with  the  fourteen  pieces 
into  which  Osiris  was  cut,  according  to  Plutarch.  Kappa,  Iota, 
and  Theta,  in  the  uplifted  western  hand,  disappeared  together,  and 
last  of  all.  They  really  skirted  the  horizon;  but  were  invisible 
in  that  low  latitude,  for  the  three  or  four  days  mentioned  in  some 
of  the  versions ;  while  the  Zetesis  or  search  was  proceeding,  and 
the  women  of  Phoenicia  and  Jerusalem  sat  weeping  for  the  Won- 
der, Thammuz ;  after  which  they  immediately  reappeared,  below 
and  to  the  eastward  of  a  Draconis. 

And,  on  the  very  morning  after  the  achronical  departure  of  the 
last  star  of  the  Husbandman,  Aldebaran  rose  heliacally,  and 
became  visible  in  the  East  in  the  morning  before  day. 

And  precisely  at  the  moment  of  the  heliacal  rising  of  Arcturus, 
also  rose  Spica  Virginis.  One  is  near  the  middle  of  the  Husband- 
man, and  the  other  near  that  of  the  Virgin ;  and  Arcturus  may 
have  been  the  part  of  Osiris  which  Isis  did  not  recover  with  the 
other  pieces  of  the  body. 
32 


486  MORALS  AND  DOGMAv- 

At  Dedan  and  Saba  it  was  thirty-six  days,  from  the  beginning 
of  the  aphanis;n,  i.  e.  the  disappearances  of  these  stars,  to  the 
heliacal  rising  of  Aldebaran.  During  these  days,  or  forty  at 
Medina,  or  a  few  more  at  Babylon  and  Byblos,  the  stars  of  the 
Husbandman  successively  sank  out  of  sight,  during  the  crepusculum 
or  short-lived  morning  twilight  of  those  Southern  climes.  They 
disappear  during  the  glancings  of  the  dawn,  the  special  season  of 
ancient  sidereal  observation. 

Thus  the  forty  days  of  mourning  for  Osiris  were  measured  out 
by  the  period  of  the  departure  of  his  Stars.  When  the  last  had 
sunken  out  of  sight,  the  vernal  season  was  ushered  in ;  and  the 
Sun  arose  with  the  splendid  Aldebaran,  the  Tauric  leader  of  the 
Hosts  of  Heaven ;  ard  the  whole  East  rejoiced  and  kept  holiday. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Stars  x, :  and  $,  Bootes  did  not  begin  to 
reappear  in  the  Eastern  quarter  of  the  Heavens  till  after  the  lapse 
of  about  four  months.  Then  the  Stars  of  Taurus  had  declined 
Westward,  and  Virgo  was  rising  heliacally.  In  that  latitude,  also, 
the  Stars  of  Ursa  Major  [termed  anciently  the  Ark  of  Osiris] 
set;  and  Benetnasch,  the  last  of  them,  returned  to  the  Eastern 
horizon,  with  those  in  the  head  of  Leo,  a  little  before  the  Summer 
Solstice.  In  about  a  month,  followed  the  Stars  of  the  Husband- 
man; the  chief  of  them,  Ras,  Mirach,  and  Arcturus,  being  very 
nearly  simultaneous  in  their  heliacal  rising. 

Thus  the  Stars  of  Bootes  rose  in  the  East  immediately  after 
Vindemiatrix,  and  as  if  under  the  genial  influence  of  its  rays ;  he 
had  his  annual  career  of  prosperity;  he  revelled  orientally  for  a 
quarter  of  a  year,  and  attained  his  meridian  altitude  with  Virgo ; 
and  then,  as  the  Stars  of  the  \Vater-Urn  rose,  and  Aquarius  began 
to  pour  forth  his  annual  deluge,  he  declined  Westward,  preceded 
by  the  Ark  of  Osiris.  In  the  East,  he  was  the  sign  of  that  hap- 
piness in  which  Nature,  the  great  Goddess  of  passive  production, 
rejoiced.  Now,  in  the  West,  as  he  declines  toward  the  Northwest- 
ern horizon,  his  generative  vigor  gradually  abates ;  the  Solar 
year  gro\vs  old ;  and  as  his  Stars  descend  beneath  the  Wrestern 
Wave,  Osiris  dies,  and  the  world  mourns. 

The  Ancient  Astronomers  saw  all  the  great  Symbols  of  Masonry 
in  the  Stars.  Sirius  still  glitters  in  our  Lodges  as  the  Blazing 
Star,  (I'Etoile  Flamboyante} .  The  Sun  is  still  symbolized  by  the 
point  within  a  Circle ;  and,  with  the  Moon  and  Mercury  or  Anu- 
bis,  in  the  three  Great  Lights  of  the  Lodge.  Not  only  to  these,  but 


kNlGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  487 

to  the  figures  and  numbers  exhibited  by  the  Stars,  were  ascribed 
peculiar  and  divine  powers.  The  veneration  paid  to  numbers  had 
its  source  there.  The  three  Kings  in  Orion  are  in  a  straight  line, 
and  equidistant  from  each  other,  the  two  extreme  Stars  being  3° 
apart,  and  each  of  the  three  distant  from  the  one  nearest  it  i°  30'. 
And  as  the  number  three  is  peculiar  to  apprentices,  so  the  straight 
line  is  the  first  principle  of  Geometry,  having  length  but  no 
breadth,  and  bejng  but  the  extension  of  a  point,  and  an  emblem 
of  Unity,  and  thus  of  Good,  as  the  divided  or  broken  line  is  of 
Duality  or  Evil.  Near  these  Stars  are  the  Hyades,  five  in  number, 
appropriate  to  the  Fellow-Craft;  and  close  to  them  the  Pleiades, 
of  the  master's  number,  seven;  and  thus  these  three  sacred  num- 
bers, consecrated  in  Masonry  as  they  were  in  the  Pythagorean 
philosophy,  always  appear  together  in  the  Heavens,  when  the  Bull, 
emblem  of  fertility  and  production,  glitters  among  the  Stars,  and 
Aldebaran  leads  the  Hosts  of  Heaven  (Tsbanth). 

Algenib  in  Perseus  and  Almaach  and  Algol  in  Andromeda 
form  a  right-angled  triangle,  illustrate  the  47th  problem,  and 
display  the  Grand  Master's  square  upon  the  skies.  Denebola  in 
Leo,  Arcturus  in  Bootes,  and  Spica  in  Virgo  form  an  equilateral 
triangle,  universal  emblem  of  Perfection,  and  the  Deity  with  His 
Trinity  of  Infinite  Attributes,  Wisdom.  Power,  and  Harmony ;  and 
that  other,  the  generative,  preserving,  and  destroying  Powers.  The 
Three  Kings  form,  with  Rigel  in  Orion,  two  triangles  included 
in  one :  and  Capella  and  Menkalina  in  Auriga,  with  Bellatrix  and 
Betelgueux  in  Orion, form  two  isosceles  triangles  with/3Tauri,  that 
is  equidistant  from  each  pair ;  while  the  first  four  make  a  right- 
angled  parallelogram, — the  oblong  square  so  often  mentioned  in 
our  Degrees. 

Julius  Firmicus,  in  his  description  of  the  Mysteries,  says,  "But 
in  those  funerals  and  lamentations  which  are  annually  celebrated  in 
honor  of  Osiris,  their  defenders  pretend  a  physical  reason.  They 
call  the  seeds  of  fruit,  Osiris;  the  Earth,  Isis  ;  the  natural  heat, 
Typhon  :  and  because  the  fruits  are  ripened  by  the  natural  heat, 
and  collected  for  the  life  of  man,  and  are  separated  from  their  mar- 
riage to  the  earth,  and  are  sown  again  when.  Winter  approaches, 
this  they  would  have  to  be  the  death  of  Osiris :  but  when  the  fruits, 
by  the  genial  fostering  of  the  earth,  begin  again  to  be  generated  by 
a  new  procreation,  this  is  the  finding  of  Osiris." 

No  doubt  the  decay  of  vegetation  and  the  falling  of  the  leaves, 


488  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

emblems  of  dissolution  and  evidences  of  the  action  of  that  jPower 
that  changes  Life  into  Death,  in  order  to  bring  Life  again  out  of 
Death,  were  regarded  as  signs  of  that  Death  that  seemed  coming 
upon  all  Nature ;  as  the  springing  of  leaves  and  buds  and  flowers 
in  the  spring  was  a  sign  of  restoration  to  life :  but  these  were  all 
secondary,  and  referred  to  the  Sun  as  first  cause.  It  was  his  figu- 
rative death  that  was  mourned,  and  not  theirs ;  and  with  that  death, 
as  with  his  return  to  life,  many  of  the  stars  were,  connected. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  relations  which  the  twelve  signs 
of  the  Zodiac  bear  to  the  legend  of  the  Master's  Degree.  Some 
other  coincidences  may  have  sufficient  interest  to  warrant  mention. 

Khir-Om  was  assailed  at  the  East,  West,  and  South  Gates  of  the 
Temple.  The  two  equinoxes  were  called,  we  have  seen,  by  all  the 
Ancients,  the  Gates  of  Heaven,  and  the  Syrians  and  Egyptians 
considered  the  Fish  (the  Constellation  near  Aquarius,  and  one  of 
the  Stars  whereof  is  Fomalhaut)  to  be  indicative  of  violence  and 
death. 

Khir-Om  laid  several  days  in  the  grave ;  and,  at  the  Winter 
Solstice,  for  five  or  six  days,  the  length  of  the  days  did  not  per- 
ceptibly increase.  Then,  the  Sun  commencing  again  to  climb 
Northward,  as  Osiris  was  said  to  arise  from  the  dead,  so  Khir-Om 
was  raised,  by  the  powerful  attraction  of  the  Lion  (Leo),  wrho 
waited  for  him  at  the  Summer  Solstice,  and  drew  him  to  himself. 

The  names  of  the  three  assassins  may  have  been  adopted  from 
three  Stars  that  we  have  already  named.  We  search  in  vain  in  the 
Hebrew  or  Arabic  for  the  names  Jubelo,  Jubcla,  and  Jubelum. 
They  embody  an  utter  absurdity,  and  are  capable  of  no  explanation 
in  those  languages.  Nor  are  the  names  Gibs,  Gravelot,  Hoblien, 
and  the  like,  in  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Rite,  any  more  plausible, 
or  better  referable  to  any  ancient  language.  But  when,  by  the 
precession  of  the  Equinoxes,  the  Sun  was  in  Libra  at  the  Autumnal 
Equinox,  he  met  in  that  sign,  where  the  reign  of  Typhon  com- 
menced, three  Stars  forming  a  triangle,— ZH/;<?7/-r.r  Cliamali  in  the 
West,  Zuben-Hak-Rabi  in  the  East,  and  Zubcn-El-Gubi  in  the 
South,  the  latter  immediately  below  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn,  and 
so  within  the  realm  of  Darkness.  From  these  names,  those  of  the 
murderers  have  perhaps  been  corrupted.  In  Zuben-Hak-T\abi  we 
may  see  the  original  of  Jubelum  Akirop ;  and  in  Zuben-El-Gubi, 
that  of  Jubelo  Gibs :  and  time  and  ignorance  may  even  have  trans- 
muted the  words  Es  Chamali  into  one  as  little  like  them  as  Gravelot. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  489 

Isis,  the  Moon  personified,  sorrowing  sought  for  her  husband. 
Nine  or  twelve  Fellow-Crafts  (the  Rites  vary  as  to  the  number), 
in  white  aprons,  were  sent  to  search  for  Khir-Om,  in  the  Legend  of 
the  Master's  Degree;  or,  in  this  Rite,  the  Nine  Knights  Elu. 
Along  the  path  that  the  Moon  travels  are  nine  conspicuous  Stars, 
by  which  nautical  men  determine  their  longitude  at  Sea ; — Arietis, 
Aldebaran,  Pollux,  Regulus,  Spica,  Virginis,  Antares,  Altair,  Fo- 
malhaut,  and  Markab.  These  might  well  be  said  to  accompany 
Isis  in  her  search. 

In  the  York  Rite,  twelve  Fellow-Crafts  were  sent  to  search  for 
the  body  of  Khir-Om  and  the  murderers.  Their  number  corresponds 
with  that  of  the  Pleiades  and  Hyades  in  Taurus,  among  which 
Stars  the  Sun  was  found  when  Light  began  to  prevail  over  Dark- 
ness, and  the  Mysteries  were  held.  These  Stars,  we  have  shown, 
received  early  and  particular  attention  from  the  astronomers  and 
poets.  The  Pleiades  were  the  Stars  of  the  ocean  to  the  benighted 
mariner;  the  Virgins  of  Spring,  heralding  the  season  of  blos- 
soms. 

As  six  Pleiades  only  are  now  visible,  the  number  twelve  may 
have  been  obtained  by  them,  with  Aldebaran,  and  five  far  more 
brilliant  Stars  than  any  other  of  the  Hyades,  in  the  same  region 
of  the  Heavens,  and  which  were  always  spoken  of  in  connection 
with  the  Pleiades ; — the  Three  Kings  in  the  belt  of  Orion,  and 
Bellatrix  and  Betelgueux  on  his  shoulders ;  brightest  of  the  flash- 
ing starry  hosts. 

"Canst  thou,"  asks  Job,  "bind  the  sweet  influences  of  the 
Pleiades  or  loose  the  bands  of  Orion  ?"  And  in  the  book  of  Amos 
we  find  these  Stars  connected  with  the  victory  of  Light  over  Dark- 
ness :  "Seek  Him,"  says  that  Seer,  "that  maketh  the  Seven  Stars 
(the  familiar  name  of  the  Pleiades),  and  Orion,  AND  TURNETH 

THE  SHADOW  OF  DEATH   INTO  MORNING/' 

An  old  legend  in  Masonry  says  that  a  dog  led  the  Nine  Elus  to 
the  cavern  where  Abiram  was  hid.  Bootes  was  anciently  called 
Caleb  Anubach,  a  Barking  Dog;  and  was  personified  in  Anubis, 
who  bore  the  head  of  a  dog,  and  aided  Isis  in  her  search.  Arctu- 
rus,  one  of  his  Stars,  fiery  red,  as  if  fervent  and  zealous,  is  also 
connected  by  Job  with  the  Pleiades  and  Orion.  When  Taurus 
opened  the  year,  Arcturus  rose  after  the  Sun,  at  the  time  of  the 
Winter  Solstice,  and  seemed  searching  him  through  the  darkness, 
until,  sixty  days  afterward,  he  rose  at  the  same  hour.  Orion  then 


49O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

also,  at  the  Winter  Solstice,  rose  at  noon,  and  at  night  seemed  to 
be  in  search  of  the  Sun. 

So,  referring  again  to  the  time  when  the  Sun  entered  the  Autum- 
nal Equinox,  there  are  nine  remarkable  Stars  that  come  to  the 
meridian  nearly  at  the  same  time,  rising  as  Libra  sets,  and  so 
seeming  to  chase  that  Constellation.  They  are  Capella  and  Men- 
kalina  in  the  Charioteer,  Aldebaran  in  Taurus,  Bellatrix,  Betel- 
gueux,  the  Three  Kings,  and  Rigel  in  Orion.  Aldebaran  passes 
the  meridian  first,  indicating  his  right  to  his  peculiar  title  of 
Leader.  Nowhere  in  the  heavens  are  there,  near  the  same  me- 
ridian, so  many  splendid  Stars.  And  close  behind  them,  but  fur- 
ther South,  follows  Sirius,  the  Dog-Star,  who  showed  the  nine 
Elus  the  way  to  the  murderer's  cave. 

Besides  the  division  of  the  signs  into  the  ascending  and  de- 
scending series  (referring  to  the  upward  and  downward  progress 
of  the  soul),  the  latter  from  Cancer  to  Capricorn,  and  the  former 
from  Capricorn  to  Cancer,  there  was  another  division  of  them  not 
less  important ;  that  of  the  six  superior  and  six  inferior  signs ;  the 
former,  2455  years  before  our  era,  from  Taurus  to  Scorpio,  and  300 
years  before  our  era,  from  Aries  to  Libra;  and  the  latter,  2455 
years  B.  C.  from  Scorpio  to  Taurus,  and  300 years  B.  C.  from  Libra 
to  Aries ;  of  which  we  have  already  spoken,  as  the  two  Hemi- 
spheres, or  Kingdoms  of  Good  and  Evil,  Light  and  Darkness ;  of 
Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  among  the  Persians,  and  Osiris  and  Typhon 
among  the  Egyptians. 

With  the  Persians,  the  first  six  Genii,  created  by  Ormuzd,  pre- 
sided over  the  first  six  signs,  Aries,  Taurus,  Gemini,  Cancer,  Leo, 
and  Virgo :  and  the  six  evil  Genii,  or  Devs,  created  by  Ahriman, 
over  the  six  others,  Libra,  Scorpio,  Sagittarius,  Capricornus,  Aqua- 
rius, and  Pisces.  The  soul  was  fortunate  and  happy  under  the 
Empire  of  the  first  six ;  and  began  to  be  sensible  of  evil,  when  it 
passed  under  the  Balance  or  Libra,  the  seventh  sign.  Thus  the 
soul  entered  the  realm  of  Evil  and  Darkness  when  it  passed  into 
the  Constellations  that  belong  to  and  succeed  the  Autumnal  Equi- 
nox ;  and  it  re-entered  the  realm  of  Good  and  Light,  when  it 
arrived,  returning,  at  those  of  the  Vernal  Equinox.  It  lost  its 
felicity  by  means  of  the  Balance,  and  regained  it  by  means  of  the 
Lamb.  This  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  premises ;  and  it 
is  confirmed  by  the  authorities  and  by  emblems  still  extant. 

Sallust  the  Philosopher,  speaking  of  the  Feasts  of  Rejoicing 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  49! 

celebrated  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  and  those  of  Mourning,  in 
memory  of  the  rape  of  Proserpine,  at  the  Autumnal  Equinox,  says 
that  the  former  were  celebrated,  because  then  is  effected,  as  it 
were,  the  return  of  the  soul  toward  the  Gods ;  that  the  time  when 
the  principle  of  Light  recovered  its  superiority  over  that  of  Dark- 
ness, or  day  over  night,  was  the  most  favorable  one  for  souls  that 
tend  to  re-ascend  to  their  Principle ;  and  that  when  Darkness  and 
the  Night  again  become  victors,  was  most  favorable  to  the  descent 
of  souls  toward  the  infernal  regions. 

For  that  reason,  the  old  astrologers,  as  Firmicus  states,  fixed 
the  locality  of  the  river  Styx  in  the  8th  degree  of  the  Balance. 
And  he  thinks  that  by  Styx  was  allegorically  meant  the  earth. 

The  Emperor  Julian  gives  the  same  explanation,  but  more  fully 
developed.  He  states,  as  a  reason  why  the  august  Mysteries  of 
Ceres  and  Proserpine  were  celebrated  at  the  Autumnal  Equinox, 
that  at  that  period  of  the  year  men  feared  lest  the  impious  and 
dark  power  of  the  Evil  Principle,  then  commencing  to  conquer, 
should  do  harm  to  their  souls.  They  were  a  precaution  and 
means  of  safety,  thought  to  be  necessary  at  the  moment  when  the 
God  of  Light  was  passing  into  the  opposite  or  adverse  region  of 
the  world ;  while  at  the  Vernal  Equinox  there  was  less  to  be 
feared,  because  then  that  God,  present  in  one  portion  of  the  world, 
recalled  souls  to  Him,  he  says,  and  showed  Himself  to  be  their 
Saviour.  He  had  a  little  before  developed  that  theological' idea, 
of  the  attractive  force  which  the  Sun  exercises  over  souls,  draw- 
ing them  to  him  and  raising  them  to  his  luminous  sphere.  He 
attributes  this  effect  to  him  at  the  feasts  of  Atys,  dead  and  re- 
stored to  life,  or  the  feasts  of  Rejoicing,  which  at  the  end  of  three 
days  succeeded  the  mourning  for  that  death ;  and  he  inquires  why 
those  Mysteries  were  celebrated  at  the  Vernal  Equinox.  The  rea- 
son, he  says,  is  evident.  As  the  sun,  arriving  at  the  equinoctial 
point  of  Spring,  drawing  nearer  to  us,  increases  the  length  of  the 
days,  that  period  seems  most  appropriate  for  those  ceremonies. 
For,  besides  that  there  is  a  great  affxiity  between  the  substance  of 
Light  and  the  nature  of  the  Gods,  the  Sun  has  that  occult  force 
of  attraction,  by  which  he  draws  matter  toward  himself,  by  means 
of  his  warmth,  making  plants  to  shoot  and  grow,  etc. ;  and  why 
can  he  not,  by  the  same  divine  and  pure  action  of  his  rays,  attract 
and  draw  to  him  fortunate  souls  ?  Then,  as  light  is  analogous  to 
the  Divine  Nature,  and  favorable  to  souls  struggling  to  return  to 


•  492  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

their  First  Principle,  and  as  that  light  so  increases  at  the  Vernal 
Equinox,  that  the  days  prevail  in  duration  over  the  nights,  and  as 
the  Sun  has  an  attractive  force,  besides  the  visible  energy  of  his 
rays,  it  follows  that  souls  are  attracted  toward  the  solar  light.  He 
does  not  further  pursue  the  explanation ;  because,  he  says,  it  be- 
longs to  a  mysterious  doctrine,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  vulgar 
and  known  only  to  those  who  understand  the  mode  of  action  of 
Deity,  like  the  Chaldean  author  whom  he  cites,  who  had  treated 
of  the  Mysteries  of  Light,  or  the  God  with  seven  rays. 

Souls,  the  Ancients  held,  having  emanated  from  the  Principle 
of  Light,  partaking  of  its  destiny  here  below,  cannot  be  indiffer- 
ent to  nor  unaffected  by  these  revolutions  of  the  Great  Luminary, 
alternately  victor  and  overcome  during  every  Solar  revolution. 

This  will  be  found  to  be  confirmed  by  an  examination  of  some 
of  the  Symbol-  used  in  the  Mysteries.  One  of  the  most  famous 
of  these  was  TH  SERPENT,  the  peculiar  Symbol  also  of  this  De- 
gree. The  Cosmc.  ->ny  of  the  Hebrews  and  that  of  the  Gnostics 
designated  this  repti.o  as  the  author  of  the  fate  of  Souls.  It  was 
consecrated  in  the  Mysteries  of  Bacchus  and  in  those  of  Eleusis. 
Pluto  overcame  the  virtue  of  Proserpine  under  the  form  of  a  ser- 
pent; and,  like  the  Egyptian  God  Serapis,  was  always  pictured 
seated  on  a  serpent,  or  with  that  reptile  entwined  about  him.  It 
is  found  on  the  Mithriac  Monuments,  and  supplied  with  attributes 
of  Typhon  to  the  Egyptians.  The  sacred  basilisc,  in  coil,  with 
head  and  neck  erect,  was  the  royal  ensign  of  the  Pharaohs.  Two 
of  them  were  entwined  around  and  hung  suspended  from  the 
winged  Globe  on  the  Egyptian  Monuments.  On  a  tablet  in  one 
of  the  Tombs  at  Thebes,  a  God  with  a  spear  pierces  a  serpent's 
head.  On  a  tablet  from  the  Temple  of  Osiris  at  Philge  is  a  tree, 
with  a  man  on  one  side,  and  a  woman  on  the  other,  and  in  front 
of  the  woman  an  erect  basilisc,  with  horns  on  its  head  and  a  disk 
between  the  horns.  The  head  of  Medusa  was  encircled  by  winged 
snakes,  which,  the  head  removed,  left  the  Hierogram  or  Sacred 
Cypher  of  the  Ophites  or  Serpent-worshippers.  And  the  Serpent, 
in  connection  with  the  Globe  or  circle,  is  found  upon  the  monu- 
ments of  all  the  Ancient  Nations. 

Over  Libra,  the  sign  through  which  souls  were  said  to  descend 
or  fall,  is  found,  on  the  Celestial  Globe,  the  Serpent,  grasped  by 
Serpentarius,  the  Serpent-bearer.  The  head  of  the  reptile  is  under 
Corona  Borealis,  the  Northern  Crown,  called  by  Ovid,  Libera,  or 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  4Q3 

Proserpine;  and  the  two  Constellations  rise,  with  the  Balance, 
after  the  Virgin  (or  Isis),  whose  feet  rest  on  the  eastern  horizon  at 
Sunrise  on  the  day  of  the  equinox.  As  the  Serpent  extends  over 
both  signs,  Libra  and  Scorpio,  it  has  been  the  gate  through  which 
souls  descend,  during  the  whole  time  that  those  two  signs  in  suc- 
cession marked  the  Autumnal  Equinox.  To  this  alluded  the  Ser- 
pent, which,  in  the  Mysteries  of  Bacchus  Saba-Zeus,  was  flung 
into  the  bosom  of  the  Initiate. 

And  hence  came  the  enigmatical  expression,  the  Serpent  engen- 
ders the  Bull,  and  the  Bull  the  Serpent;  alluding  to  the  two  ad- 
verse constellations,  answering  to  the  two  equinoxes,  one  of  which 
rose  as  the  other  set,  and  which  were  at  the  two  points  of  the 
heavens  through  which  souls  passed,  ascending  and  descending. 
By  the  Serpent  of  Autumn,  souls  fell ;  and  they  were  regenerated 
again  by  the  Bull  on  which  Mithras  sate,  and  whose  attributes 
Bacchus-Zagreus  and  the  Egyptian  Osiris  assumed,  in  their  Mys- 
teries, wherein  were  represented  the  fall  and  regeneration  of  souls. 
by  the  Bull  slain  and  restored  to  life. 

Afterward  the  regenerating  Sun  assumed  the  attributes  of  Aries 
or  the  Lamb ;  and  in  the  Mysteries  of  Ammon,  souls  were  regen- 
erated by  passing  through  that  sign,  after  having  fallen  through 
the  Serpent. 

The  Serpent-bearer,  or  Ophiucus,  was  ^Esculapius,  God  of 
Healing.  In  the  Mysteries  of  Eleusis,  that  Constellation  was 
placed  in  the  eighth  Heaven :  and  on  the  eighth  day  of  those  Mys- 
teries, the  feast  of  ^sculapius  was  celebrated.  It  was  also  termed 
Epidaurus,  or  the  feast  of  the  Serpent  of  Epidaurus.  The  Ser- 
pent was  sacred  to  yEsculapius ;  and  was  connected  in  various 
ways  with  the  mythological  adventures  of  Ceres. 

So  the  libations  to  Souls,  by  pouring  wine  on  the  ground,  and 
looking  toward  the  two  gates  of  Heaven,  those  of  day  and  night, 
referred  to  the  ascent  and  descent  of  Souls. 

Ceres  and  the  Serpent,  Jupiter  Ammon  and  the  Bull,  all  figured 
in  the  Mysteries  of  Bacchus.  Suppose  Aries,  or  Jupiter  Ammon 
occupied  by  the  Sun  setting  in  the  West; — Virgo  (Ceres)  will  be 
on  the  Eastern  horizon,  and  in  her  train  the  Crown,  or  Proserpine. 
Suppose  Taurus  setting ; — then  the  Serpent  is  in  the  East ;  and 
reciprocally :  so  that  Jupiter  Ammon.  or  the  Sun  of  Aries,  causes 
the  Crown  to  rise  after  the  Virgin,  in  the  train  of  which  comes 
the  Serpent  Place  reciprocally  the  Sun  at  the  other  equinox, 


494  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

with  the  balance  in  the  West,  in  conjunction  with  the  Serpent 
under  the  Crown ;  and  we  shall  see  the  Bull  and  the  Pleiades  rise 
in  the  East.  Thus  are  explained  all  the  fables  as  to  the  genera- 
tion of  the  Bull  by  the  Serpent  and  of  the  Serpent  by  the  Bull, 
the  biting  of  the  testicles  of  the  Bull  by  the  Scorpion,  on  the 
Mithriac  Monuments ;  and  that  Jupiter  made  Ceres  with  child  by 
tossing  into  her  bosom  the  testicles  of  a  Ram. 

In  the  Mysteries  of  the  bull-horned  Bacchus,  the  officers  held 
serpents  in  their  hands,  raised  them  above  their  heads,  and  cried 
aloud  "Eva!"  the  generic  oriental  name  of  the  serpent,  and  the 
particular  name  of  the  constellation  in  which  the  Persians  placed 
Eve  and  the  serpent.  The  Arabians  call  it  Hevan,  Ophiucus 
himself,  Hawa,  and  the  brilliant  star  in  his  head,  Ras-al-Hau'a. 
The  use  of  this  word  Eva  or  Evoe  caused  Clemens  of  Alexandria 
to  say  that  the  priests  in  the  Mysteries  invoked  Eve,  by  whom  evil 
was  brought  into  the  world. 

The  mystic  winnowing-fan,  encircled  by  serpents,  was  used  in 
the  feasts  of  Bacchus.  In  the  Isiac  Mysteries  a  basilisc  twined 
round  the  handle  of  the  mystic  vase.  The  Ophites  fed  a  serpent 
in  a  mysterious  ark,  from  which  they  took  him  when  they  cele- 
brated the  Mysteries,  and  allowed  him  to  glide  among  the  sacred 
bread.  The  Romans  kept  serpents  in  the  Temples  of  Bona  Dea 
and  ^sculapius.  In  the  Mysteries  of  Apollo,  the  pursuit  of  La- 
tona  by  the  serpent  Python  was  represented.  In  the  Egyptian 
Mysteries,  the  dragon  Typhon  pursued  Isis. 

According  to  Sanchoniathon,  TAAUT,  the  interpreter  of  Heaven 
to  men,  attributed  something  divine  to  the  nature  of  the  dragon 
and  serpents,  in  which  the  Phoenicians  and  Egyptians  followed 
him.  They  have  more  vitality,  more  spiritual  force,  than  any 
other  creature :  of  a  fiery  nature,  shown  by  the  rapidity  of  their 
motions,  without  the  limbs  of  other  animals.  They  assume  many 
shapes  and  attitudes,  rnd  dart  with  extraordinary  quickness  and 
force.  When  they  have  reached  old  age,  they  throw  off  that  age 
and  are  young  again,  and  increase  in  size  and  strength,  for  a  cer- 
tain period  of  years. 

The  Egyptian  Priests  fed  the  sacred  serpents  in  the  temple  at 
Thebes.  Taaut  himself  had  in  his  writings  discussed  these  mys- 
teries in  regard  to  the  serpent.  Sanchoniathon  said  in  another 
work,  that  the  serpent  was  immortal,  and  re-entered  into  himself ; 
which,  according  to  some  ancient  theosophists,  particularly  those 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  495 

of  India,  was  an  attribute  of  the  Deity.  And  he  also  said  that  the 
serpent  never  died,  unless  by  a  violent  death. 

The  Phoenicians  called  the  serpent  Agathodemon  [the  good 
spirit]  ;  and  Kneph  was  the  Serpent-God  of  the  Egyptians. 

The  Egyptians,  Sanchoniathon  said,  represented  the  serpent 
with  the  head  of  a  hawk,  on  account  of  the  swift  flight  of  that 
bird :  and  the  chief  Hierophant,  the  sacred  interpreter,  gave  very 
mysterious  explanations  of  that  symbol ;  saying  that  such  a  ser- 
pent was  a  very  divine  creature,  and  that,  opening  his  eyes,  he 
lighted  with  their  rays  the  whole  of  first-born  space :  when  he 
closes  them,  it  is  darkness  again.  In  reality,  the  hawk-headed  ser- 
pent, genius  of  light,  or  good  genius,  was  the  symbol  of  the  Sun. 

In  the  hieroglyphic  characters,  a  snake  was  the  letter  T  or  DJ. 
It  occurs  many  times  on  the  Rosetta  stone.  The  horned  serpent 
was  the  hieroglyphic  for  a  God. 

According  to  Eusebius,  the  Egyptians  represented  the  world  by 
a  blue  circle,  sprinkled  with  flames,  within  which  was  extended 
a  serpent  with  the  head  of  a  hawk.  Proclus  says  they  represented 
the  four  quarters  of  the  world  by  a  cross,  and  the  soul  of  the 
world,  or  Kneph,  by  a  serpent  surrounding  it  in  the  form  of  a 
circle. 

We  read  in  Anaxagoras,  that  Orpheus  said,  that  the  water,  and 
the  vessel  that  produced  it,  were  the  primitive  principles  of  things, 
and  together  gave  existence  to  an  animated  being,  which  was  a 
serpent,  with  two  heads,  one  of  a  lion  and  the  other  of  a  bull,  be- 
tween which  was  the  figure  of  a  God  whose  name  was  Hercules  or 
Kronos :  that  from  Hercules  came  the  egg  of  the  world,  which 
produced  Heaven  and  earth,  by  dividing  itself  into  two  hemi- 
spheres :  and  that  the  God  Phanes,  which  issued  from  that  egg, 
was  in  the  shape  of  a  serpent. 

The  Egyptian  Goddess  Ken,  represented  standing  naked  on  a 
lion,  held  two  serpents  in  her  hand.  She  is  the  same  as  the 
Astarte  or  Ashtaroth  of  the  Assyrians.  Hera,  worshipped  in  the 
Great  Temple  at  Babylon,  held  in  her  right  hand  a  serpent  by  the 
head  ;'and  near  Khca,  also  worshipped  there,  were  two  large  silver 
serpents. 

In  a  sculpture  from  Kouyunjik,  two  serpents  attached  to  poles 
are  near  a  fire-altar,  at  which  two  eunuchs  are  standing.  Upon 
it  is  the  sacred  fire,  and  a  bearded  figure  leads  a  wild  goat  to  the 
sacrifice. 


496  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  serpent  of  the  Temple  of  Epidaurus  was  sacred  to  sEscn- 
lapiits,  the  God  of  Medicine,  and  462  years  after  the  building  of 
the  city,  was  taken  to  Rome  after  a  pestilence. 

The  Phoenicians  represented  the  God  Nomu  (Kneph  or  Amun- 
Kneph)  by  a  serpent.  In  Egypt,  a  Sun  supported  by  two  asps  was 
the  emblem  of  Horhat  the  good  genius ;  and  the  serpent  with  the 
winged  globe  was  placed  over  the  doors  and  windows  of  the  Tem- 
ples as  a  tutelary  God.  Antipater  of  Sidon  calls  Amun  "the  re- 
nowned Serpent,"  and  the  Cerastes  is  often  found  embalmed  in 
the  Thebaid. 

On  ancient  Tyrian  coins  and  Indian  medals,  a  serpent  was  rep- 
resented, coiled  round  the  trunk  of  a  tree.  Python,  the  Serpent 
Deity,  was  esteemed  oracular;  and  the  tripod  at  Delphi  was  a 
triple-headed  serpent  of  gold. 

The  portals  of  all  the  Egyptian  Temples  are  decorated  with  the 
hierogram  of  the  Circle  and  the  Serpent.  It  is  also  found  upon 
the  Temple  of  Naki-Rustan  in  Persia ;  on  the  triumphal  arch  at 
Pechin,  in  China ;  over  the  gates  of  the  great  Temple  of  Chaundi 
Teeva,  in  Java ;  upon  the  walls  of  Athens ;  and  in  the  Temple 
of  Minerva  at  Tegea.  The  Mexican  hierogram  was  formed  by  the 
intersecting  of  two  great  Serpents,  which  described  the  circle  with 
their  bodies,  and  had  each  a  human  head  in  its  mouth. 

All  the  Buddhist  crosses  in  Ireland  had  serpents  carved  upon 
them.  Wreaths  of  snakes  are  on  the  columns  of  the  ancient 
Hindu  Temple  at  Burwah-Sangor. 

Among  the  Egyptians,  it  was  a  symbol  of  Divine  Wisdom,  when 
extended  at  length ;  and,  \vith  its  tail  in  its  mouth,  of  Eternity. 

In  the  ritual  of  Zoroaster,  the  Serpent  was  a  symbol  of  the 
Universe.  In  China,  the  ring  between  two  Serpents  was  the 
symbol  of  the  world  governed  by  the  power  and  wisdom  of  the 
Creator.  The  Bacchanals  carried  serpents  in  their  hands  or  round 
their  heads. 

The  Serpent  entwined  round  an  Egg,  was  a  symbol  common  to 
the  Indians,  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Druids.  It  referred  to  the 
creation  of  the  Universe.  A  Serpent  with  an  egg  in  his  mouth 
was  a  symbol  of  the  Universe  containing  within  itself  the  germ 
of  all  things  that  the  Sun  develops. 

The  property  possessed  by  the  Serpent,  of  casting  its  skin,  and 
apparently  renewing  its  youth,  made  it  an  emblem  of  eternity  and 
immortality.  The  Syrian  women  still  employ  it  as  a  charm  agains! 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  497 

barrenness,  as  did  the  devotees  of  Mithras  and  Saba-Zeus.  The 
Earth-born  civilizers  of  the  early  world,  Fohi,  Cecrops,  and  Erech- 
theus,  were  half-man,  half-serpent.  The  snake  was  the  guardian 
of  the  Athenian  Acropolis.  NAKIIUSTAN,  the  brazen  serpent  of 
the  wilderness,  became  naturalized  among  the  Hebrews  as  a  token 
of  healing  power.  "Be  ye,"  said  Christ,  "wise  as  serpents,  and 
harmless  as  doves." 

The  Serpent  was  as  often  a  symbol  of  malevolence  and  enmity. 
It  appears  among  the  emblems  of  Siva-Roudra,  the  power  of  deso- 
lation and  death :  it  is  the  bane  of  Aepytus,  Idom,  Archeroorus, 
and  Philoctetes ;  it  gnaws  the  roots  of  the  tree  of  life  in  the  Eddas, 
and  bites  the  heel  of  unfortunate  Eurydice.  In  Hebrew  writers  it 
is  generally  a  type  of  evil ;  and  is  particularly  so  in  the  Indian  and 
Persian  Mythologies.  When  the  Sea  is  churned  by  Mount  Mandar 
rotating  within  the  coils  of  the  Cosmical  Serpent  Vasouki,  to  pro- 
duce the  Amrita  or  water  of  immortality,  the  serpent  vomits  a 
hideous  poison,  which  spreads  through  and  infects  the  Universe, 
but  which  Vishnu  renders  harmless  by  swallowing  it.  Ahriman 
in  serpent-form  invades  the  realm  of  Ormuzd ;  and  the  Bull,  em- 
blem of  life,  is  wounded  by  him  and  dies.  It  was  therefore  a 
religious  obligation  with  every  devout  follower  of  Zoroaster  to 
exterminate  reptiles,  and  other  impure  animals,  especially  serpents. 
The  moral  and  astronomical  significance  of  the  Serpent  were 
connected.  It  became  a  maxim  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  that  Ahri- 
man, the  Principle  of  Evil,  made  the  Great  Serpent  of  Winter, 
who  assaulted  the  creation  of  Ormuzd. 

A  serpent-ring  was  a  well-known  symbol  of  time :  and  to  ex- 
press dramatically  how  time  preys  upon  itself,  the  Egvptian  priests 
fed  vipers  in  a  subterranean  chamber,  as  it  were  in  the  sun's  Win- 
ter abode  on  the  fat  of  bulls,  or  the  year's  plenteousness.  The  drag- 
on of  Winter  pursues  Ammon,  the  golden  ram,  to  Mount  Casius. 
The  Virgin  of  the  zodiac  is  bitten  in  the  heel  by  Serpens.  who,  with 
Scorpio,  rises  immediately  behind  her ;  and  as  honey,  the  emblem 
of  purity  and  salvation,  was  thought  to  be  an  antidote  to  the  ser- 
pent's bite,  so  the  bees  of  Aristeeus,  the  emblems  of  nature's  abun- 
dance, are  destroyed  through  the  agency  of  the  serpent,  and  re- 
generated within  the  entrails  of  the  Vernal  Bull. 

The  Sun-God  is  finally  victorious.  Chrishna  crushes  the  head  of 
the  serpent  Calyia ;  Apollo  destroys  Python,  and  Hercules  that 
Lernsean  monster  whose  poison  festered  in  the  foot  of  Philoctetes, 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  Mopsus,  of  Chiron,  or  of  Sagittarius.  The  infant  Hercules 
destroys  the  pernicious  snakes  detested  of  the  gods,  and  ever,  like 
St.  George  of  England  and  Michael  the  Archangel,  wars  against 
hydras  and  dragons. 

The  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon  were  believed  by  the  orientals 
to  be  caused  by  the  assaults  of  a  daemon  in  dragon-form ;  and  they 
endeavored  to  scare  away  the  intruder  by  shouts  and  menaces. 
This  was  the  original  Leviathan  or  Crooked  Serpent  of  old,  trans- 
fixed in  the  olden  time  by  the  power  of  Jehovah,  and  suspended  as 
a  glittering  trophy  in  the  sky ;  yet  also  the  Power  of  Darkness, 
supposed  to  be  ever  in  pursuit  of  the  Sun  and  Moon.  When  it 
finally  overtakes  them,  it  will  entwine  them  in  its  folds,  and  pre- 
vent their  shining.  In  the  last  Indian  Avatara,  as  in  the  Eddas,  a 
serpent  vomiting  flames  is  expected  to  destroy  the  world.  The 
serpent  presides  over  the  close  of  the  year,  where  it  guards  the  ap- 
proach to  the  golden  fleece  of  Aries,  and  the  three  apples  or  sea- 
sons of  the  Hesperides ;  presenting  a  formidable  obstacle  to  the 
career  of  the  Sun-God.  The  Great  Destroyer  of  snakes  is  occa- 
sionally married  to  them ;  Hercules  with  the  northern  dragon  be- 
gets the  three  ancestors  of  Scythia ;  for  the  Sun  seems  at  one  time 
to  rise  victorious  from  the  contest  with  darkness,  and  at  another  to 
sink  into  its  embraces.  The  northern  constellation  Draco,  whose 
sinuosities  wind  like  a  river  through  the  wintry  bear,  was  made 
the  astronomical  cincture  of  the  Universe,  as  the  serpent  encircles 
the  mundane  egg  in  Egyptian  hieroglyphics. 

The  Persian  Ahriman  was  called  "The  old  serpent,  the  liar  from 
the  beginning,  the  Prince  of  Darkness,  and  the  rover  up  and  down." 
The  Dragon  was  a  well-known  symbol  of  the  waters  and  of  great 
rivers ;  and  it  was  natural  that  by  the  pastoral  Asiatic  Tribes,  the 
powerful  nations  of  the  alluvial  plains  in  their  neighborhood  who 
adored  the  dragon  or  Fish,  should  themselves  be  symbolized  under 
the  form  of  dragons ;  and  overcome  by  the  superior  might  of  the 
Hebrew  God,  as  monstrous  Leviathans  maimed,  and  destroyed  by 
him.  Ophioneus,  in  the  old  Greek  Theology,  warred  against 
Kronos,  and  was  overcome  and  cast  into  his  proper  element,  the 
sea.  There  he  is  installed  as  the  Sea-God  Cannes  or  Dagon,  the 
Leviathan  of  the  watery  half  of  creation,  the  dragon  who  vomited 
a  flood  of  water  after  the  persecuted  woman  of  the  Apocalypse, 
the  monster  who  threatened  to  devour  Hesione  and  Andromeda, 
and  who  for  a  time  became  the  grave  of  Hercules  and  Jonah ;  and 


KNIGHT  OP  THE  BRAZEN  SEKI'ENT. 

he  corresponds  with  the  obscure  name  of  Raliab,  whom  Jehovah 
is  said  in  Job  to  have  transfixed  and  overcome. 

In  the  Spring,  the  year  or  Sun-God  appears  as  Mithras  or 
Europa  mounted  on  the  Bull ;  but  in  the  opposite  half  of  the 
Zodiac  he  rides  the  emblem  of  the  waters,  the  winged  horse  of 
Nestor  or  Poseidon :  and  the  Serpent,  rising  heliacally  at  the 
Autumnal  Equinox,  besetting  with  poisonous  influence  the  cold 
constellation  Sagittarius,  is  explained  as  the  reptile  in  the  path 
who  "bites  the  horse's  heels,  so  that  his  rider  falls  backward." 
The  same  serpent,' the  Cannes  Aphrenos  or  Musaros  of  Syncellus, 
was  the  Midgard  Serpent  which  Odin  sunk  beneath  the  sea,  but 
which  grew  to  such  a  size  as  to  encircle  the  whole  earth. 

For  these  Asiatic  symbols  of  the  contest  of  the  Sun-God  with 
the  Dragon  of  darkness  and  Winter  were  imported  not  only  into 
the  Zodiac,  but  into  the  more  homely  circle  of  European  legend ; 
and  both  Thor  and  Odin  fight  with  dragons,  as  Apollo  did  with 
Python,  the  great  scaly  snake,  Achilles  with  the  Scamander,  and 
Bellerophon  with  the  Chimsera.  In  the  apocryphal  book  of 
Esther,  dragons  herald  "a  day  of  darkness  and  obscurity" ;  and 
St.  George  of  England,  a  problematic  Cappadocian  Prince,  was 
originally  only  a  varying  form  of  Mithras.  Jehovah  is  said  to 
have  "cut  Rahab  and  wounded  the  dragon."  The  latter  is  not 
only  the  type  of  earthly  desolation,  the  dragon  of  the  deep  waters, 
but  also  the  leader  of  the  banded  conspirators  of  the  sky,  of  the 
rebellious  stars,  which,  according  to  Enoch,  "came  not  at  the  right 
time" ;  and  his  tail  drew  a  third  part  of  the  Host  of  Heaven,  and 
cast  them  to  the  earth.  Jehovah  "divided  the  sea  by  his  strength, 
and  broke  the  heads  of  the  Dragons  in  the  waters."  And  accord- 
ing to  the  Jewish  and  Persian  belief,  the  Dragon  would,  in  the 
latter  days,  the  Winter  of  time,  enjoy  a  short  period  of  licensed 
impunity,  which  would  be  a  season  of  the  greatest  suffering  to  the 
people  of  the  earth ;  but  he  would  finally  be  bound  or  destroyed 
in  the  great  battle  of  Messiah ;  or,  as  it  seems  intimated  by  the 
Rabbinical  figure  of  being  eaten  by  the  faithful,  be,  like  Ahriman 
or  Vasouki,  ultimately  absorbed  by  and  united  with  the  Principle 
of  good. 

Near  the  image  of  Rhea,  in  the  Temple  of  Bel  at  Babylon,  were 
two  large  serpents  of  silver,  says  Diodorus,  each  weighing  thirty 
talents ;  and  in  the  same  temple  was  an  image  of  Juno,  holding 
in  her  right  hand  the  head  of  a  serpent.  The  Greeks  called  Bel 


SOQ  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Beliar;  and  Hesychius  interprets  that  word  to  mean  a  dragon  or 
great  serpent.  We  learn  from  the  book  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon, 
that  in  Babylon  was  kept  a  great,  live  serpent,  which  the  people 
worshipped. 

The  Assyrians,  the  Emperors  of  Constantinople,  the  Parthians, 
Scythians,  Saxons,  Chinese,  and  Danes  all  bore  the  serpent  as  a 
standard,  and  among  the  spoils  taken  by  Aurelian  from  Zenobia 
were  such  standards,  Persici  Dracones.  The  Persians  represented 
Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  by  two  serpents,  contending  for  the  mun- 
dane egg.  Mithras  is  represented  with  a  lion's 'head  and 'human 
body,  encircled  by  a  serpent.  In  the  Sadder  is  this  precept: 
"When  you  kill  serpents,  you  will  repeat  the  Zend-Avesta,  and 
thence  you  will  obtain  great  merit ;  for  it  is  the  same  as  if  you 
had  killed  so  many  devils." 

Serpents  encircling  rings  and  globes,  and  issuing  from  globes, 
are  common  in  the  Persian,  Egyptian,  Chinese,  and  Indian  monu- 
ments. Vishnu  is  represented  reposing  on  a  coiled  serpent,  whose 
folds  form  a  canopy  over  him.  Mahadeva  is  represented  with  a 
snake  around  his  neck,  one  around  his  hair,  and  armlets  of  ser- 
pents on  both  arms.  Bhairava  sits  on  the  coils  of  a  serpent,  whose 
head  rises  above  his  own.  Parvati  has  snakes  about  her  neck 
and  waist.  Vishnu  is  the  Preserving  Spirit,  Mahadeva  is  Siva, 
the  Evil  Principle,  Bhairava  is  his  son,  and  Parvati  his  consort. 
The  King  of  Evil  Demons  was  called  in  Hindu  Mythology,  Naga, 
the  King  of  Serpents,  in  which  name  we  trace  the  Hebrew  Nacfa- 
ash,  serpent. 

In  Cashmere  were  seven  hundred  places  where  carved  images  of 
serpents  were  worshipped ;  and  in  Thibet  the  great  Chinese 
Dragon  ornamented  the  Temples  of  the  Grand  Lama.  In  China, 
the  dragon  was  the  stamp  and  symbol  of  royalty,  sculptured  in 
all  the  Temples,  blazoned  on  the  furniture  of  the  houses,  and 
interwoven  with  the  vestments  of  the  chief  nobility.  The  Empe- 
ror bears  it  as  his  armorial  device ;  it  is  engraved  on  his  sceptre 
and  diadem,  and  on  all  the  vases  of  the  imperial  palace.  The 
Chinese  believe  that  there  is  a  dragon  of  extraordinary  strength 
and  sovereign  power,  in  Heaven,  in  the  air,  on  the  waters,  and  on 
the  mountains.  The  God  Fohi  is  said  to  have  had  the  form  of 
a  man,  terminating  in  the  tail  of  a  snake,  a  combination  to  be 
more  fully  explained  to  you  in  a  subsequent  Degree. 

The  dragon  and  serpent  are  the  5th  and  6th  signs  of  the  Chi- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN   SliHJ'KNT.  5Ql 

nese  Zodiac;  and  the  Hindus  and  Chinese  believe  that,  at  every 
eclipse,  the  sun  or  moon  is  seized  by  a  huge  serpent  or  dragon, 
the  serpent  Asootcc  of  the  Hindus,  which  enfolds  the  globe  and 
the  constellation  Draco ;  to  which  also  refers  "the  War  in  Heaven, 
when  Michael  and  his  Angels  fought  against  the  dragon." 

Sanchoniathon  says  that  Taaut  was  the  author  of  the  worship 
of  serpents  among  the  Phoenicians.  He  "consecrated,"  he  says, 
"the  species  of  dragons  and  serpents ;  and  the  Phoenicians  and 
Egyptians  followed  him  in  this  superstition."  He  was  "the  first 
who  made  an  image  of  Coelus" ;  that  is,  who  represented  the 
Heavenly  Hosts  of  Stars  by  visible  symbols;  and  was  probably 
the  same  as  the  Egyptian  Thoth.  On  the  Tyrian  coins  of  the 
age  of  Alexander,  serpents  are  represented  in  many  positions  and 
attitudes,  coiled  around  trees,  erect  in  front  of  altars,  and 
crushed  by  the  Syrian  Hercules. 

The  seventh  letter  of  the  Egyptian  alphabet,  called  Zenta  or 
Life,  was  sacred  to  Thoth,  and  was  expressed  by  a  serpent  stand- 
ing on  his  tail ;  and  that  Deity,  the  God  of  healing,  like  ^scu- 
lapius,  to  whom  the  serpent  was  consecrated,  leans  on  a  knotted 
stick  around  which  coils  a  snake.  The  Isiac  tablet,  describing 
the  Mysteries  of  Isis,  is  charged  with  serpents  in  every  part,  as 
her  emblems.  The  Asp  was  specially  dedicated  to  her,  and  is 
seen  on  the  heads  of  her  statues,  on  the  bonnets  of  her  priests, 
and  on  the  tiaras  of  the  Kings  of  Egypt.  Serapis  was  sometimes 
represented  with  a  human  head  and  serpentine  tail :  and  in  one 
engraving  two  minor  Gods  are  represented  with  him,  one  by  a 
serpent  with  a  bull's  head,  and  the  other  by  a  serpent  with  the 
radiated  head  of  a  lion. 

On  an  ancient  sacrificial  vessel  found  in  Denmark,  having 
several  compartments,  a  serpent  is  represented  attacking  a  kneel- 
ing boy,  pursuing  him,  retreating  before  him,  appealed  to  beseech- 
ingly by  him,  and  conversing  with  him.  We  are  at  once  reminded 
of  the  Sun  at  the  new  year  represented  by  a  child  sitting  on  a 
lotus,  and  of  the  relations  of  the  Sun  of  Spring  with  the  Autum- 
nal Serpent,  pursued  by  and  pursuing  him,  and  in  conjunction 
with  him.  Other  figures  on  this  vessel  belong  to  the  Zodiac. 

The  base  of  the  tripod  of  the  Pythian  Priestess  was  a  triple- 
headed  serpent  of  brass,  whose  body,  folded  in  circles  growing 
wider  and  wider  toward  the  ground,  formed  a  conical  column, 
while  the  three  heads,  disposed  triangularly,  upheld  the  tripod 
33 


5O2  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  gold.  A  similar  column  was  placed  on  a  pillar  in  the  Hippo- 
drome at  Constantinople,  by  the  founder  of  that  city;  one  of  the 
heads  of  which  is  said  to  have  been  broken  off  by  Mahomet  the 
Second,  by  a  blow  with  his  iron  mace. 

The  British  God  Hu  was  called  "The  Dragon — Ruler  of  the 
World,"  and  his  car  was  drawn  by  serpents.  His  ministers  were 
styled  adders.  A  Druid  in  a  poem  of  Taliessin  says,  "I  am  a  Druid, 
I  am  an  Architect,  I  am  a  Prophet,  I  am  a  Serpent  (Gnadi)." 
The  Car  of  the  Goddess  Ceridwen  also  was  drawn  by  serpents. 

In  the  elegy  of  Uther  Pendragon,  this  passage  occurs  in  a  des- 
cription of  the  religious  rites  of  the  Druids  :  "While  the  Sanctu- 
ary is  earnestly  invoking  The  Gliding  King,  before  whom  the  Fair 
One  retreats,  upon  the  evil  that  covers  the  huge  stones ;  whilst 
the  Dragon  moves  round  over  the  places  which  contain  vessels  of 
drink-offering,  whilst  the  drink-offering  is  in  the  Golden  Horns;" 
in  which  we  readily  discover  the  mystic  and  obscure  allusion  to 
the  Autumnal  Serpent  pursuing  the  Sun  along  the  circle  of  the 
Zodiac,  to  the  celestial  cup  or  crater,  and  the  Golden  horns  of 
Virgil's  milk-white  Bull ;  and,  a  line  or  two  further  on,  we  find 
the  Priest  imploring  the  victorious  Bell,  the  Sun-God  of  the 
Babylonians. 

With  the  serpent,  in  the  Ancient  Monuments,  is  very  often 
found  associated  the  Cross.  The  Serpent  upon  a  Cross  was  an 
Egyptian  Standard.  It  occurs  repeatedly  upon  the  Grand  Stair- 
case of  the  Temple  of  Osiris  at  Philse ;  and  on  the  pyramid  of 
Ghizeh  are  represented  two  kneeling  figures  erecting  a  Cross,  on 
the  top  of  which  is  a  serpent  erect.  The  Crux  Ansata  was  a  Cross 
with  a  coiled  Serpent  above  it ;  and  it  is  perhaps  the  most  common 
of  all  emblems  on  the  Egyptian  Monuments,  carried  in  the  hand 
of  almost  every  figure  of  a  Deity  or  a  Priest.  It  was,  as  we  learn 
by  the  monuments,  the  form  of  the  iron  tether-pins,  used  for  mak- 
ing fast  to  the  ground  the  cords  by  which  young  animals  were 
confined :  and  as  used  by  shepherds,  became  a  symbol  of  Royalty 
to  the  Shepherd  Kings. 

A  Cross  like  a  Teutonic  or  Maltese  one,  formed  by  four  curved 
lines  within  a  circle,  is  also  common  on  the  Monuments,  and  rep- 
resented the  Tropics  and  the  Colures. 

The  Caduceus, borne  by  Hermes  or  Mercury,  and  also  by  Cybele. 
Minerva,  Anubis,  Hercules  Ogmius  the  God  of  the  Celts,  and  the 
personified  Constellation  Virgo,  was  a  winged  wand,  entwined  by 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  503 

two  serpents.  It  \vas  originally  a  simple  Cross,  symbolizing  the 
equator  and  equinoctial  Colure,  and  the  four  elements  proceeding 
from  a  common  centre.  This  Cross,  surmounted  by  a  circle,  and 
that  by  a  crescent,  became  an  emblem  of  the  Supreme  Deity — 
or  of  the  active  power  of  generation  and  the  passive  power  of 
production  conjoined, — and  was  appropriated  to  Thoth  or  Mer- 
cury. It  then  assumed  an  improved  form,  the  arms  of  the  Cross 
being  changed  into  wings,  and  the  circle  and  crescent  being  formed 
by  two  snakes,  springing  from  the  wand,  forming  a  circle  by 
crossing  each  other,  and  their  heads  making  the  horns  of  the 
crescent ;  in  which  form  it  is  seen  in  the  hands  of  Anubis. 

The  triple  Tan,  in  the  centre  of  a  circle  and  a  triangle,  typifies 
the  Sacred  Name ;  and  represents  the  Sacred  Triad,  the  Creating, 
Preserving,  and  Destroying  Powers ;  as  well  as  the  three  great 
lights  of  Masonry.  If  to  the  Masonic  point  within  a  Circle,  and 
the  two  parallel  lines,  we  add  the  single  Tau  Cross,  we  have  the 
Ancient  Egyptian  Triple  Tau. 

A  column  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  with  a  circle  over  it,  was  used 
by  the  Egyptians  to  measure  the  increase  of  the  inundations  of 
the  Nile.  The  Tau  and  Triple  Tau  are  found  in  many  Ancient 
Alphabets. 

With  the  Tau  or  the  Triple  Tau  may  be  connected,  within  two 
circles,  the  double  cube,  or  perfection ;  or  the  perfect  ashlar. 

The  Crux  Ansata  is  found  on  the  sculptures  of  Khorsabad ;  on 
the  ivories  from  Nimroud,  of  the  same  age,  carried  by  an  Assyrian 
Monarch ;  and  on  cylinders  of  the  later  Assyrian  period. 

As  the  single  Tau  represents  the  one  God,  so,  no  doubt,  the 
Triple  Tau,  the  origin  of  which  cannot  be  traced,  was  meant  to 
represent  the  Trinity  of  his  attributes,  the  three  Masonic  pillars, 
WISDOM,  STRENGTH ,  and  HARMONY. 

The  Prophet  Ezekiel,  in  the  4th  verse  of  the  9th  chapter,  says: 
"And  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  'Go  through  the  midst  of  the  city, 
through  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  and  mark  the  letter  TAU  upon 
the  foreheads  of  those  that  sigh  and  mourn  for  all  the  abomina- 
tions that  be  done  in  the  midst  thereof/  "  So  the  Latin  Vulgate, 
and  the  probably  most  ancient  copies  of  the  Septuagint  translate 
the  passage.  This  Tau  was  in  the  form  of  the  cross  of  this  De- 
gree, and  it  was  the  emblem  of  life  .and  sal-cation.  The  Samaritan 
Tau  and  the  Ethiopic  Tattv  are  the  evident  prototype  of  the 
Greek  T;  and  we  learn  from  Tertullian,  Origen,  and  St.  Jerome, 


5O4  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

that  the  Hebrew  Tau  was  anciently  written  in  the  form  of  a 
Cross. 

In  ancient  times  the  mark  Tau  was  set  on  those  who  had  been 
acquitted  by  their  judges,  as  a  symbol  of  innocence.  The  military 
commanders  placed  it  on  soldiers  who  escaped  unhurt  from  the 
field  of  battle,  as  a  sign  of  their  safety  under  the  Divine  Pro- 
tection. 

It  was  a  sacred  symbol  among  the  Druids.  Divesting  a  tree  of 
part  of  its  branches,  they  left  it  in  the  shape  of  a  Tau  Cross,  pre- 
served it  carefully,  and  consecrated  it  with  solemn  ceremonies.  On 
the  tree  they  cut  deeply  the  word  THAU,  by  which  they  meant  God. 
On  the  right  arm  of  the  Cross,  they  inscribed  the  word  HESULS, 
on  the  left  BELEX  or  BELENUS,  and  on  the  middle  of  the  trunk 
THARAMIS.  This  represented  the  sacred  Triad. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Indians,  Egyptians,  and  Arabians  paid 
veneration  to  the  sign  of  the  Cross,  thousands  of  years  before  the 
coming  of  Christ.  Everywhere  it  was  a  sacred  symbol.  The 
Hindus  and  the  Celtic  Druids  built  many  of  their  Temples  in  the 
form  of  a  Cross,  as  the  ruins  still  remaining  clearly  show,  and 
particularly  the  ancient  Druidical  Temple  at  Classerniss  in  the 
Island  of  Lewis  in  Scotland.  The  Circle  is  of  12  Stones.  On 
each  of  the  sides,  east,  west,  and  south,  are  three.  In  the  centre 
was  the  image  of  the  Deity ;  and  on  the  north  an  avenue  of  twice 
nineteen  stones,  and  one  at  the  entrance.  The  Supernal  Pagoda 
at  Benares  is  in  the  form  of  a  Cross ;  and  the  Druidical  subterra- 
nean grotto  at  New  Grange  in  Ireland. 

The  Statue  of  Osiris  at  Rome  had  the  same  emblem.  Isis  and 
Ceres  also  bore  it ;  and  the  caverns  of  initiation  were  constructed 
in  that  shape  with  a  pyramid  oyer  the  Saccllum. 

Crosses  were  cut  in  the  stones  of  the  Temple  of  Serapis  in  Al- 
exandria ;  and  many  Tau  Crosses  are  to  be  seen  in  the  sculptures 
of  Alabastion  and  Esne,  in  Egypt.  On  coins,  the  symbol  of  the 
Egyptian  God  Kneph  was  a  Cross  within  a  Circle. 

The  Crux  Ansata  was  the  particular  emblem  of  O-siris.  and  his 
sceptre  ended  with  that  figure.  It  was  also  the  emblem  of  Hermes, 
and  was  considered  a  Sublime  Hieroglyphic, possessing  mysterious 
powers  and  virtues,  as  a  wonder-working  amulet. 

The  Sacred  Tau  occurs  in  the  hands  of  the  mummy-shaped  fig- 
ures between  the  forelegs  of  the  row  of  Sphynxes,  in  the  great 
avenue  leading  from  Luxor  to  Karnac.  By  the  Tau  Cross  the 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  505 

Cabalists  expressed  the  number  10,  a  perfect  number,  denoting 
Heaven,  and  the  Pythagorean  Tetractys,  or  incommunicable  name 
of  God.  The  Tau  Cross  is  also  found  on  the  stones  in  front  of 
the  door  of  the  Temple  of  Amunoth  III,  at  Thebes,  who  reigned 
about  the  time  when  the  Israelites  took  possession  of  Canaan :  and 
the  Egyptian  Priests  carried  it  in  all  the  sacred  processions. 

Tertullian,  who  had  been  initiated,  informs  us  that  the  Tau 
was  inscribed  on  the  forehead  of  every  person  who  had  been  ad- 
mitted into  the  Mysteries  of  Mithras. 

As  the  simple  Tau  represented  Life,  so,  when  the  Circle,  symbol 
of  Eternity,  was  added,  it  represented  Eternal  Life. 

At  the  Initiation  of  a  King,  the  Tau,  as  the  emblem  of  life  and 
key  of  the  Mysteries,  was  impressed  upon  his  lips. 

In  the  Indian  Mysteries,  the  Tau  Cross,  under  the  name  of 
Tiluk,  was  marked  upon  the  body  of  the  candidate,  as  a  sign  that 
he  was  set  apart  for  the  Sacred  Mysteries. 

On  the  upright  tablet  of  the  King,  discovered  at  Nimroud.  are 
the  names  of  thirteen  Great  Gods  (among  which  are  YAV  and 
BEL)  ;  and  the  left-hand  character  of  every  one  is  a  cross  com- 
posed of  two  cuneiform  characters. 

The  Cross  appears  upon  an  Ancient  Phoenician  medal  found  in 
the  ruins  of  Citium ;  on  the  very  ancient  Buddhist  Obelisk  near 
Ferns  in  Ross-shire ;  on  the  Buddhist  Round  Towers  in  Ireland, 
and  upon  the  splendid  obelisk  of  the  same  era  at  Forres  in  Scot- 
land. 

Upon  the  fagade  of  a  temple  at  Kalabche  in  Nubia  are  three 
regal  figures,  each  holding  a  Crux  Ansata. 

Like  the  Subterranean  Mithriatic  Temple  at  New  Grange  in 
Scotland,  the  Pagodas  of  Benares  and  Mathura  were  in  the  form 
of  a  Cross.  Magnificent  Buddhist  Crosses  were  erected,  and  are 
still  standing,  at  Clonmacnoise,  Finglas,  and  Kilcullen  in  Ireland. 
Wherever  the  monuments  of  Buddhism  are  found,  in  India,  Cey- 
lon, or  Ireland,  we  find  the  Cross :  for  Buddha  or  Boudh  was  rep- 
resented to  have  been  crucified. 

All  the  planets  known  to  the  Ancients  were  distinguished  by 
the  Mystic  Cross,  in  conjunction  with  the  solar  or  lunar  symbols; 
Saturn  by  a  cross  over  a  crescent,  Jupiter  by  a  cross  under  a  cres- 
cent, Mars  by  a  cross  resting  obliquely  on  a  circle,  Venus  by  a 
cross  under  a  circle,  and  Mercury  by  a  cross  surmounted  by  a 
circle  and  that  by  a  crescent. 


506  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  Solstices,  Cancer  and  Capricorn,  the  two  Gates  of  Heaven, 
are  the  two  pillars  of  Hercules,  beyond  which  he,  the  Sun,  never 
journeyed :  and  they  still  appear  in  our  Lodges,  as  the  two  great 
columns,  Jachin  and  Boaz,  and  also  as  the  two  parallel  lines  that 
bound  the  circle,  with  a  point  in  the  centre,  emblem  of  the  Sun, 
between  the  two  tropics  of  Cancer  and  Capricorn. 

The  Blazing  Star  in  our  Lodges,  we  have  already  said,  represents 
Sirius,  Anubis,  or  Mercury,  Guardian  and  Guide  of  Souls.  Our 
Ancient  English  brethren  also  considered  it  an  emblem  of  the 
Sun.  In  the  old  Lectures  they  said :  "The  Blazing  Star  or  Glory 
in  the  centre  refers  us  to  that  Grand  Luminary  the  Sun,  which 
enlightens  the  Earth,  and  by  its  genial  influence  dispenses  bless- 
ings to  mankind."  It  is  also  said  in  those  lectures  to  be  an  em- 
blem of  Prudence.  The  word  Pntdentia  means,  in  its  original 
and  fullest  signification,  Foresight:  and  accordingly  the  Blazing 
Star  has  been  regarded  as  an  emblem  of  Omniscience,  or  the  All- 
Seeing  Eye,  which  to  the  Ancients  was  the  Sun. 

Even  the  Dagger  of  the  Elu  of  Nine  is  that  used  in  the  Mys- 
teries of  Mithras ;  which,  with  its  blade  black  and  hilt  white,  was 
an  emblem  of  the  two  principles  of  Light  and  Darkness. 

Isis,  the  same  as  Ceres,  was,  as  we  learn  from  Eratosthenes,  the 
Constellation  Virgo,  represented  by  a  woman  holding  an  ear  of 
wheat.  The  different  emblems  which  accompany  her  in  the  de- 
scription given  by  Apuleius,  a  serpent  on  either  side,  a  golden 
vase,  with  a  serpent  twined  round  the  handle,  and  the  animals 
that  marched  in  procession,  the  bear,  the  ape,  and  Pegasus,  repre- 
sented the  Constellations  that,  rising  with  the  Virgin,  when  on  the 
day  of  the  Vernal  Equinox  she  stood  in  the  Oriental  gate  of 
Heaven,  brilliant  with  the  rays  of  the  full  moon,  seemed  to  march 
in  her  train. 

The  cup,  consecrated  in  the  Mysteries  both  of  Isis  and  Eleusis. 
was  the  Constellation  Crater  or  the  Cup.  The  sacred  vessel  of  the 
Isiac  ceremony  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  Heavens.  The  Olympic 
robe  presented  to  the  Initiate,  a  magnificent  mantle,  covered  with 
figures  of  serpents  and  animals,  and  under  which  were  twelve 
other  sacred  robes,  wherewith  he  was  clothed  in  the  sanctuary, 
alluded  to  the  starry  Heaven  and  the  twelve  signs :  while  the  seven 
preparatory  immersions  in  the  sea  alluded  to  the  seven  spheres, 
through  which  the  soul  plunged,  to  arrive  here  below  and  take  up 
its  abode  in  a  body. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  507 

The  Celestial  Virgin,  during  the  last  three  centuries  that  pre- 
ceded the  Christian  era,  occupied  the  horoscope  or  Oriental  point, 
and  that  gate  of  Heaven  through  which  the  Sun  and  Moon 
ascended  above  the  horizon  at  the  two  equinoxes.  Again  it  occu- 
pied it  at  midnight,  at  the  Winter  Solstice,  the  precise  moment  when 
the  year  commenced.  Thus  it  was  essentially  connected  with  the 
march  of  times  and  seasons,  of  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  and  day 
and  night,  at  the  principal  epochs  of  the  year.  At  the  equinoxes 
were  celebrated  the  greater  and  lesser  Mysteries  of  Ceres.  When 
souls  descended  past  the  Balance,  at  the  moment  when  the  Sun  oc- 
cupied that  point,  the  Virgin  rose  before  him  ;  she  stood  at  the  gates 
of  day  and  opened  them  to  him.  Her  brilliant  Star,  Spica  Virginis, 
and  Arcturus,  in  Bootes,  northwest  of  it,  heralded  his  coming. 
When  he  had  returned  to  the  Vernal  Equinox,  at  the  moment  when 
souls  were  generated,  again  it  was  the  Celestial  Virgin  that  led 
the  march  of  the  signs  of  night ;  and  in  her  stars  came  the  beauti- 
ful full  moon  of  that  month.  Night  and  day  were  in  succession 
introduced  by  her,  when  they  began  to  diminish  in  length ;  and 
souls,  before  arriving  at  the  gates  of  Hell,  were  also  led  by  her. 
In  going  through  these  signs,  they  passed  the  Styx  in  the  8th  De- 
gree of  Libra.  She  was  the  famous  Sibyl  who  initiated  Eneas, 
and  opened  to  him  the  way  to  the  infernal  regions. 

This  peculiar  situation  of  the  Constellation  Virgo,  has  caused  it 
to  enter  into  all  the  sacred  fables  in  regard  to  nature,  under  differ- 
ent names  and  the  most  varied  forms.  It  often  takes  the  name  of 
Isis  or  the  Moon,  which,  when  at  its  full  at  the  Vernal  Equinox. 
was  in  union  with  it  or  beneath  its  feet.  Mercury  (or  Anubis") 
having  his  domicile  and  exaltation  in  the  sign  Virgo,  was,  in  all  the 
sacred  fables  and  Sanctuaries,  the  inseparable  companion  of  Isis, 
without  whose  counsels  she  did  nothing. 

This  relation  between  the  emblems  and  mysterious  recitnls  of  the 
initiations,  and  the  Heavenly  bodies  and  order  of  the  world,  was 
still  more  clear  in  the  Mysteries  of  Mithrns,  adored  as  the  Sun  in 
Asia  Minor,  Cappadocia,  Armenia,  and  Persia,  and  whose  Mys- 
teries went  to  Rome  in  the  time  of  Sylla.  This  is  amply  proved  by 
the  descriptions  we  have  of  the  Mithriac  cave,  in  which  were  fig- 
ured the  two  movements  of  the  Heavens,  that  of  the  fixed  Stars 
and  that  of  the  Planets,  the  Constellations,  the  eight  mystic  gates 
of  the  spheres,  and  the  symbols  of  the  elements.  So  on  a  cele- 
brated monument  of  that  religion,  found  at  Rome,  were  figured, 


508  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  Serpent  or  Hydra  under  Leo,  as  in  the  Heavens,  the  Celestial 
Dog,  the  Bull,  the  Scorpion,  the  Seven  Planets,  represented  by 
seven  altars,  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  emblems  relating  to  Light,  to 
Darkness,  and  to  their  succession  during  the  year,  where  each  in 
turn  triumphs  for  six  months. 

The  Mysteries  of  Atys  were  celebrated  when  the  Sun  entered 
Aries ;  and  among  the  emblems  was  a  ram  at  the  foot  of  a  tree 
which  was  being  cut  down. 

Thus,  if  not  the  whole  truth,  it  is  yet  a  large  part  of  it,  that  the 
Heathen  Pantheon,  in  its  infinite  diversity  of  names  and  personifi- 
cations, was  but  a  multitudinous,  though  in  its  origin  unconscious 
allegory,  of  which  physical  phenomena,  and  principally  the  Heav- 
enly Bodies,  were  the  fundamental  types.  The  glorious  images  of 
Divinity  which  formed  Jehovah's  Host,  were  the  Divine  Dynasty 
or  real  theocracy  which  governed  the  early  world ;  and  the  men  of 
the  golden  age,  whose  looks  held  commerce  with  the  skies,  and  who 
watched  the  radiant  rulers  bringing  Winter  and  Summer  to  mortals, 
might  be  said  with  poetic  truth  to  live  in  immediate  communication 
with  Heaven,  and,  like  the  Hebrew  Patriarchs,  to  see  God  face  to 
face.  Then  the  Gods  introduced  their  own  worship  amongmankind : 
then  Cannes,  Oe  or  Aquarius  rose  from  the  Red  Sea  to  impart 
science  to  the  Babylonians ;  then  the  bright  Bull  legislated  for  In- 
dia and  Crete  ;  and  the  Lights  of  Heaven,  personified  as  Liber  and 
Ceres,  hung  the  Boeotian  hills  with  vineyards,  and  gave  the  golden 
sheaf  to  Eleusis.  The  children  of  men  were,  in  a  sense,  allied  or 
married,  to  those  sons  of  God  who  sang  the  jubilee  of  creation  ;  and 
the  encircling  vault  with  its  countless  Stars,  which  to  the  excited 
imagination  of  the  solitary  Chaldean  wanderer  appeared  as  ani- 
mated intelligences,  might  naturally  be  compared  to  a  gigantic 
ladder,  on  which,  in  their  rising  and  setting,  the  Angel  luminaries 
appeared  to  be  ascending  and  descending  between  earth  and  Heav- 
en. The  original  revelation  died  out  of  men's  memories  ;  they  wor- 
shipped the  Creature  instead  of  the  Creator ;  and  holding  all  earthly 
things  as  connected  by  eternal  links  of  harmony  and  sympathy 
with  the  heavenly  bodies,  they  united  in  one  view  astronomy, 
astrology,  and  religion.  Long  wandering  thus  in  error,  they  at 
length  ceased  to  look  upon  the  Stars  and  external  nature  as  Gods ; 
and  by  directing  their  attention  to  the  microcosm  or  narrower 
world  of  self,  they  again  became  acquainted  with  the  True  Ruler 
and  Guide  of  the  Universe,  and  used  the  old  fables  and  super- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  5OQ 

stitions  as  symbols  and  allegories,  by  which  to  convey  and  under 
which  to  hide  the  great  truths  which  had  faded  out  of  most  men's 
remembrance. 

In  the  Hebrew  writings,  the  term  "Heavenly  Hosts"  includes 
not  only  the  counsellors  and  emissaries  of  Jehovah,  but  also  the 
celestial  luminaries ;  and  the  stars,  imagined  in  the  East  to  be 
animated  intelligences,  presiding  over  human  weal  and  woe,  are 
identified  with  the  more  distinctly  impersonated  messengers  or 
angels,  who  execute  the  Divine  decrees,  and  whose  predominance 
in  Heaven  is  in  myterious  correspondence  and  relation  with 
the  powers  and  dominions  of  the  earth.  In  Job,  the  Morning 
Stars  and  the  Sons  of  God  are  identified;  they  join  in  the  same 
chorus  of  praise  to  the  Almighty ;  they  are  both  susceptible  of 
joy ;  they  walk  in  brightness ;  and  are  liable  to  impurity  and 
imperfection  in  the  sight  of  God.  The  Elohim  originally  included 
not  only  foreign  superstitious  forms,  but  also  all  that  host  of 
Heaven  which  was  revealed  in  poetry  to  the  shepherds  of  the 
desert,  now  as  an  encampment  of  warriors,  now  as  careering  in 
chariots  of  fire,  and  now  as  winged  messengers,  ascending  and 
descending  the  vault  of  Heaven,  to  communicate  the  will  of  God 
to  mankind. 

"The  Eternal,"  says  the  Bereshith  Rabba  to  Genesis,  "called 
forth  Abraham  and  his  posterity  out  of  the  dominion  of  the  stars ; 
by  nature,  the  Israelite  was  a  servant  to  the  stars,  and  born  under 
their  influence,  as  are  the  heathen ;  but  by  virtue  of  the  law 
given  on  Mount  Sinai,  he  became  liberated  from  this  degrading 
servitude."  The  Arabs  had  a  similar  legend.  The  Prophet  Amos 
explicitly  asserts  that  the  Israelites,  in  the  desert,  worshipped,  not 
Jehovah,  but  Moloch,  or  a  Star-God,  equivalent  to  Saturn.  The 
Gods  El  or  Jehovah  were  not  merely  planetary  or  solar.  Their 
symbolism,  like  that  of  every  other  Deity,  was  coextensive  with 
nature,  and  with  the  mind  of  man.  Yet  the  astrological  char- 
acter is  assigned  even  to  Jehovah.  He  is  described  as  seated  on 
the  pinnacle  of  the  Universe,  leading  forth  the  Hosts  of  Heaven, 
and  telling  them  unerringly  by  name  and  number.  His  stars  are 
His  sons  and  His  eyes,  which  run  through  the  whole  world,  keep- 
ing watch  over  men's  deeds.  The  stars  and  planets  were  prop- 
erly the  angels.  In  Pharisaic  tradition,  as  in  the  phraseology  of 
the  New  Testament,  the  Heavenly  Host  appears  as  an  Angelic 
Army,  divided  into  regiments  and  brigades,  under  the  command 


5IO  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  imaginary  chiefs,  such  as  Massaloth,  Legion,  Kartor  Gistra, 
etc., — each  Gistra  being  captain  of  365,000  myriads  of  stars. 
The  Seven  Spirits  which  stand  before  the  throne,  spoken  of  by 
several  Jewish  writers,  and  generally  presumed  to  have  been 
immediately  derived  from  the  Persian  Amshaspands,  were  ulti- , 
mately  the  seven  planetary  intelligences,  the  original  model  of 
the  seven-branched  golden  candlestick  exhibited  to  Moses  on 
God's  mountain.  The  stars  w-ere  imagined  to  have  fought  in 
their  courses  against  Sisera.  The  heavens  were  spoken  of  as  hold- 
ing a  predominance  over  earth,  as  governing  it  by  signs  and  ordi- 
nances, and  as  containing  the  elements  of  that  astrological  wisdom, 
more  especially  cultivated  by  the  Babylonians  and  Egyptians. 

Each  nation  wras  supposed  by  the  Hebrews  to  have  its  own 
guardian  angel,  and  its  own  provincial  star.  One  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  Celestial  Powers,  at  first  Jehovah  Himself  in  the  character 
of  the  Sun,  standing  in  the  height  of  Heaven,  overlooking  and 
governing  all  things,  afterward  one  of  the  angels  or  subordinate 
planetary  genii  of  Babylonian  or  Persian  mythology-,  was  the 
patron  and  protector  of  their  own  nation,  "the  Prince  that  stand- 
eth  for  the  children  of  thy  people."  The  discords  of  earth  were 
accompanied  by  a  warfare  in  the  sky ;  and  no  people  underwent 
the  visitation  of  the  Almighty,  without  a  corresponding  chastise- 
ment being  inflicted  on  its  tutelary  angel. 

The  fallen  Angels  were  also  fallen  Stars ;  and  the  first  allusion 
to  a  feud  among  the  spiritual  powers  in  early  Hebrew  Mythology, 
where  Rahab  and  his  confederates  are  defeated,  like  the  Titans  in 
a  battle  against  the  Gods,  seems  to  identify  the  rebellious  Spirits 
as  part  of  the  visible  Heavens,  where  the  "high  ones  on  high" 
are  punished  or  chained,  as  a  signal  proof  of  God's  power  and 
justice.  God,  it  is  said — 

"Stirs  the  sea  with  His  might — by  His  understanding  He  smote 
Rahab — His  breath  clears  the  face  of  Heaven — His  hand  pierced 
•^e  crooked  Serpent.  .  .  .God  withdraws  not  His  anger;  beneath 
Him  bow  the  confederates  of  Rahab." 

Rahab  always  means  a  sea-monster  :  probably  some  such  legend- 
ary monstrous  dragon,  as  in  almost  all  mythologies  is  the  adver- 
sary of  Heaven  and  demon  of  eclipse,  in  whose  belly,  significantly 
called  the  belly  of  Hell,  Hercules,  like  Jonah,  passed  three  days, 
ultimately  escaping  with  the  loss  of  his  hair  or  rays.  Chesil,  the 
rebellious  giant  Orion,  represented  in  Job  as  riveted  to  the  sky,  was 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN   SEKI'ENT.  $11 

compared  to  Ninus  or  Nimrod,  the  mythical  founder  of  Nineveh 
(City  of  Fish)  the  mighty  hunter,  who  slew  lions  and  panthers 
before  the  Lord.  Rahab's  confederates  are  probably  the  "High 
ones  on  High,"  the  Chesilim  or  constellations  in  Isaiah,  the  Heav- 
enly Host  or  Heavenly  Powers,  among  whose  number  were  found 
folly  and  disobedience. 

"I  beheld,"  says  Pseudo-Enoch,  "seven  stars  like  great  blazing 
mountains,  and  like  Spirits,  entreating  me.  And  the  angel  said, 
This  place,  until  the  consummation  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  will  be 
the  prison  of  the  Stars  and  of  the  Host  of  Heaven.  These  are  the 
Stars  which  overstepped  God's  command  before  their  time  arrived ; 
and  came  not  at  their  proper  season ;  therefore  was  he  offended 
with  them,  and  bound  them,  until  the  time  of  the  consumma- 
tion of  their  crimes  in  the  secret  year."  And  again ;  "These 
Seven  Stars  are  those  which  have  transgressed  the  commandment 
of  the  Most  High  God,  and  which  are  here  bound  until  the 
number  of  the  days  of  their  crimes  be  completed." 

The  Jewish  and  early  Christian  writers  looked  on  the  worship 
of  the  sun  and  the  elements  with  comparative  indulgence.  Justin 
Martyr  and  Clemens  of  Alexandria  admit  that  God  had  appointed 
the  stars  as  legitimate  objects  of  heathen  worship,  in  order  to 
preserve  throughout  the  world  some  tolerable  notions  of  natural 
religion.  It  seemed  a  middle  point  between  Heathenism  and 
Christianity ;  and  to  it  certain  emblems  and  ordinances  of  that 
faith  seemed  to  relate.  The  advent  of  Christ  was  announced  by 
a  Star  from  the  East ;  and  His  nativity  was  celebrated  on  the 
shortest  day  of  the  Julian  Calendar,  the  day  when,  in  the  physical 
commemorations  of  Persiaand  Egypt, Mithras  or  Osiris  was  newly 
found.  It  was  then  that  the  acclamations  of  the  Host  of  Heaven, 
the  unfailing  attendants  of  the  Sun,  surrounded,  as  at  the  spring- 
dawn  of  creation,  the  cradle  of  His  birth-place,  and  that,  in  the 
words  of  Ignatius,  "a  star,  with  light  inexpressible,  shone  forth  in 
the  Heavens,  to  destroy  the  power  of  magic  and  the  bonds  of  wick- 
edness ;  for  God  Himself  had  appeared,  in  the  form  of  man,  for 
the  renewal  of  eternal  life." 

But  however  infinite  the  variety  of  objects  which  helped  to 
develop  the  notion  of  Deity,  and  eventually  assumed  its  place, 
substituting  the  worship  of  the  creature  for  that  of  the  creator: 
of  parts  of  the  body,  for  that  of  the  soul,  of  the  Universe,  still 
the  notion  itself  was  essentially  one  of  unity.  The  idea  of  one 


512  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

God,  of  a  creative,  productive,  governing  unity,  resided  in  the 
earliest  exertion  of  thought:  and  this  monotheism  of  the  primi- 
tive ages,  makes  every  succeeding  epoch,  unless  it  be  the  present, 
appear  only  as  a  stage  in  the  progress  of  degeneracy  and  aberration. 
Everywhere  in  the  old  faiths  we  find  the  idea  of  a  supreme  or  pre- 
siding Deity.  Amun  or  Osiris  presides  among  the  many  gods  of 
Egypt ;  Pan,  with  the  music  of  his  pipe,  directs  the  chorus  of  the 
constellations,  as  Zeus  leads  the  solemn  procession  of  the  celestial 
troops  in  the  astronomical  theology  of  the  Pythagoreans.  "Amidst 
an  infinite  diversity  of  opinions  on  all  other  subjects,"  says  Max- 
imus  Tyrius,  "the  whole  world  is  unanimous  in  the  belief  of  one 
only  almighty  King  and  Father  of  all." 

There  is  always  a  Sovereign  Power,  a  Zeus  or  Deus,  Mahadeva  or 
Adideva,  to  whom  belongs  the  maintenance  of  the  order  of  the 
Universe.  Among  the  thousand  gods  of  India,  the  doctrine  of 
Divine  Unity  is  never  lost  sight  of;  and  the  ethereal  Jove,  wor- 
shipped by  the  Persian  in  an  age  long  before  Xenophanes  or  Anax- 
agoras,  appears  as  supremely  comprehensive  and  independent  of 
planetary  or  elemental  subdivisions,  as  the  "Vast  One"  or  "Great 
Soul"  of  the  Vedas. 

But  the  simplicity  of  belief  of  the  patriarchs  did  not  exclude 
the  employment  of  symbolical  representations.  The  mind  never 
rests  satisfied  with  a  mere  feeling.  That  feeling  ever  strives  to 
assume  precision  and  durability  as  an  idea,  by  some  outward  delin- 
eation of  its  thought.  Even  the  ideas  that  are  above  and  beyond 
the  senses,  as  all  ideas  of  God  are,  require  the  aid  of  the  senses 
for  their  expression  and  communication.  Hence  come  the  repre- 
sentative forms  and  symbols  which  constitute  the  external  investi- 
ture of  every  religion  ;  attempts  to  express  a  religious  sentiment  that 
is  essentially  one,  and  that  vainly  struggles  for  adequate  external 
utterance,  striving  to  tell  to  one  man,  to  paint  to  him,  an  idea 
existing  in  the  mind  of  another,  and  essentially  incapable  of  utter- 
ance or  description,  in  a  language  all  the  wrords  of  which  have  a 
sensuous  meaning.  Thus,  the  idea  being  perhaps  the  same  in  all, 
its  expressions  and  utterances  are  infinitely  various,  and  branch 
into  an  infinite  diversity  of  creeds  and  sects. 

All  religions  expression  is  symbolism ;  since  we  can  describe 
only  what  we  see;  and  the  true  objects  of  religion  are  unseen. 
The  earliest  instruments  of  education  were  symbols ;  and  they 
And  all  other  religious  forms  differed  and  still  rKfl^r  according  to 


kNIGHT   OF   THE   BRAZEN    SERPENT. 

external  circumstances  and  imagery,  and  according  to  differences 
of  knowledge  and  mental  cultivation.  To  present  a  visible  sym- 
bol to  the  eye  of  another  is  not  to  inform  him  of  the  meaning 
which  that  symbol  has  to  you.  Hence  the  philosopher  soon  super- 
added  to  these  symbols,  explanations  addressed  to  the  ear,  suscep- 
tible of  more  precision,  but  less  effective,  obvious,  and  impressive 
than  the  painted  or  sculptured  forms  which  he  despised.  Out  of 
these  explanations  grew  by  degrees  a  variety  of  narratives,  whose 
true  object  and  meaning  were  gradually  forgotten.  And  when 
these  were  abandoned,  and  philosophy  resorted  to  definitions  and 
formulas,  its  language  was  but  a  more  refined  symbolism,  grap- 
pling with  and  attempting  to  picture  ideas  impossible  to  be  ex- 
pressed. For  the  most  abstract  expression  for  Deity  which  lan- 
guage can  supply,  is  but  a  sign  or  symbol  for  an  object  unknown, 
ind  no  more  truthful  and  adequate  than  the  terms  Osiris  and 
Vishnu,  except  as  being  less  sensuous  and  explicit.  To  say  that 
He  is  a  Spirit,  is  but  to  say  that  He  is  not  matter.  What  spirit  is, 
we  can  only  define  as  the  Ancients  did,  by  resorting,  as  if  in  des- 
pair, to  some  sublimized  species  of  matter,  as  Light,  Fire,  or  Ether. 

No  symbol  of  Deity  can  be  appropriate  or  durable  except  in  a 
relative  or  moral  sense.  We  cannot  exalt  words  that  have  only  a 
sensuous  meaning,  above  sense.  To  call  Him  a  Power  or  a  Force, 
or  an  Intelligence,  is  merely  to  deceive  ourselves  into  the  belief 
that  we  use  words  that  have  a  meaning  to  us,  when  they  have 
none,  or  at  least  no  more  than  the  ancient  visible  symbols  had. 
To  call  Him  Sovereign,  Father,  Grand  Architect  of  the  Universe, 
Extension,  Time,  Beginning,  Middle,  and  End,  whose  face  is 
turned  on  all  sides,  the  Source  of  life  and  death,  is  but  to  present 
other  men  with  symbols  by  which  we  vainly  endeavor  to  com- 
municate to  them  the  same  vague  ideas  which  men  in  all  ages  have 
impotently  struggled  to  express.  And  it  may  be  doubted  whether  we 
have  succeeded  either  in  communicating,  or  in  forming  in  our  own 
minds,  any  more  distinct  and  definite  and  true  and  adequate  idea 
of  the  Deity,  with  all  our  metaphysical  conceits  and  logical  sub- 
tleties, than  the  rude  ancients  did,  who  endeavored  to  symbolize 
and  so  to  express  His  attributes,  by  the  Fire,  the  Light,  the  Sun 
and  Stars,  the  Lotus  and  the  Scaraba?us :  all  of  them  types  of 
what,  except  by  types,  more  or  less  sufficient,  could  not  be  ex- 
pressed at  all. 

The  primitive  man  recognized  the  Divine  Presence  under  a  va- 


514  MORALS  AND  boGMA. 

riety  of  appearances,  without  losing  his  faith  in  this  unity  and 
Supremacy.  The  invisible  God,  manifested  and  on  one  of  His 
many  sides  visible,  did  not  cease  to  be  God  to  him.  He  recognized 
Him  in  the  evening  breeze  of  Eden,  in  the  whirlwind  of  Sinai,  in 
the  Stone  of  Beth-El:  and  identified  Him  with  the  fire  or  thun- 
der or  the  immovable  rock  adored  in  Ancient  Arabia.  To  him  the 
image  of  the  Deity  was  reflected  in  all  that  was  pre-eminent  in 
excellence.  He  saw  Jehovah,  like  Osiris  and  Bel,  in  the  Sun  as 
well  as  in  the  Stars,  which  were  His  children,  His  eyes,  "which  run 
through  the  whole  world,  and  watch  over  the  Sacred  Soil  of  Pal- 
estine, from  the  year's  commencement  to  its  close."  He  was  the 
sacred  fire  of  Mount  Sinai,  of  the  burning  bush,  of  the  Persians, 
those  Puritans  of  Paganism. 

Naturally  it  followed  that  Symbolism  soon  became  more  compli- 
cated, and  all  the  powers  of  Heaven  were  re-produced  On  earth, 
until  a  web  of  fiction  and  allegory  was  woven,  which  the  wit  of 
man,  with  his  limited  means  of  explanation,  will  never  unravel. 
Hebrew  Theism  itself  became  involved  in  symbolism  and  image- 
worship,  to  which  all  religions  ever  tend.  We  have  already  seen 
what  \vas  the  symbolism  of  the  Tabernacle,  the  Temple,  and  the 
Ark.  The  Hebrew  establishment  tolerated  not  only  the  use  of 
emblematic  vessels,  vestments,  and  cherubs,  of  Sacred  Pillars  and 
Seraphim,  but  symbolical  representations  of  Jehovah  Himself,  not 
even  confined  to  poetical  or  illustrative  language. 

"Among  the  Adityas,"  says  Chrishna,  in  the  Bagvat  Ghita,  "I 
am  Vishnu,  the  radiant  Sun  among  the  Stars ;  among  the  waters, 
I  am  ocean ;  among  the  mountains,  the  Himalaya ;  and  among 
the  mountain-tops,  Meru."  The  Psalms  and  Isaiah  are  full  of 
similar  attempts  to  convey  to  the  mind  ideas  of  God,  by  ascribing 
to  Him  sensual  proportions.  He  rides  on  the  clouds,  and  sits  on 
the  wings  of  the  wind.  Heaven  is  His  pavilion,  and  out  of  His 
mouth  issue  lightnings.  Men  cannot  worship  a  mere  abstraction. 
They  require  some  outward  form  in  which  to  clothe  their  concep- 
tions, and  invest  their  sympathies.  If  they  do  not  shape  and 
carve  or  paint  visible  images,  they  have  invisible  ones,  perhaps 
quite  as  inadequate  and  unfaithful,  within  their  own  minds. 

The  incongruous  and  monstrous  in  the  Oriental  images  came 
from  the  desire  to  embody  the  Infinite,  and  to  convey  by  multi- 
plied, because  individually  inadequate  symbols,  a  notion  of  the 
Divine  Attributes  to  the  understanding.  Perhaps  we  should  find 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  515 

that  we  mentally  do  the  same  thing,  and  make  within  ourselves 
images  quite  as  incongruous,  if  judged  of  by  our  own  limited  con- 
ceptions, if  we  were  to  undertake  to  analyze  and  gain  a  clear  idea 
of  the  mass  of  infinite  attributes  which  we  assign  to  the  Deity ; 
and  even  of  His  infinite  Justice  and  infinite  Mercy  and  Love. 

We  may  well  say,  in  the  language  of  Maximus  Tyrius :  "If,  in 
the  desire  to  obtain  some  faint  conception  of  the  Universal  Father, 
the  Nameless  Lawgiver,  men  had  recourse  to  words  or  names,  to 
silver  or  gold,  to  animals  or  plants,  to  mountain-tops  or  flowing 
rivers,  every  one  inscribing  the  most  valued  and  most  beautiful 
things  with  the  name  of  Deity,  and  with  the  fondness  of  a  lover 
clinging  with  rapture  to  each  trivial  reminiscence  of  the  Beloved, 
why  should  we  seek  to  reduce  this  universal  practice  of  symbol- 
ism, necessary,  indeed,  since  the  mind  often  needs  the  excitement 
of  the  imagination  to  rouse  it  into  activity,  to  one  monotonous 
standard  of  formal  propriety?  Only  let  the  image  duly  perform 
its  task,  and  bring  the  divine  idea  with  vividness  and  truth  before 
the  mental  eye ;  if  this  be  effected,  whether  by  the  art  of  Phidias, 
the  poetry  of  Homer,  the  Egyptian  Hieroglyph,  or  the  Persian 
element,  we  need  not  cavil  at  external  differences,  or  lament  the 
seeming  fertility  of  unfamiliar  creeds, so  long  as  the  great  essential 
is  attained,  THAT  MEN  ARE  MADE  TO  REMEMBER,  TO  UNDERSTAND, 

AND  TO  LOVE/' 

Certainly,  when  men  regarded  Light  and  Fire  as  something 
spiritual,  and  above  all  the  corruptions  and  exempt  from  all  the 
decay  of  matter ;  when  they  looked  upon  the  Sun  and  Stars  and 
Planets  as  composed  of  this  finer  element,  and  as  themselves 
great  and  mysterious  Intelligences,  infinitely  superior  to  man, 
living  Existences,  gifted  with  mighty  powers  and  wielding  vast 
influences,  those  elements  and  bodies  conveyed  to  them,  when 
used  as  symbols  of  Deity,  a  far  more  adequate  idea  than  they  can 
now  do  to  us,  or  than  we  can  comprehend,  now  that  Fire  and 
Light  are  familiar  to  us  as  air  and  water,  and  the  Heavenly  Lu- 
minaries are  lifeless  worlds  like  our  own.  Perhaps  they  gave 
them  ideas  as  adequate  as  we  obtain  from  the  mere  words  by 
which  we  endeavor  to  symbolize  and  shadow  forth  the  ineffable 
mysteries  and  infinite  attributes  of  God. 

There  are,  it  is  true,  dangers  inseparable  from  svmbolism.  which 
countervail  its  advantages,  and  affoid  an  impressive  lesson  i ft  re- 
gard to  the  similar  risks  attendant  on  the  use  of  language.  The 


516  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

imagination,  invited  to  assist  the  reason,  usurps  its  place,  or  leaves 
its  ally  helplessly  entangled  in  its  web.  Names  which  stand  for 
things  are  confounded  with  them ;  the  means  are  mistaken  for 
the  end:  the  instrument  of  interpretation  for  the  object;  and 
thus  symbols  come  to  usurp  an  independent  character  as  truths 
and  persons.  Though  perhaps  a  necessary  path,  they  were  a  dan- 
gerous one  by  which  to  approach  the  Deity ;  in  which  "many," 
says  Plutarch,  "mistaking  the  sign  for  the  thing  signified,  fell  into 
a  ridiculous  superstition ;  while  others,  in  avoiding  one  extreme, 
plunged  into  the  no  less  hideous  gulf  of  irreligion  and  impiety." 

All  great  Reformers  have  warred  against  this  evil,  deeply  feel- 
ing the  intellectual  mischief  arising  out  of  ?  degraded  idea  of  the 
Supreme  Being :  and  have  claimed  for  their  own  God  an  existence 
or  personality  distinct  from  the  objects  of  ancient  superstition; 
disowning  in  His  name  the  symbols  and  images  that  had  profaned 
His  Temple.  But  they  have  not  seen  that  the  utmost  which  can 
be  effected  by  human  effort,  is  to  substitute  impressions  relatively 
correct,  for  others  whose  falsehood  has  been  detected,  and  to  re- 
place a  gross  symbolism  by  a  purer  one.  Every  man,  without 
being  aware  of  it,  worships  a  conception  of  his  own  mind ;  for  all 
symbolism,  as  well  as  all  language,  shares  the  subjective  character 
of  the  ideas  it  represents.  The  epithets  we  apply  to  God  only 
recall  either  visible  or  intellectual  symbols  to  the  eye  or  mind. 
The  modes  or  forms  of  manifestation  of  the  reverential  feeling 
that  constitutes  the  religious  sentiment,  are  incomplete  and  pro- 
gressive ;  each  term  and  symbol  predicates  a  partial  truth,  remain- 
ing always  amenable  to  improvement  or  modification,  and,  in  its 
turn,  to  be  superseded  by  others  more  accurate  and  comprehensive. 

Idolatry  consists  in  confounding  the  symbol  with  the  thing  sig- 
nified, the  substitution  of  a  material  for  a  mental  object  of  wor- 
ship, after  a  higher  spiritualism  has  become  possible ;  an  ill- 
judged  preference  of  the  inferior  to  the  superior  symbol,  an 
inadequate  and  sensual  conception  of  the  Deity :  and  every  reli- 
gion and  every  conception  of  God  is  idolatrous,  in  so  far  as  it  is 
imperfect,  and  as  it  substitutes  a  feeble  and  temporary  idea  in  the 
shrine  of  that  Undiscoverable  Being  who  can  be  known  only  in 
part,  and  who  can  therefore  be  honored,  even  by  the  most  enlight- 
ened among  His  worshippers,  only  in  proportion  to  their  limited 
powers  of  understanding  and  imagining  to  themselves  His  perfec- 
tions. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  517 

Like  the  belief  in  a  Deity,  the  belief  in  the  soul's  immortality  is 
rather  a  natural  feeling,  an  adjunct  of  self-consciousness,  than  a 
dogma  belonging  to  any  particular  age  or  country.  It  gives  eternity 
to  man's  nature,  and  reconciles  its  seeming  anomalies  and  contra- 
dictions; it  makes  him  strong  in  weakness  andperfectable  in  imper- 
fection ;  and  it  alone  gives  an  adequate  object  for  his  hopes  and 
energies,  and  value  and  dignity  to  his  pursuits.  It  is  concurrent 
with  the  belief  in  an  infinite,  eternal  Spirit,  since  it  is  chiefly 
through  consciousness  of  the  dignity  of  the  mind  within  us,  that 
we  learn  to  appreciate  its  evidences  in  the  Universe. 

To  fortify,  and  as  far  as -possible  to  impart  this  hope,  was  the 
great  aim  of  ancient  wisdom, whether  expressed  in  forms  of  poetry 
or  philosophy ;  as  it  was  of  the  Mysteries,  and  as  it  is  of  Masonry. 
Life  rising  out  of  death  was  the  great  mystery,  which  symbolism 
delighted  to  represent  under  a  thousand  ingenious  forms.  Nature 
was  ransacked  for  attestations  to  the  grand  truth  which  seems  to 
transcend  all  other  gifts  of  imagination,  or  rather  to  be  their  es- 
sence and  consummation.  Such  evidences  were  easily  discovered. 
They  were  found  in  the  olive  and  the  lotus,  in  the  evergreen  myrtle 
of  the  Mystce  and  of  the  grave  of  Polydorus,  in  the  deadly  but  self- 
renewing  serpent,  the  wonderful  moth  emerging  from  the  coffin  of 
the  worm,  the  phenomena  of  germination,  the  settings  and  risings 
of  the  sun  and  stars,  the  darkening  and  growth  of  the  moon,  and  in 
sleep,  "the  minor  mystery  of  death." 

The  stories  of  the  birth  of  Apollo  from  Latona,  and  of  dead 
herces,  like  Glaucus,  resuscitated  in  caves,  were  allegories  of  the 
natural  alternations  of  life  and  death  in  nature,  changes  that  are 
but  expedients  to  preserve  her  virginity  and  purity  inviolable  in  the 
general  sum  of  her  operations,  whose  aggregate  presents  only  a 
majestic  calm,  rebuking  alike  man's  presumption  and  his  despair. 
The  typical  death  of  the  Nature-God,  Osiris,  Atys,  Adonis,  Hiram, 
was  a  profound  but  consolatory  mystery :  the  healing  charms  of 
Orpheus  were  connected  with  his  destruction  ;  and  his  bones,  those 
valued  pledges  of  fertility  and  victory,  \vere,  by  a  beautiful  contri- 
vance, often  buried  within  the  sacred  precincts  of  his  immortal 
equivalent. 

In  their  doctrines  as  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  Greek 

Philosophers  merely  stated  with  more  precision  ideas  long  before 

extant  independently  among  themselves,  in  the  form  of  symbolical 

suggestion.    Egypt  and  Ethiopia  in  these  matters  learned  from 

u 


5l8  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

India,  where,  as  everywhere  else,  the  origin  of  the  doctrine  was  as 
remote  and  untraceable  as  the  origin  of  man  himself.  Its  natural 
expression  is  found  in  the  language  of  Chrishna,  in  the  Bagvat 
Ghita :  "I  myself  never  was  non-existent,  nor  thou,nor  these  princes 
of  the  Earth ;  nor  shall  we  ever  hereafter  cease  to  be.  .  .  The 
soul  is  not  a  thing  of  which  a  man  may  say,  it  hath  been,  or  is  about 
to  be,  or  is  to  be  hereafter ;  for  it  is  a  thing  without  birth ;  it  is 
pre-existent,  changeless,  eternal,  and  is  not  to  be  destroyed  with 
this  mortal  frame." 

According  to  the  dogma  of  antiquity,  the  thronging  forms  of  life 
are  a  series  of  purifying  migrations,  through  which  the  divine 
principle  re-ascends  to  the  unity  of  its  source.  Inebriated  in  the 
bowl  of  Dionusos,  and  dazzled  in  the  mirror  of  existence,  the  souls, 
those  fragments  or  sparks  of  the  Universal  Intelligence,  forgot  their 
native  dignity,  and  passed  into  the  terrestrial  frames  they  coveted. 
The  most  usual  type  of  the  spirit's  descent  was  suggested  by  the 
sinkingof  theSun  andStars  from  the  upper  to  the  lower  hemisphere. 
When  it  arrived  within  the  portals  of  the  proper  empire  of  Dionusos, 
the  God  of  this  World,  the  scene  of  delusion  and  change,  its  indi- 
viduality became  clothed  in  a  material  form;  and  as  individual 
bodies  were  compared  to  a  garment,  the  world  was  the  investiture 
of  the  Universal  Spirit.  Again,  the  body  was  compared  to  a  vase  or 
urn,  the  soul's  recipient ;  the  world  being  the  mighty  bowl  which 
received  the  descending  Deity.  In  another  image,  ancient  as  the 
Grottoes  of  the  Magi  and  the  denunciations  of  Ezekiel,  the  world 
was  as  a  dimly  illuminated  cavern,  where  shadows  seem  realities, 
and  where  the  soul  becomes  forgetful  of  its  celestial  origin  in  pro- 
portion to  its  proneness  to  material  fascinations.  By  another,  the 
period  of  the  Soul's  embodiment  is  as  when  exhalations  are  con- 
densed, and  the  aerial  element  assumes  the  grosser  form  of  water. 

But  if  vapor  .'alls  in  water,  it  was  held,  water  is  again  the  birth 
of  vapors,  which  ascend  and  adorn  the  Heavens.  If  our  mortal 
existence  be  the  death  of  the  spirit,  our  death  may  be  the  renewal 
of  its  life ;  as  physical  bodies  are  exalted  from  earth  to  water,  from 
water  to  air,  from  air  to  fire,  so  the  man  may  rise  into  the  Hero,  the 
Hero  into  the  God.  In  the  course  of  Nature,  the  soul,  to  recover  its 
lost  estate,  must  pass  through  a  series  of  trials  and  migrations. 
The  scene  of  those  trials  is  the  Grand  Sanctuary  of  Initiations,  the 
world :  their  primary  agents  are  the  elements ;  and  Dionusos,  as 
Sovereign  of  Nature,  or  the  sensuous  world  personified,  is  official 


KNIGHT    OF    THE    BRAZEN    SERPENT.  S19 

Arbiter  of  the  Mysteries,  and  guide  of  the  soul,  which  he  introduces 
into  the  body  and  dismisses  from  it.  He  is  the  Sun,  that  liberator 
of  the  elements,  and  his  spiritual  mediation  was  suggested  by  the 
same  imagery  which  made  the  Zodiac  the  supposed  path  of  the 
spirits  in  their  descent  and  their  return,  and  Cancer  and  Capricorn 
the  gates  through  which  they  passed. 

He  was  not  only  Creator  of  the  World,  but  guardian,  liberator, 
and  Saviour  of  the  Soul.  Ushered  into  the  world  amidst  lightning 
and  thunder,  he  became  the  Liberator  celebrated  in  the  Mysteries 
of  Thebes,  delivering  earth  from  Winter's  chain,  conducting  the 
nightly  chorus  of  the  Stars  and  the  celestial  revolution  of  the 
year.  His  symbolism  was  the  inexhaustible  imagery  employed  to 
fill  up  the  stellar  devices  of  the  Zodiac :  he  was  the  Vernal  Bull, 
the  Lion,  the  Ram,  the  Autumnal  Goat,  the  Serpent :  in  short,  the 
varied  Deity,  the  resulting  manifestation  personified,  the  all  in  the 
many,  the  varied  year,  life  passing  into  innumerable  forms ; 
essentially  inferior  to  none,  yet  changing  with  the  seasons,  and 
undergoing  their  periodical  decay. 

He  mediates  and  intercedes  for  man,  and  reconciles  the  Uni- 
versal Unseen  Mind  with  the  individualized  spirit  of  which  he  is 
emphatically  the  Perfecter ;  a  consummation  which  he  effects,  first 
through  the  vicissitudes  of  the  elemental  ordeal,  the  alternate  fire 
of  Summer  and  the  showers  of  Winter,  ''the  trials  or  test  of 
an  immortal  Nature";  and  secondarily  and  symbolically  through 
the  Mysteries.  He  holds  not  only  the  cup  of  generation,  but  also 
that  of  wisdom  or  initiation,  whose  influence  is  contrary  to  that 
of  the  former,  causing  the  soul  to  abhor  its  material  bonds,  and  to 
long  for  its  return.  The  first  was  the  Cup  of  Forgetfulness ; 
while  the  second  is  the  Urn  of  Aquarius,  quaffed  by  the  returning 
spirit,  as  by  the  returning  Sun  at  the  Winter  Solstice,  and  emblem- 
atic of  the  exchange  of  worldly  impressions  for  the  recovered 
recollections  of  the  glorious  sights  and  enjoyments  of  its  pre- 
existence.  Water  nourishes  and  purifies ;  and  the  urn  from  which 
it  flows  was  thought  worthy  to  be  a  symbol  of  Deity,  as  of  the 
Osiris-Canobus  who  with  living  water  irrigated  the  soil  of  Egypt ; 
and  also  an  emblem  of  Hope  that  should  cheer  the  dwellings  of 
the  de^d. 

The  second  birth  of  Dionusos,  like  the  rising  of  Osiris  and  Atys 
from  the  dead,  and  the  raising  of  Khurum,is  a  type  of  the  spiritual 
regeneration  of  man.  Psyche  (the  Soul),  like  Ariadne,  had  two 


52O  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

lovers,  an  earthly  and  an  immortal  one.  The  immortal  suitor  is 
Dionusos,  the  Eros-Phanes  cf  the  Orphici,  gradually  exalted  by 
the  progress  of  thought,  out  of  the  symbol  of  Sensuality  into  the 
torch-bearer  of  the  Nuptials  of  the  Gods ;  the  Divine  Influence 
which  physically  called  the  world  into  being,  and  which,  awaken- 
ing the  soul  from  its  Stygian  trance,  restores  it  from  earth  to 
Heaven. 

Thus  the  scientific  theories  of  the  ancients,  expounded  in  the 
Mysteries,  as  to  the  origin  of  the  soul,  its  descent,  its  sojourn  here 
below,  and  its  return,  wrere  not  a  mere  barren  contemplation  of 
the  nature  of  the  world,  and  of  the  intelligent  beings  existing  there. 
They  were  not  an  idle  speculation  as  to  the  order  of  the  world, 
and  about  the  soul,  but  a  study  of  the  means  for  arriving  at  the 
great  object  proposed, — the  perfecting  of  the  soul;  and,  as  a 
necessary  consequence,  that  of  morals  and  society.  This  Earth,  to 
them,  was  not  the  Soul's  home,  but  its  place  of  exile.  Heaven 
was  its  home,  &nd  there  was  its  birth-place.  To  it,  it  ought  inces- 
santly to  turn  its  eyes.  Man  was  not  a  terrestrial  plant.  His  roots 
were  in  Heaven.  The  soul  had  lost  its  wings,  clogged  by  the 
viscosity  of  matter.  It  would  recover  them  when  it  extricated 
itself  from  matter  and  commenced  its  upward  flight. 

Matter  being,  in  their  view,  as  it  was  in  that  of  St.  Paul,  the 
principle  of  all  the  passions  that  trouble  reason,  mislead  the 
intelligence,  and  stain  the  purity  of  the  soul,  the  Mysteries  taught 
man  how  to  enfeeble  the  action  of  matter  on  the  soul,  and  to 
restore  to  the  latter  its  natural  dominion.  And  lest  the  stains 
so  contracted  should  continue  after  death,  lustrations  were  use  1. 
fastings,  expiations,  macerations,  continence,  and  above  all,  initia- 
tions. Many  of  these  practices  were  at  first  merely  symbolical. — 
material  signs  indicating  the  moral  purity  required  of  the  Initiates ; 
but  they  afterward  came  to  be  regarded  as  actual  productive 
causes  of  that  purity. 

The  effect  of  initiation  was  meant  to  be  the  same  as  that  of 
philosophy,  to  purify  the  soul  of  its  passions,  to  weaken  the 
empire  of  the  body  over  the  divine  portion  of  man,  and  to  give 
him  here  belowr  a  hap'  iness  ?nticipatory  of  the  felicity  to  be  one 
day  enjoyed  by  him,  and  of  the  future  vision  by  him  of  the  Divine 
Beings.  And  therefore  Proclus  and  the  other  Platonists  taught 
"that  the  Mysteries  and  initiations  withdrew  souls  from  this  mor- 
tal and  material  life,  to  re-unite  them  to  the  gods ;  and  dissipated 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN   SERPENT.  521 

for  the  adepts  the  shades  of  ignorance  by  the  splendors  of  the 
Deity."  Such  were  the  precious  fruits  of  the  last  Degree  of  the 
Mystic  Science, — to  see  Nature  in  her  springs  and  sources,  and  to 
become  familiar  with  the  causes  of  things  and  with  real  existences. 

Cicero  says  that  the  soul  must  exercise  itself  in  the  practice  of 
the  virtues,  if  it  would  speedily  return  to  its  place  of  origin.  It 
should,  while  imprisoned  in  the  body,  free  itself  therefrom  by  the 
contemplation  of  superior  beings,  and  in  some  sort  be  divorced 
from  the  body  and  the  senses.  Those  who  remain  enslaved,  sub- 
jugated by  their  passions  and  violating  the  sacred  laws  of  religion 
and  society,  will  re-ascend  to  Heaven,  only  after  they  shall  have 
been  purified  through  a  long  succession  of  ages. 

The  Initiate  was  required  to  emancipate  himself  from  his  pas- 
sions, and  to  free  himself  from  the  hindrances  of  the  senses  and 
of  matter,  in  order  that  he  might  rise  to  the  contemplation  of 
the  Deity,  or  of  that  incorporeal  and  unchanging  light  in  which 
live  and  subsist  the  causes  of  created  natures.  "We  must,"  says 
Porphyry,  "flee  from  everything  sensual,  that  the  soul  may  with 
ease  re-unite  itself  with  God,  and  live  happily  with  Him."  "This 
is  the  great  work  of  initiation,"  says  Hierocles, — "to  recall  the 
soul  to  what  is  truly  good  and  beautiful,  and  make  it  familiar 
therewith,  and  they  its  own;  to  deliver  it  from  the  pains  and  ills 
it  endures  here  below,  enchained  in  matter  as  in  a  dark  prison ; 
to  facilitate  its  return  to  the  celestial  splendors,  and  to  establish  it 
in  the  Fortunate  Isles,  by  restoring  it  to  its  first  estate.  Thereby, 
when  the  hour  of  death  arrives,  the  soul,  freed  of  its  mortal  gar- 
menting, which  it  leaves  behind  it  as  a  legacy  to  earth,  will  rise 
buoyantly  to  its  home  among  the  Stars,  there  to  re-take  its  ancient 
condition,  and  approach  toward  the  Divine  nature  as  far  as  man 
may  do." 

Plutarch  compares  Isis  to  knowledge,  and  Typhon  to  ignorance, 
obscuring  the  light  of  the  sacred  doctrine  whose  blaze  lights  the 
soul  of  the  Initiate.  No  gift  of  the  gods,  he  holds,  is  so  precious 
as  the  knowledge  of  the  Truth,  and  that  of  the  Nature  of  the 
gods,  so  far  as  our  limited  capacities  allow  us  to  rise  toward 
them.  The  Valentinians  termed  initiation  LIGHT.  The  Initiate, 
says  Psellus,  becomes  an  Epopt,  when  admitted  to  see  THE  DIVINE 
LIGHTS.  Clemens  of  Alexandria,  imitating  the  language  of  an 
Initiate  in  the  Mysteries  of  Bacchus,  and  inviting  this  Initiate, 
whom  he  terms  blind  like  Tiresias,  to  come  to  see  Christ.  Who  will 


522  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

blaze  upon  his  eyes  with  greater  glory  than  the  Sun,  exclaims : 
"Oh  Mysteries  most  truly  holy!  Oh  pure  Light!  When  the 
torch  of  the  Dadoukos  gleams,  Heaven  and  th;.  Deity  are  displayed 
to  my  eyes!  I  am  initiated,  and  become  holy!"  This  was  the 
true  object  of  initiation;  to  be  sanctified,  and  TO  SEE,  that  is,  to 
have  just  and  faithful  conceptions  of  the  Deity,  the  knowledge  of 
Whom  was  THE  LIGHT  of  the  Mysteries.  It  was  promised  the 
Initiate  at  Samothrace,  that  he  should  become  pure  and  just. 
Clemens  says  that  by  baptism,  souls  are  illuminated,  and  led  to 
the  pure  light  with  which  mingles  no  darkness,  nor  anything  mate- 
rial. The  Initiate,  become  an  Epopt,  was  called  A  SEER.  "HAIL, 
NEW-BORN  LIGHT  !"  the  Initiates  cried  in  the  Mysteries  of  Bac- 
chus. 

Such  was  held  to  be  the  effect  of  complete  initiation.  It  lighted 
up  the  soul  with  rays  from  the  Divinity,  and  became  for  it,  as  it 
were,  the  eye  with  which,  according  to  the  Pythagoreans,  it  con- 
templates the  field  of  Truth;  in  its  mystical  abstractions,  wherein 
it  rises  superior  to  the  body,  whose  action  on  it,  it  annuls  for  the 
time,  to  re-enter  into  itself,  so  as  entirely  to  occupy  itsdf  with  the 
view  of  the  Divinity,  and  the  means  of  coming  to  resemble  Him. 

Thus  enfeebling  the  dominion  of  the  senses  and  the  passions 
over  the  soul,  and  as  it  were  freeing  the  latter  from  a  sordid  slav- 
ery, and  by  the  steady  practice  of  all  the  virtues,  active  and 
contemplative,  our  ancient  brethren  strove  to  fit  themselves  to 
return  to  the  bosom  of  the  Deity.  Let  not  our  objects  as  Masons 
fall  below  theirs.  We  use  the  symbols  which  they  used ;  and 
teach  the  same  great  cardinal  doctrines  that  they  taught,  of  the 
existence  of  an  intellectual  God,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
of  man.  If  the  details  of  their  doctrines  as  to  the  soul  seem  to  us 
to  verge  on  absurdity,  let  us  compare  them  with  the  common 
notions  of  our  own  day,  and  be  silent.  If  it  seems  to  us  that 
they  regarded  the  symbol  in  some  cases  as  the  thing  symbolized, 
and  worshipped  the  sign  as  if  it  were  itself  Deity,  let  us  reflect 
how  insufficient  are  our  own  ideas  of  Deity,  and  how  we  worship 
those  ideas  and  images  formed  and  fashioned  in  our  own  minds, 
and  not  the  Deity  Himself :  and  if  we  are  inclined  to  smile  at  the 
importance  they  attached  to  lustrations  and  fasts,  let  us  pause  and 
inquire  whether  the  same  weakness  of  human  nature  does  nut 
exist  to-day,  causing  rites  and  ceremonies  to  be  regarded  as 
actively  efficient  for  the  salvation  of  souls. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  BRAZEN  SERPENT.  523 

And  let  us  ever  remember  the  words  of  an  old  writer,  with  which 
we  conclude  this  lecture :  "It  is  a  pleasure  to  stand  on  the  shore, 
and  to  see  ships  tossed  upon  the  sea :  a  pleasure  to  stand  in  the 
window  of  a  castle,  and  see  a  battle  and  the  adventures  thereof : 
but  no  pleasure  is  comparable  to  the  standing  on  the  vantage- 
ground  of  TRUTH  (a  hill  not  to  be  commanded,  and  where  the 
air  is  always  clear  and  serene),  and  to  see  the  errors  and  wander- 
ings, and  mists  and  tempests,  in  the  vale  below ;  so  always  that  this 
prospect  be  with  pity,  and  not  with  swelling  or  pride.  Certainly 
it  is  Heaven  upon  Earth  to  have  a  man's  mind  move  in  charity, 
rest  in  Providence,  AND  TURN  UPON  THE  POLES  OF  TRUTH." 


XXVI. 

PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH 
TRINITARIAN. 

WHILE  you  were  veiled  in  darkness,  you  heard  repeated  by  the 
Voice  of  the  Great  Past  its  most  ancient  doctrines.  None  has  the 
right  to  object, if  the  Christian  Mason  sees  foreshadowed  inChrish- 
na  and  Sosiosch,  in  Mithras  and  Osiris,  the  Divine  WORD  that, 
as  he  believes,  became  Man,  and  died  upon  the  cross  to  redeem  a 
fallen  race.  Nor  can  he  object  if  others  see  reproduced,  in  the 
WORD  of  the  beloved  Disciple,  that  was  in  the  beginning  with 
God,  and  that  was  God,  and  by  Whom  everything  was  made,  only 
the  LOGOS  of  Plato,  and  the  WORD  or  Uttered  THOUGHT  or  first 
Emanation  of  LIGHT,  or  the  Perfect  REASON  of  the  Great,  Silent, 
Supreme,  Uncreated  Deity,  believed  in  and  adored  by  all. 

We  do  not  undervalue  the  importance  of  any  Truth.  We  utter 
no  word  that  can  be  deemed  irreverent  by  any  one  of  any  faith. 
We  do  not  tell  the  Moslem  that  it  is  only  important  for  him  to 
believe  that  there  is  but  one  God,  and  wholly  unessential  whether 
Mahomet  was  His  prophet.  We  do  not  tell  the  Hebrew  that  the 
Messiah  whom  he  expects  was  born  in  Bethlehem  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years  ago ;  and  that  he  is  a  heretic  because  he  will  not  so 
believe.  And  as  little  do  we  tell  the  sincere  Christian  that  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  was  but  a  man  like  us,  or  His  history  but  the  unreal 
revival  of  an  older  legend.  To  do  either  is  beyond  our  jurisdic- 
tion. Masonry,  of  no  one  age,  belongs  to  all  time ;  of  no  one  reli- 
gion, it  finds  its  great  truths  in  all. 

To  every  Mason,  there  is  a  GOD  ;  ONE,  Supreme,  Infinite  in 
Goodness,  Wisdom,  Foresight,  Justice,  and  Benevolence ;  Creator, 
Disposer,  and  Preserver  of  all  things.  How,  or  by  what  interme- 
diates He  creates  and  acts,  and  in  what  way  He  unfolds  and  man- 
ifests Himself,  Masonry  leaves  to  creeds  and  Religions  to  inquire. 

To  every  Mason,  the  soul  of  man  is  immortal.  Whether  it 
524 


fRINCE  OF   MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH   TRINITARIAN.  52$ 

emanates  from  and  will  return  to  God,  and  what  its  continued 
mode  of  existence  hereafter,  each  judges  for  himself.  Masonry 
was  not  made  to  settle  that. 

To  every  Mason, WISDOM  or  INTELLIGENCE,  FORCE  or  STRENGTH, 
and  HARMONY,  or  FITNESS  and  BEAUTY,  are  the  Trinity  of  the 
attributes  of  God.  With  the  subtleties  of  Philosophy  concerning 
them  Masonry  does  not  meddle,  nor  decide  as  to  the  reality  of  the 
supposed  Existences  which  are  their  Personifications :  nor  whether 
the  Christian  Trinity  be  such  a  personification,  or  a  Reality  of  the 
gravest  import  and  significance. 

To  every  Mason,  the  Infinite  Justice  and  Benevolence  of  God 
give  ample  assurance  that  Evil  will  ultimately  be  dethroned,  and 
the  Good,  the  True,  and  the  Beautiful  reign  triumphant  and  eter- 
nal. It  teaches,  as  it.  feels  and  knows,  that  Evil,  and  Pain,  and 
Sorrow  exist  as  part  of  a  wise  and  beneficent  plan,  all  the  parts 
of  which  work  together  under  God's  eye  to  a  result  which  shall  be 
perfection.  Whether  the  existence  of  evil  is  rightly  explained  in 
this  creed  or  in  that,  by  Typhon  the  Great  Serpent,  by  Ahriman 
and  his  Armies  of  Wicked  Spirits,  by  the  Giants  and  Titans  that 
war  against  Heaven,  by  the  two  co-existent  Principles  of  Good 
and  Evil,  by  Satan's  temptation  and  the  fall  of  Man,  by  Lok  and 
the  Serpent  Fenris,  it  is  beyond  the  domain  of  Masonry  to  decide, 
nor  does  it  need  to  inquire.  Nor  is  it  within  its  Province  to 
determine  how  the  ultimate  triumph  of  Light  and  Truth  and 
Good,  over  Darkness  and  Error  and  Evil,  is  to  be  achieved ;  nor 
whether  the  Redeemer,  looked  and  longed  for  by  all  nations,  hath 
appeared  in  Judea,  or  is  yet  to  come. 

It  reverences  all  the  great  reformers.  It  sees  in  Moses,  the  Law- 
giver of  the  Jews,  in  Confucius  and  Zoroaster,  in  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth, and  in  the  Arabian  Iconoclast,  Great  Teachers  of  Morality. 
and  Eminent  Reformers,  if  no  more :  and  allows  every  brother  of 
the  Order  to  assign  to  each  such  higher  and  even  Divine  Charac- 
ter as  his  Creed  and  Truth  require. 

Thus  Masonry  disbelieves  no  truth,  and  teaches  unbelief  in  no 
creed,  except  so  far  as  such  creed  may  lower  its  lofty  estimate 
of  the  Deity,  degrade  Him  to  the  level  of  the  passions  of  human- 
ity, deny  the  high  destiny,  of  man.  impugn  the  goodness  and 
benevolence  of  the  Supreme  God,  strike  at  those  great  columns 
of  Masonry,  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity,  or  inculcate  immorality, 
and  disregard  of  the  active  duties  of  the  Order. 


526  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Masonry  is  a  worship;  but  one  in  which  all  civilized  men  can 
unite ;  for  it  does  not  undertake  to  explain  or  dogmatically  to 
settle  those  great  mysteries,  that  are  above  the  feeble  comprehen- 
sion of  our  human  intellect.  It  trusts  in  God,  and  HOPES;  it 
BELIEVES,  like  a  child,  and  is  humble.  It  draws  no  sword  to 
compel  others  to  adopt  its  belief,  or  to  be  happy  with  its  hopes. 
And  it  WAITS  with  patience  to  understand  the  mysteries  of  Na- 
ture and  Nature's  God  hereafter. 

The  greatest  mysteries  in  the  Universe  are  those  which  are  ever 
going  on  around  us ;  so  trite  and  common  to  us  that  we  never 
note  them  nor  reflect  upon  them.  Wise  men  tell  us  of  the  laws 
that  regulate  the  motions  of  the  spheres,  which,  flashing  in  huge 
circles  and  spinning  on  their  axes,  are  also  ever  darting  with  incon- 
ceivable rapidity  through  the  infinities  of  Space ;  while  we  atoms 
sit  here,  and  dream  that  all  was  made  for  us.  They  tell  us  learn- 
edly of  centripetal  and  centrifugal  forces,  gravity  and  attraction, 
and  all  the  other  sounding  terms  invented  to  hide  a  want  of 
meaning.  There  are  other  forces  in  the  Universe  than  those  that 
are  mechanical. 

Here  are  two  minute  seeds,  not  much  unlike  in  appearance,  and 
two  of  larger  size.  Hand  them  to  the  learned  Pundit,  Chemistry, 
who  tells  us  how  combustion  goes  on  in  the  lungs,  and  plants  are 
fed  with  phosphorus  and  carbon,  and  the  alkalies  and  silex.  Let 
her  decompose  them,  analyze  them,  torture  them  in  all  the  ways 
she  knows.  The  net  result  of  each  is  a  little  sugar,  a  little  fibrin, 
a  little  water — carbon,  potassium,  sodium,  and  the  like — one 
cares  not  to  know  what. 

We  hide  them  in  the  ground :  and  the  slight  rains  moisten 
them,  and  the  Sun  shines  upon  them,  and  little  slender  shoots 
spring  up  and  grow ; — and  what  a  miracle  is  the  mere  growth  ! — 
the  force,  the  power,  the  capacity  by  which  the  little  feeble  shoot, 
that  a  small  worm  can  nip  off  with  a  single  snap  of  its  mandibles, 
extracts  from  the  earth  and  air  and  water  the  different  elements,  so 
learnedly  catalogued,  with  which  it  increases  in  stature,  and  rises 
imperceptibly  toward  the  sky. 

One  grows  to  be  a  slender,  fragile,  feeble  stalk,  soft  of  texture, 
like  an  ordinary  weed ;  another  a  strong  bush,  of  woody  fibre, 
armed  with  thorns,  and  sturdy  enough  to  bid  defiance  to  the  winds  ; 
the  third  a  tender  tree,  subject  to  be  blighted  by  the  frost,  and 
looked  down  upon  by  all  the  forest :  while  another  spreads  its 


PRINCE   OF    MERCY,    OR    SCOTTISH    TRINITARIAN.  527 

rugged  arms  abroad,  and  cares  for  neither  frost  nor  ice,  nor  the 
snows  that  for  months  lie  around  its  roots. 

But  lo !  out  of  the  brown  foul  earth,  and  colorless  invisible  air, 
and  limpid  rain-water,  the  chemistry  of  the  seeds  has  extracted 
colors — four  different  shades  of  green,  that  paint  the  leaves  which 
put  forth  in  the  spring  upon  our  plants,  our  shrubs,  and  our  trees. 
Later  still  come  the  flowers — the  vivid  colors  of  the  rose,  the 
beautiful  brilliance  of  the  carnation,  the  modest  blush  of  the 
apple,  and  the  splendid  white  of  the  orange.  Whence  come  the 
colors  of  the  leaves  and  flowers?  By  what  process  of  chemistry 
are  they  extracted  from  the  carbon,  the  phosphorus,  and  the  lime? 
Is  it  any  greater  miracle  to  make  something  out  of  nothing? 

Pluck  the  flowers.  Inhale  the  delicious  perfumes;  each  perfect, 
and  all  delicious.  Whence  have  they  come?  By  what  combina- 
tion of  acids  and  alkalies  could  the  chemist's  laboratory  produce 
them? 

And  now  on  two  comes  the  fruit — the  ruddy  apple  and  the 
golden  orange.  Pluck  them — open  them !  The  texture  and 
fabric  how  totally  different !  The  taste  how  entirely  dissimilar — 
the  perfume  of  each  distinct  from  its  flower  and  from  the  other. 
Whence  the  taste  and  this  new  perfume?  The  same  earth  and  air 
and  water  have  been  made  to  furnish  a  different  taste  to  each  fruit, 
a  different  perfume  not  only  to  each  fruit,  but  to  each  fruit  and  its 
own  flower. 

Is  it  any  more  a  problem  whence  come  thought  and  will  and 
perception  and  all  the  phenomena  of  the  mind,  than  this,  whence 
come  the  colors,  the  perfumes,  the  taste,  of  the  fruit  and  flower  ? 

And  lo !  in  each  fruit  new  seeds,  each  gifted  with  the  same 
wondrous  power  of  reproduction — each  with  the  same  wondrous 
forces  wrapped  up  in  it  to  be  again  in  turn  evolved.  Forces  that 
had  lived  three  thousand  years  in  the  grain  of  wheat  found  in 
the  wrappings  of  an  Egyptian  mummy ;  forces  of  which  learning 
and  science  and  wisdom  know  no  more  than  they  do  of  the  nature 
and  laws  of  action  of  God.  What  can  we  know  of  the  nature,  and 
how  can  u'C  understand  the  powers  and  mode  of  operation  of  the 
human  soul,  when  the  glossy  leaves,  the  pearl-white  flower,  and 
the  golden  fruit  of  the  orange  are  miracles  wholly  beyond  our 
comprehension  ? 

We  but  hide  our  ignorance  in  a  cloud  of  words  ; — and  the  words 
too  often  are  mere  combinations  of  sounds  without  any  meaning. 


528  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

What  is  the  centrifugal  force?  A  tendency  to  go  in  a  particular 
direction!  What  external  "force,"  then,  produces  that  tendency? 

What  force  draws  the  needle  round  to  the  north?  What  force 
moves  the  muscle  that  raises  the  arm,  when  the  will  determines  it 
shall  rise?  Whence  comes  the  -will  itself?  Is  it  spontaneous — a 
first  cause,  or  an  effect  ?  These  too  are  miracles ;  inexplicable  as 
the  creation,  or  the  existence  and  self-existence  of  God. 

Who  will  explain  to  us  the  passion,  the  peevishness,  the  anger,  the 
memory,  and  affections  of  the  small  canary-wren?  the  conscious- 
ness of  identity  and  the  dreams  of  the  dog?  the  reasoning  powers 
of  the  elephant?  the  wondrous  instincts,  passions,  government, 
and  civil  policy,  and  modes  of  communication  of  ideas  of  the  ant 
and  bee  ? 

Who  has  yet  made  us  to  understand,  with  all  his  learned  words, 
how  heat  comes  to  us  from  the  Sun,  and  light  from  the  remote 
Stars,  setting  out  upon  its  journey  earth- ward  from  some,  at  the 
time  the  Chaldeans  commenced  to  build  the  Tower  of  Babel  ?  Or 
how  the  image  of  an  external  object  comes  to  and  fixes  itself  upon 
the  retina  of  the  eye ;  and  when  there,  how  that  mere  empty, 
unsubstantial  image  becomes  transmuted  into  the  wondrous 
thing  that  we  call  SIGHT?  Or  how  the  waves  of  the  atmosphere 
striking  upon  the  tympanum  of  the  ear — those  thin,  invisible 
waves — produce  the  equally  wondrous  phenomenon  of  HEARING, 
and  become  the  roar  of  the  tornado,  the  crash  of  the  thunder,  the 
mighty  voice  of  the  ocean,  the  chirping  of  the  cricket,  the  delicate 
sweet  notes  and  exquisite  trills  and  variations  of  the  wren  and 
mocking-bird,  or  the  magic  melody  of  the  instrument  of  Paganini  ? 

Our  senses  are  mysteries  to  us,  and  we  are  mysteries  to  ourselves. 
Philosophy  has  taught  us  nothing  as  to  the  nature  of  our  sensa- 
tions, our  perceptions,  our  cognizances,  the  origin  of  our  thoughts 
and  ideas,  but  words.  By  no  effort  or  degree  of  reflection,  never 
so  long  continued,  can  man  become  conscious  of  a  personal  iden- 
tity in  himself,  separate  and  distinct  from  his  body  and  his  brain. 
We  torture  ourselves  in  the  effort  to  gain  an  idea  of  ourselves,  and 
weary  with  the  exertion.  Who  has  yet  made  us  understand  how, 
from  the  contact  with  a  foreign  body,  the  image  in  the  eye,  the 
wave  of  air  impinging  on  the  ear,  particular  particles  entering  the 
nostrils,  and  coming  in  contact  with  the  palate,  come  sensations  in 
the  nerves,(  and  from  that,  perception  in  the  mind,  of  the  animal 
or  the  man? 


PRINCE   OF    MERCY,    OR    SCOTTISH    TRINITARIAN.  529' 

What  do  we  know  of  Substance?  Men  even  doubt  yet  whether 
it  exists.  Philosophers  tell  us  that  our  senses  make  known  to  us 
only  the  attributes  of  substance,  extension,  hardness,  color,  and 
the  like;  but  not  the  thing  itself  that  is  extended,  solid,  black  or 
white;  as  we  know  the  attributes  of  the  Soul,  its  thoughts  and  its 
perceptions,  and  not  the  Soul  itself  which  perceives  and  thinks. 
What  a  wondrous  mystery  is  there  in  heat  and  light,  existing,  we 
know  not  how,  within  certain  limits,  narrow  in  comparison  with 
infinity,  beyond  which  on  every  side  stretch  out  infinite  space  and 
the  blackness  of  unimaginable  darkness,  and  the  intensity  of  in- 
conceivable cold  !  Think  only  of  the  mighty  Power  required  to 
maintain  warmth  and  light  in  the  central  point  of  such  an  infinity, 
to  whose  darkness  that  of  Midnight,  to  whose  cold  that  of  the 
last  Arctic  Island  is  nothing !  And  yet  GOD  is  everywhere. 

And  what  a  mystery  are  the  effects  of  heat  and  cold  upon  the 
wondrous  fluid  that  we  call  water!  What  a  mystery  lies  hidden 
in  every  flake  of  snow  and  in  every  crystal  of  ice,  and  in  their 
final  transformation  into  the  invisible  vapor  that  rises  from  the 
ocean  or  the  land,  and  floats  above  the  summits  of  the  mountains ! 
What  a  multitude  of  wonders,  indeed,  has  chemistry  unveiled 
to  our  eyes !  Think  only  that  if  some  single  law  enacted  by  God 
were  at  once  repealed,  that  of  attraction  or  affinity  or  cohesion,  for 
example,  the  whole  material  world,  with  its  solid  granite  and  ada- 
mant, its  veins  of  gold  and  silver,  its  trap  and  porphyry,  its  huge 
beds  of  coal,  our  own  frames  and  the  very  ribs  and  bones  of  this 
apparently  indestructible  earth,  would  instantaneously  dissolve, 
with  all  Suns  and  Stars  and  Worlds  throughout  all  the  Universe 
of  God,  into  a  thin  invisible  vapor  of  infinitely  minute  particles 
or  atoms,  diffused  throughout  infinite  space ;  and  with  them  light 
and  heat  would  disappear ;  unless  the  Deity.  Himself  be,  as  the  An- 
cient Persians  thought,  the  Eternal  Light  and  the  Immortal  Fire. 
The  mysteries  of  the  Great  Universe  of  God !  How  can  we 
with  our  limited  mental  vision  expect  to  gras;>  and  comprehend 
them  !  Infinite  SPACE,  stretching  out  from  us  every  way.  without 
limit:  infinite  TIME,  without  beginning  or  end;  and  We.  HERE, 
and  NOW,  in  the  centre  of  each !  An  infinity  of  suns,  the  nearest 
of  which  only  diminish  in  size,  viewed  with  the  most  powerful 
telescope :  each  with  its  retinue  of  worlds ;  infinite  numbers  of 
such  suns,  so  remote  from  us  that  their  light  would  not  reach  us, 
journeying  during  an  infinity  of  time,  while  the  light  that  has 


53O  MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

reached  us,  from  some  that  we  seem  to  see,  has  been  upon  its  jour- 
ney for  fifty  centuries :  our  world  spinning  upon  its  axis,  and 
rushing  ever  in  its  circuit  round  the  sun ;  and  it,  the  sun,  and  all 
our  system  revolving  round  some  great  central  point;  and  that, 
and  suns,  stars,  and  worlds  evermore  flashing  onward  with  Incred- 
ible rapidity  through  illimitable  space :  and  then,  in  every  drop  oi 
water  that  we  drink,  in  every  morsel  of  much  of  our  food,  in  the 
air,  in  the  earth,  in  the  sea,  incredible  multitudes  of  living  crea- 
tures, invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  of  a  minuteness  beyond  belief, 
yet  organized,  living,  feeding,  perhaps  with  consciousness  of  iden- 
tity, and  memory  and  instinct. 

Such  are  some  of  the  mysteries  of  the  great  Universe  of  God. 
And  yet  we,  whose  life  and  that  of  the  world  on  which  we  live 
form  but  a  point  in  the  centre  of  infinite  Time :  we,  who  nourish 
animalculae  within,  and  on  whom  vegetables  grow  without,  would 
fain  learn  how  God  created  this  Universe,  would  understand  His 
Powers,  His  Attributes,  His  Emanations,  His  Mode  of  Existence 
and  of  Action;  would  fain  know  the  plan  according  to  which  all 
events  proceed,  that  plan  profound  as  God  Himself ;  would  know 
the  laws  by  which  He  controls  His  Universe ;  would  fain  see  and 
talk  to  Him  face  to  face,  as  man  talks  to  man :  and  we  try  not  to 
believe,  because  we  do  not  understand. 

He  commands  us  to  love  one  another,  to  love  our  neighbor  as 
ourself ;  and  we  dispute  and  wrangle,  and  hate  and  slay  each 
other,  because  we  cannot  be  of  one  opinion  as  to  the  Essence  of 
His  Nature,  as  to  His  Attributes ;  whether  He  became  man  born 
of  a  woman,  and  was  crucified ;  whether  the  Holy  Ghost  is  of  the 
same  substance  with  the  Father,  or  only  of  a  similar  substance ; 
whether  a  feeble  old  man  is  God's  Vicegerent ;  whether  some  are 
elected  from  all  eternity  to  be  saved,  and  others  to  be  condemned 
and  punished ;  whether  punishment  of  the  wicked  after  death  is 
to  be  eternal ;  whether  this  doctrine  or  the  other  be  heresy  or 
truth  ; — drenching  the  world  with  blood,  depopulating  realms,  and 
turning  fertile  lands  into  deserts ;  until,  for  religious  war,  perse- 
cution, and  bloodshed,  the  Earth  for  many  a  century  has  rolled 
round  the  Sun,  a  charnel-house,  steaming  and  reeking  with 
human  gore,  the  blood  of  brother  slain  by  brother  for  opinion's 
sake,  that  has  soaked  into  and  polluted  all  her  veins,  and  made  her 
a  horror  to  her  sisters  of  the  Universe. 

And  if  men  were  all  Masons,  and  obeyed  with  all  their  heart 


PRINCE  OK  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  53! 

her  mild  and  gentle  teachings,  that  world  would  be  a  paradise ; 
while  intolerance  and  persecution  make  of  it  a  hell.  For  this  is 
the  Masonic  Creed :  BELIEVE,  in  God's  Infinite  Benevolence,  Wis- 
dom, and  Justice :  HOPE,  for  the  final  triumph  of  Good  over  Evil, 
and  for  Perfect  Harmony  as  the  final  result  of  all  the  concords 
and  discords  of  the  Universe :  and  be  CHARITABLE  as  God  is,  to- 
ward the  unfaith,  the  errors,  the  follies,  and  the  faults  of  men : 
for  all  make  one  great  brotherhood. 

INSTRUCTION. 

Sen.' .  W .' .  Brother  Junior  Warden,  are  you  a  Prince  of  Mercy? 

Jun.' .  W .' .  I  have  seen  the  Delta  and  the  Holy  NAMES  upon  it, 
and  am  an  AMETH  like  yourself,  in  the  TRIPLE  COVENANT,  of 
which  we  bear  the  mark. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  first  Word  upon  the  Delta? 

Ans.'.  The  Ineffable  Name  of  Deity,  the  true  mystery  of  which 
is  known  to  the  Ameth  alone. 

Qit.'.  What  do  the  three  sides  of  the  Delta  denote  to  us? 

Ans.'.  To  us,  and  to  all  Masons,  the  three  Great  Attributes  or 
Developments  of  the  Essence  of  the  Deity ;  WISDOM,  or  the  Re- 
flective and  Designing  Power,  in  wrhich,  when  there  was  naught 
but  God.  the  Plan  and  Idea  of  the  Universe  was  shaped  and 
fc-rtnea :  FORCE,  or  the  Executing  and  Creating  Power,  which  in- 
stantaneously acting,  realized  the  Type  and  Idea  framed  by  Wis- 
dom ;  and  the  Universe,  and  all  Stars  and  Worlds,  and  Light  and 
Life,  and  Men  and  Angels  and  all  living  creatures  WERE  ;  and 
HARMONY,  or  the  Preserving  Power,  Order,  and  Beauty,  main- 
taining the  Universe  in  its  State,  and  constituting  the  law  of 
Harmony,  Motion, Proportion, and  Progression: — WISDOM,  which 
thought  the  plan;  STRENGTH,  which  created:  HARMONY, 'which 
upholds  and  preserves: — the  Masonic  Trinity,  three  Powers  and 
one  Essence:  the  three  columns  which  support  the  Universe. 
Physical,  Intellectual,  and  Spiritual,  of  which  every  Masonic 
Lodge  is  a  type  and  symbol : — while  to  the  Christian  Mason,  they 
represent  the  Three  that  bear  record  in  Heaven,  the  FATHER,  the 
WORD,  and  the  HOLY  SPIRIT,  which  three  are  ONE. 

Qu.'.  What  do  the  three  Greek  letters  upon  the  Delta,  /.'.  H .' . 
2.'.  [Iota,  Eta,  and  Sigma}  represent? 

Ans.'.  Three  of  the  Names  of  the  Supreme  Deity  among  the  Syr- 
ians, Phoenicians,  and  Hebrews  . . .  IHUH  [m""1] ;  Self-Existence  . . . 


53^  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

AL  [,S]:  the  Nature-God,  or  Soul  of  the  Universe.  .  .SHADAI 
[i^y]Supreme  Power.  Also  three  of  the  Six  Chief  Attributes 
of  God,  among  the  Kabbalists : — WISDOM  [!EH],  the  Intellect, 
(Noi>z)  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Word  (Aofoz)  of  the  Platonists, 
and  the  Wisdom  (lo^ca)  of  the  Gnostics:  .  .  MAGNIFICENCE 
[AL],  the  Symbol  of  which  was  the  Lion's  Head:  .  .  and  VIC- 
TORY, and  GLORY  [Tsabaoth],  which  are  the  two  columns  JACHIN 
and  BOAZ,  that  stand  in  the  Portico  of  the  Temple  of  Masonry. 
To  the  Christian  Mason  they  are  the  first  three  letters  of  the  name 
of  the  Son  of  God,  Who  died  upon  the  cross  to  redeem  mankind. 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  first  of  the  THREE  COVENANTS,  of  which  we 
bear  the  mark? 

Ans.'.  That  which  God  made  with  Noah;  when  He  said,  "I 
will  not  again  curse  the  earth  any  more  for  man's  sake,  neither 
will  I  smite  any  more  everything  living  as  I  have  done  While 
the  Earth  remaineth,  seed-time  and  harvest,  and  cold  and  heat, 
and  Winter  and  Summer,  and  day  and  night  shall  not  cease.  I 
will  establish  My  covenant  with  you,  and  with  your  seed  after  you, 
and  with  every  living  creature.  All  mankind  shall  no  more  be 
cut  off  by  the  waters  of  a  flood,  nor  shall  there  any  more  be  a 
flood  to  destroy  the  earth.  This  is  the  token  of  My  covenant :  I 
do  set  My  bow  in  the  cloud,  and  it  shall  be  for  a  token  of  a  cove- 
nant between  Ale  and  the  earth  :  an  everlasting  covenant  between 
Me  and  every  living  creature  on  the  earth." 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  second  of  the  Three  Covenants? 

Ans.'.  That  which  God  made  with  Abraham ;  when  He  said,  "I 
am  the  Absolute  Uncreated  God.  I  will  make  My  covenant  be- 
tween Me  and  thee,  and  thou  shalt  be  the  Father  of  Many  Nations, 
and  Kings  shall  come  from  thy  loins.  I  will  establish  My  cove- 
nant between  Me  and  thee,  and  thy  descendants  after  thee,  to  the 
remotest  generations,  for  an  everlasting  covenant ;  and  I  will  be 
thy  God  and  their  God,  and  will  give  thee  the  land  of  Canaan  for 
an  everlasting  possession." 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  third  Covenant? 

Ans.'.  That  which  God  made  with  all  men  bv  His  prophets; 
when  He  said:  "I  will  gather  all  nations  and"  tongues,  and  they 
shall  come  and  see  My  Glory.  I  will  create  new  Heavens  and  a 
new  earth  :  and  the  former  shall  not  be  remembered,  nor  come 
into  mind.  The  Sun  shall  no  more  shine  by  day,  nor  the  Moon 
by  night ;  but  the  Lord  shall  be  an  everlasting  light  and  splendor. 


PRINCE   OF    MERCY,   OR   SCOTTISH    TRINITARIAN  533 

His  Spirit  and  His  Word  shall  remain  with  men  forever.  The 
heavens  shall  vanish  away  like  vapor,  and  the  earth  shall  wax  old 
like  a  garment,  and  they  that  dwell  therein  shall  die ;  but  my  salva- 
tion shall  be  forever,  and  my  righteousness  shall  not  end  ;  and  there 
shall  be  Light  among  the  Gentiles,  and  salvation  unto  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  The  redeemed  of  the  Lord  shall  return,  and  everlasting 
joy  be  on  their  heads,  and  sorrow  and  mourning  shall  flee  away/' 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  symbol  of  the  Triple  Covenant? 

Ans.'.  The  Triple  Triangle. 

Qu.'.  Of  what  else  is  it  the  symbol  to  us? 

Ans.'.  Of  the  Trinity  of  Attributes  of  the  Deity;  and  of  the 
triple  essence  of  Man,  the  Principle  of  Life,  the  Intellectual 
Power,  and  the  Soul  or  Immortal  Emanation  from  the  Deity. 

Qn.'.  What  is  the  first  great  Truth  of  the  Sacred  Mysteries? 

Ans.'.  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time,  tie  is  One,  Eternal, 
Ail-Powerful,  All- Wise,  Infinitely  Just,  Merciful,  Benevolent,  and 
Compassionate,  Creator  and  Preserver  of  all  things,  the  Source  of 
Light  and  Life,  coextensive  with  Time  and  Space ;  Who  thought, 
and  with  the  Thought  created  the  Universe  and  all  living  things, 
and  the  souls  of  men:  THAT  Is: — the  PERMANENT;  while  every- 
thing beside  is  a  perpetual  genesis. 

Qn.'.   What  is  the  second  great  Truth  of  the  Sacred  Mysteries? 

Ans. '.The  Soul  of  Man  is  Immortal ;  not  the  result  of  organiza- 
tion, nor  an  aggregate  of  modes  of  action  of  matter,  nor  a  succes- 
sion of  phenomena  and  perceptions;  but  an  EXISTENCE,  one  and 
identical,  a  living  spirit,  a  s<~ark  of  the  Great  Central  Light,  that 
hath  entered  into  and  dwells  in  the  body  ;  to  be  separated  there- 
from at  death,  and  return  to  God  who  gave  it :  that  doth  not  dis- 
perse nor  vanish  at  death,  like  breath  or  a  smoke,  nor  can  be  anni- 
hilated ;  but  still  exists  and  possesses  activity  and  intelligence,  even 
as  it  existed  in  God,  before  it  was  enveloped  in  the  body. 

Qu.'.  \Vhat  is  the  third  great  Truth  in  Masonry? 

Ans.'.  The  impulse  which  directs  to  right  conduct,  and  deters 
from  crime,  is  not  only  older  than  the  ages  of  nations  and  cities, 
but  coeval  with  that  Divine  Being  Who  sees  and  rules  both  Heaven 
and  earth.  Nor  did  Tarquin  less  violate  that  Eternal  Law,  though 
in  his  reign  there  might  have  been  no  written  law  at  Rome  against 
such  violence ;  for  the  principle  that  impels  us  to  right  conduct. 
and  warns  us  against  guilt,  springs  cut  of  the  nature  of  things. 
It  did  not  begin  to  be  law  when  it  was  first  written,  nor  was  it 
35 


534  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

originated;  but  it  is  coeval  with  the  Divine  Intelligence  itself. 
The  consequence  ot  virtue  is  not  to  be  made  the  end  thereof ;  and 
laudable  performances  must  have  deeper  roots,  motives,  and  insti- 
gations, to  give  them  the  stamp  of  virtues. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  fourth  great  Truth  in  Masonry? 

Ans.'.  The  moral  truths  are  as  absolute  as  the  metaphysical 
truths.  Even  the  Deity  cannot  make  it  that  there  should  be  effects 
without  a  cause,  or  phenomena  without  substance.  As  little  could 
He  make  it  to  be  sinful  and  evil  to  respect  our  pledged  word,  to  love 
truth,  to  moderate  our  passions.  The  principles  of  Morality  are 
axioms,  like  the  principles  of  Geometry.  The  moral  laws  are  the 
necessary  relations  that  flow  from  the  nature  of  things,  and  they 
are  not  created  by,  but  have  existed  eternally  in  God.  Their  con- 
tinued existence  does  not  depend  upon  the  exercise  of  His  WILL. 
Truth  and  Justice  are  of  His  ESSENCE.  Not  because  we  are  feeble 
and  God  omnipotent,  is  it  our  duty  to  obey  His  law.  We  may  be 
forced,  but  are  not  under  obligation,  to  obey  the  stronger.  God  is 
the  principle  of  Morality,  but  not  by  His  mere  will,  which, 
abstracted  from  all  other  of  His  attributes,  would  be  neither  just 
nor  unjust.  Good  is  the  expression  of  His  will,  in  so  far  as  that 
will  is  itself  the  expression  of  eternal,  absolute,  uncreated  justice, 
which  is  in  God,  which  His  will  did  not  create ;  but  which  it  exe- 
cutes and  promulgates,  as  our  will  proclaims  and  promulgates  and 
executes  the  idea  of  the  good  which  is  in  us.  He  has  given  us  the 
law  of  Truth  and  Justice;  but  He  has  not  arbitrarily  instituted 
that  law.  Justice  is  inherent  in  His  will,  because  it  is  contained 
in  His  intelligence  and  wisdom,  in  His  very  nature  and  most 
intimate  essence. 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  fifth  great  Truth  in  Masonry? 

Ans.' .  There  is  an  essential  distinction  between  Good  and  Evil, 
what  is  just  and  what  is  unjust;  and  to  this  distinction  is  attached, 
for  every  intelligent  and  free  creature,  the  absolute  obligation  of 
conforming  to  what  is  good  and  just.  Man  is  an  intelligent  and  free 
being, — free,  because  he  is  conscious  that  it  is  his  duty,  and 
because  it  is  made  his  duty,  to  obey  the  dictates  of  truth  and 
justice,  and  therefore  he  must  necessarily  have  the  power  of 
doing  so,  which  involves  the  power  of  not  doing  so: — capable  of 
comprehending  the  distinction  between  good  and  evil,  justice 
and  injustice,  and  the  obligation  which  accompanies  it,  and  of 
naturally  adhering  to  that  obligation,  independently  of  any  con- 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  535 

tract  or  positive  law ;  capable  also  of  resisting  the  temptations 
which  urge  him  toward  evil  and  injustice,  and  of  complying  with 
the  sacred  law  of  eternal  justice. 

That  man  is  not  governed  by  a  resistless  Fate  or  inexorable 
Destiny ;  but  is  free  to  choose  between  the  evil  and  the  good : 
that  Justice  and  Right,  the  Good  and  Beautiful,  are  of  the  essence 
of  the  Divinity,  like  His  Infinitude ;  and  therefore  they  are  laws  to 
man :  that  we  are  conscious  of  our  freedom  to  act,  as  we  are  con- 
scious of  our  identity,  and  the  continuance  and  connectedness  of 
our  existence ;  and  have  the  same  evidence  of  one  as  of  the  other ; 
and  if  we  can  put  one  in  doubt,  we  have  no  certainty  of  cither,  and 
everything  is  unreal :  that  we  can  deny  our  free  will  and  free 
agency,  only  upon  the  ground  that  they  are  in  the  nature  of  things 
impossible ;  which  would  be  to  deny  the  Omnipotence  of  God. 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  sixth  great  Truth  of  Masonry? 

Ans.' .  The  necessity  of  practising  the  moral  truths,  is  obligation. 
The  moral  truths,  necessary  in  the  eye  of  reason,  are  obligatory 
on  the  will.  The  moral  obligation,  like  the  moral  truth  that  is  its 
foundation,  is  absolute.  As  the  necessary  truths  are  not  more  or 
less  necessary,  so  the  obligation  is  not  more  or  less  obligatory. 
There  are  degrees  of  importance  among  different  obligations ;  but 
none  in  the  obligation  itself.  We  are  not  nearly  obliged,  almost 
obliged.  We  are  wholly  so,  or  not  at  all.  If  there  be  any  place 
of  refuge  to  which  we  can  escape  from  the  obligation,  it  ceases  to 
exist.  If  the  obligation  is  absolute,  it  is  immutable  and  universal. 
For  if  that  of  to-day  may  not  be  that  of  to-morrow,  if  what  is 
obligatory  on  me  may  not  be  obligatory  on  you,  the  obligation 
would  differ  from  itself,  and  be  variable  and  contingent.  This 
fact  is  the  principle  of  all  morality.  That  every  act  contrary  to 
right  and  justice,  deserves  to  be  represser!  by  force,  and  punished 
when  committed,  equally  in  the  absence  of  any  law  or  contract: 
that  man  naturally  recognizes  the  distinction  between  the  merit 
and  demerit  of  actions,  as  he  does  that  between  justice  and  injus- 
tice, honesty  and  dishonesty ;  and  feels,  without  being  taught, 
and  in  the  absence  of  law  or  contract,  that  it  is  wrong  for  vice  to 
be  rewarded  or  go  unpunished,  and  for  virtue  to  be  punished  or 
left  unrewarded:  and  that,  the  Deity  being  infinitely  just  and 
good,  it  must  follow  as  a  necessary  and  inflexible  law  that  punish- 
ment shall  be  the  result  of  Sin,  its  inevitable  and  natural  effect 
and  corollarv.  and  not  a  mere  arbitrarv  vengeance. 


536  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  seventh  great  Truth  in  Masonry? 

Ans.'.  The  immutable  law  of  God  requires,  that  besides  respec- 
ting the  absolute  rights  of  others,  and  being  merely  just,  we  should 
do  good,  be  charitable,  and  obey  the  dictates  of  the  generous  and 
noble  sentiments  of  the  soul.  Charity  is  a  law,  because  our 
conscience  is  not  satisfied  nor  at  ease  if  we  have  not  relieved  the 
suffering,  the  distressed,  and  the  destitute.  It  is  to  give  that  which 
he  to  whom  you  give  has  no  right  to  take  or  demand.  To  be 
charitable  is  obligatory  on  us.  We  are  the  Almoners  of  God's 
bounties.  But  the  obligation  is  not  so  precise  and  inflexible  as 
the  obligation  to  be  just.  Charity  knows  neither  rule  nor  limit. 
It  goes  beyond  all  obligation.  Its  beauty  consists  in  its  liberty. 
"He  that  loveth  not,  knoweth  not  God  ;  FOR  GOD  is  LOVE.  If  we  love 
one  another,  God  dwelleth  in  us,  and  His  love  is  perfected  in  us. 
God  is  love ;  and  he  that  dwelleth  in  love,  dwelleth  in  God,  and 
God  in  him."  To  be  kindly  affectioned  one  to  another  with  broth- 
erly love ;  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  the  needy,  and  be  generous, 
liberal,  and  hospitable ;  to  return  to  no  man  evil  for  evil ;  to  rejoice 
at  the  good  fortune  of  others,  and  sympathize  with  them  in  their 
sorrows  and  reverses  ;  to  live  peaceably  with  all  men,  and  repay  in- 
juries with  benefits  and  kindness  ;  these  are  the  sublime  dictates  of 
the  Moral  Law,  taught  from  the  infancy  of  the  world,  by  Masonry. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  eighth  great  Truth  in  Masonry? 

Ans.' .  That  the  laws  which  control  c.nd  regulate  the  Universe  of 
God,  are  those  of  motion  and  harmony.  We  see  only  the  isolated 
incidents  of  things,  and  with  our  feeble  and  limited  capacity  and 
vision  cannot  discern  their  connection,  nor  the  mighty  chords 
that  make  the  apparent  discord  perfect  harmony.  Evil  is  merely 
apparent,  and  all  is  in  reality  good  and  perfect.  For  pain  and 
sorrow,  persecution  and  hardships,  affliction  and  destitution,  sick- 
ness and  death  are  but  the  means,  by  which  alone  the  noblest 
virtues  could  be  developed.  Without  them,  and  without  sin  and 
error,  and  wrong  and  outrage,  as  there  can  be  no  effect  without 
an  adequate  cause,  there  could  be  neither  patience  under  suffering 
and  distress ;  nor  prudence  in  difficulty ;  nor  temperance  to  avoid 
excess;  nor  courage  to  meet  danger;  nor  truth,  when  to  speak 
the  truth  is  hazardous ;  nor  love,  when  it  is  met  with  ingratitude ; 
nor  charity  for  the  needy  and  destitute ;  nor  forbearance  and  for- 
giveness of  injuries;  not  toleration  of  erroneous  opinions;  nor 
charitable  judgment  and  construction  of  men's  motives  and 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN'.  537 

actions ;  nor  patriotism,  nor  heroism,  nor  honor,  nor  self-denial, 
nor  g-encrosity.  These  and  most  other  virtues  and  excellencies 
would  have  no  existence,  and  even  their  nimes  be  unknown ; 
and  the  poor  virtues  that  still  existed,  would  scarce  deserve  the 
name ;  for  life  would  be  one  flat,  dead,  low  level,  above  which  none 
of  the  lofty  elements  of  human  nature  would  emerge ;  and  man 
would  lie  lapped  in  contented  indolence  and  idleness,  a  mere 
worthless  negative,  instead  of  the  brave,  stiong  soldier  against 
the  grim  legions  of  Evil  and  rude  Difficulty. 

Qu.' '.  What  is  the  ninth  great  Truth  in  Masonry? 

Ans.'.  The  great  leading  doctrine  of  this  Degree; — that  the 
JUSTICE,  the  WISDOM,  and  the  MERCY  of  God  are  alike  infinite, 
alike  perfect,  and  yet  do  not  in  the  least  jar  nor  conflict  one  with 
the  other ;  but  form  a  Great  Perfect  Trinity  of  Attributes,  three 
and  yet  one :  that,  the  principle  of  merit  and  demerit  being  abso- 
lute, and  every  good  action  deserving  to  be  icwarded,  and  every 
bad  one  to  be  punished,  and  God  being  as  just  as  He  is  good  ;  and 
yet  the  cases  constantly  recurring  in  this  world,  in  which  crime 
and  cruelty,  oppression,  tyranny,  and  injustice  are  prosperous, 
happy,  fortunate,  and  self-contented,  and  rule  and  reign,  and  enjoy 
all  the  blessings  of  God's  beneficence,  while  the  virtuous  and  good 
are  unfortunate,  miserable,  destitute,  pining  away  in  dungeons, 
perishing  with  cold,  and  famishing  with  hunger,  slaver  of  oppres- 
sion, and  instruments  and  victims  of  the  miscreants  that  govern  ; 
so  that  this  worh1,  if  there  were  no  existence  beyond  it,  would  be 
one  great  theatre  of  wrong  and  injustice,  proving  God  wholly  dis- 
regardful  of  His  own  necessary  law  of  merit  and  demerit ; — it  fol- 
lows that  there  must  be  another  life  in  which  these  apparent 
wrongs  shall  be  repaired  :  That  all  the  powers  of  man's  soul  tend 
to  infinity;  and  his  indomitable  instinct  of  immortality,  and  the 
universal  hope  of  another  life,  testified  by  all  creeds,  all  poetry,  all 
traditions,  establish  its  certainty ;  for  man  is  not  an  orphan  ;  but 
hath  a  Father  near  at  hand :  and  the  day  must  come  when  Light 
and  Truth,  and  the  Just  and  Good  shall  be  victorious,  and  Dark- 
ness, Error,  Wrong,  and  Evil  be  annihilated,  and  known  no  more 
forever:  That  the  Universe  is  one  great  Harmony,  in  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  faith  of  all  nations,  deep-rooted  in  all  hearts  in  the 
primitive  ages.  Light  will  ultimately  prevail  over  Darkness,  and 
the  Good  Principle  over  the  Evil :  and  the  myriad  souls  that  have 
emanated  from  the  Divinity,  purified  and  ennobled  by  the  struggle 


538  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

here  below,  will  again  return  to  perfect  bliss  in  the  bosom  of  God, 
to  offend  against  Whose  laws  will  then  be  no  longer  possible. 

Qn.'.  What,  then,  is  the  one  great  lesson  taught  to  us,  as  Ma- 
sons, in  this  Degree  ? 

Ans.\  That  to  that  state  and  realm  of  Light  and  Truth  and 
Perfection,  which  is  absolutely  certain,  ail  the  good  men  on  earth 
are  tending ;  and  if  there  is  a  law  from  whose  operation  none  are 
exempt,  which  inevitably  conveys  their  bodies  to  darkness  and  to 
dust,  there  is  another  not  less  certain  nor  less  powerful,  which 
conducts  their  spirits  to  that  state  of  Happiness  and  Splendor  and 
Perfection,  the  bosom  of  their  Father  and  their  God.  The  wheels 
of  Nature  are  not  made  to  roll  backward.  Everything  presses  on 
to  Eternity.  From  the  birth  of  Time  an  impetuous  current  has 
set  in,  which  bears  all  the  sons  of  men  toward  that  interminable 
ocean.  Meanwhile,  Heaven  is  attracting  to  itself  whatever  is 
congenial  to  its  nature,  is  enriching  itself  by  the  spoils  of  the 
Earth,  and  collecting  within  its  capacious  bosom  whatever  is  pure, 
permanent,  and  divine,  leaving  nothing  for  the  last  fire  to  consume 
but  the  gross  matter  that  creates  concupiscence ;  while  everything 
fit  for  that  good  fortune  shall  be  gathered  and  selected  from  the 
ruins  of  the  world,  to  adorn  that  Eternal  City. 

Let  every  Mason  then  obey  the  voice  that  calls  him  thither. 
Let  us  seek  the  things  that  are  above,  and  be  not  content  with  a 
world  that  must  shortly  perish,  and  which  we  must  speedily  quit, 
while  we  neglect  to  prepare  for  that  in  which  we  are  invited  to 
dwell  forever.  While  everything  within  us  and  around  us  reminds 
us  of  the  approach  of  death,  and  concurs  to  teach  us  that  this  is 
not  our  rest,  let  us  hasten  our  preparations  for  another  world,  and 
earnestly  implore  that  help  and  strength  from  our  Father,  which 
alone  can  put  an  end  to  that  fatal  war  which  our  desires  have  too 
long  waged  with  our  destiny.  \Vhen  these  move  in  the  same 
direction,  and  that  which  God's  will  renders  unavoidable  shall 
become  our  choice,  all  things  will  be  ours ;  life  will  be  divested  of 
its  vanity,  and  death  disarmed  of  its  terrors. 

On.'.  What  are  the  symbols  of  the  purification  necessary  to 
make  us  perfect  Masons? 

.Jl»^.'.Lavation  with  pure  water,  or  baptism;  because  to  cleanse 
the  body  is  emblematical  of  purifying  the  soul ;  and  because  it 
conduces  to  the  bodily  health,  and  virtue  is  the  health  of  the  soul, 
as  sin  and  vice  are  its  malady  and  sickness : — unction,  or  anoint- 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN'.  539 

ing  with  oil ;  because  thereby  we  are  set  apart  and  dedicated  to 
the  service  and  priesthood  of  the  Beautiful,  the  True,  arid  the 
Good : — and  robes  of  white,  emblems  of  candor,  purity,  and  truth. 

Qu.' .  What  is  to  us  the  chief  symbol  of  man's  ultimate  redemp- 
tion and  regeneration  ? 

Ans.'.  The  fraternal  supper,  of  bread  which  nourishes,  and  of 
wine  which  refreshes  and  exhilarates,  symbolical  of  the  time 
which  is  to  come,  when  all  mankind  shall  be  one  great  harmo- 
nious brotherhood ;  and  teaching  us  these  great  lessons :  that  as 
matter  changes  ever,  but  no  single  atom  is  annihilated,  it  is  not 
rational  to  suppose  that  the  far  nobler  soul  does  not  continue  to 
exist  beyond  the  grave :  that  many  thousands  who  have  died 
before  us  might  claim  to  be  joint  owners  with  ourselves  of  the 
particles  that  compose  our  mortal  bodies  ;  for  matter  ever  forms 
new  combinations ;  and  the  bodies  of  the  ancient  dead,  the  patri- 
archs before  and  since  the  flood,  the  kings  and  common  people  o^ 
all  ages,  resolved  into  their  constituent  elements,  are  carried  upon 
the  wind  over  all  continents,  and  continually  enter  into  and  form 
part  of  the  habitations  of  new  souls,  creating  new  bonds  of  sym- 
pathy and  brotherhood  between  each  man  that  lives  and  all  his 
race.  And  thus,  in  the  bread  we  eat,  and  in  the  wine  we  drink- 
to-night,  may  enter  into  and  form  part  of  us  the  identical  particles 
of  matter  that  once  formed  parts  of  the  material  bodies  called 
Moses,  Confucius,  Plato,  Socrates,  or  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  In  the 
truest  sense,  we  eat  and  drink  the  bodies  of  the  dead ;  and  cannot 
say  that  there  is  a  single  atom  of  our  blood  cr  body,  the  owner- 
ship of  which  some  other  soul  might  not  dispute  with  us.  It 
teaches  us  also  the  infinite  beneficence  of  God  who  sends  us  seed- 
time and  harvest,  each  in  its  season,  and  makes  His  showers  to 
fall  and  His  sun  to  shine  alike  upon  the  evil  and  the  good: 
bestowing  upon  us  unsolicited  His  innumerable  blessings,  and  ask- 
ing no  return.  For  there  are  no  angels  stationed  upon  the  watch- 
towers  of  creation  to  call  the  world  to  prayer  and  sacrifice  •  but  He 
bestows  His  benefits  in  silence,  like  a  kind  friend  who  comes  at 
night,  and,  leaving  his  gifts  at  the  door,  to  be  found  by  us  in  the 
morning,  goes  quietly  away  and  asks  no  thanks,  nor  ceases  his  kind 
offices  for  our  ingratitude.  And  thus  the  bread  and  wine  teach 
us  that  our  Mortal  Body  is  no  more  \Yi-:  than  the  house  in  which 
\ve  live,  or  the  garments  that  we  wear;  but  the  Soul  is  I,  tho  ONK. 
identical,  unchangeable,  immortal  emanation  from  the  Deity,  to 


540  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

return  to  God  and  be  forever  happy,  in  His  good  time;  as  our 
mortal  bodies,  dissolving,  return  to  the  elements  from  which  they 
came,  their  particles  coming  and  going  ever  in  perpetual  genesis. 
To  our  Jewish  Brethren,  this  supper  is  symbolical  of  the  Passover : 
to  the  Christian  Mason,  of  that  eaten  by  Christ  and  His  Disciples, 
when,  celebrating  the  Passover,  He  broke  bread  and  gave  it  to 
them,  saying,  "Take !  eat !  this  is  My  body :"  and  giving  them 
the  cup,  He  said,  "Drink  ye  all  of  it !  for  this  is  My  blood  of  the 
New  Testament,  which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins :" 
thus  symbolizing  the  perfect  harmony  and  union  between  Him- 
self and  the  faithful ;  and  His  death  upon  the  cross  for  the  salva- 
tion of  man. 

The  history  of  Masonry  is  the  history  of  Philosophy.  Masons 
do  not  pretend  to  set  themselves  up  for  instructors  of  the  human 
race :  but,  though  Asia  produced  and  preserved  the  Mysteries, 
Masonry  has,  in  Europe  and  America,  given  regularity  to  their 
doctrines,  spirit,  and  action,  and  developed  the  moral  advantages 
which  mankind  may  reap  from  them.  More  consistent,  and  more 
simple  in  its  mode  of  procedure,  it  has  put  an  end  to  the  vast  alle- 
gorical pantheon  of  ancient  mythologies,  and  itself  become  a 
science. 

None  can  deny  that  Christ  taught  a  lofty  morality.  "Love  one 
another :  forgive  those  that  despitefully  use  you  and  persecute 
you :  be  pure  of  heart,  meek,  humble,  contented :  lay  not  up 
riches  en  earth,  but  in  Heaven  :  submit  to  the  powers  lawfully  over 
you :  become  like  these  little  children,  or  ye  cannot  be  saved,  for 
of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven :  forgive  the  repentant ;  and 
cast  no  stone  at  the  sinner,  if  you  too  ha-\e  sinned :  do  unto  others 
as  ye  would  have  others  do  unto  you :  '  such,  and  not  abstruse 
questions  of  theology,  were  His  simple  and  sublime  teachings. 

The  early  Christians  followed  in  His  footsteps.  The  first  preach- 
ers of  the  faith  had  no  thought  of  domination.  Entirely  ani- 
mated by  His  saying,  that  he  among  them  should  be  first,  who 
should  serve  with  the  greatest  devotion,  they  were  humble,  mod- 
est, and  charitable,  and  they  knew  how  to  communicate  this  spirit 
of  the  inner  man  to  the  churches  under  their  direction.  These 
churches  were  at  first  but  spontaneous  meetings  of  all  Christians 
inhabiting  the  same  locality.  A  pure  and  severe  morality,  ming- 
led with  religious  enthusiasm,  was  the  characteristic  of  each,  and 
excited  the  admiration  even  of  their  persecutors.  Everything  was 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  541 

in  common  among  them ;  their  property,  their  joys,  and  their  sor- 
rows. In  the  silence  of  night  they  met  for  instruction  and  to 
pray  together.  Their  love-feasts,  or  fraternal  repasts,  ended  these 
reunions,  in  which  all  differences  in  social  position  and  rank  were 
effaced  in  the  presence  of  a  paternal  Divinity.  Their  sole  object 
was  to  make  men  better,  by  bringing  them  back  to  a  simple  wor- 
ship, of  which  universal  morality  was  the  basis ;  and  to  end  those 
numerous  and  cruel  sacrifices  which  everywhere  inundated  with 
blood  the  altars  of  the  gods.  Thus  did  Christianity  reform  the 
world,  and  obey  the  teachings  of  its  founder.  It  gave  to  woman 
her  proper  rank  and  influence ;  it  regulated  domestic  life :  and  by 
admitting  the  slaves  to  the  love-feasts,  it  by  degrees  raised  them  t 
above  that  oppression  under  which  half  of  mankind  had  groaned 
for  ages. 

This,  in  its  purity,  as  taught  by  Christ  Himself,  was  the  true 
primitive  religion,  as  communicated  by  God  to  the  Patriarchs.  It 
was  no  new  religion,  but  the  reproduction  of  the  oldest  of  all ; 
and  its  true  and  perfect  morality  is  the  morality  of  Masonry,  as  is 
the  morality  of  every  creed  of  antiquity. 

In  the  early  days  of  Christianity,  there  was  an  initiation  like 
those  of  the  Pagans.  Persons  were  admitted  on  special  conditions 
only.  To  arrive  at  a  complete  knowledge  of  the  doctrine,  they  had 
to  pass  three  degrees  of  instruction.  The  Initiates  were  conse- 
quently divided  into  three  classes;  the  first,  Auditors,  the  second, 
Catechumens,  and  the  third,  the  Faithful.  The  Auditors  were  a 
sort  of  novices,  who  were  prepared  by  certain  ceremonies  and  cer- 
tain instruction  to  receive  the  dogmas  of  Christianity.  A  portion 
of  these  dogmas  was  made  known  to  the  Catechumens ;  who.  after 
particular  purifications,  received  baptism,  or  the  initiation  of  the 
theogenesis  (divine  generation}  ;  but  in  the  grand  mysteries  of  that 
religion,  the  incarnation,  nativity,  passion,  and  resurrection  of 
Christ,  none  were  initiated  but  the  Faithful.  These  doctrines, 
and  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Sacraments,  particularly  the  Eu- 
charist, were  kept  with  profound  secrecy.  These  Mysteries  were 
divided  into  two  parts ;  the  first  styled  the  Mass  of  the  Catechu- 
mens ;  the  second,  the  Mass  of  the  Faithful.  The  celebration  of 
the  Mysteries  of  Mithras  was  also  styled  a  mass;  and  the  ceremo- 
nies used  were  the  same.  There  were  found  all  the  sacraments  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  even  the  breath  of  confirmation.  The  Priest 
of  Mithras  promised  the  Initiates  deliverance  from  sin,  by  means 


542  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  confession  and  baptism,  and  a  future  life  of  happiness  or  mis- 
ery. He  celebrated  the  oblation  of  bread,  image  of  the  resurrec- 
tion. The  baptism  of  newly-born  children,  extreme  unction,  con- 
fession of  sins, — all  belonged  to  the  Mithriac  rites.  The  candidate 
was  purified  by  a  species  of  baptism,  a  mark  was  impressed  upon 
his  forehead,  he  offered  bread  and  water,  pronouncing  certain  mys- 
terious words. 

During  the  persecutions  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity,  the 
Christians  took  refuge  in  the  vast  catacombs  which  stretched  for 
miles  in  every  direction  under  the  city  of  Rome,  and  are  supposed 
to  have  been  of  Etruscan  origin.  There,  amid  labyrinthine  wind- 
ings, deep  caverns,  hidden  chambers,  chapels,  and  tombs,  the  per- 
secuted fugitives  found  refuge,  and  there  they  performed  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Mysteries. 

The  Basilideans,  a  sect  of  Christians  that  ?rose  soon  after  the 
time  of  the  Apostles,  practised  the  Mysteries,  with  the  old  Egyp- 
tian legend.  They  symbolized  Osiris  by  the  Sun,  Isis  by  the  Moon, 
and  Typhon  by  Scorpio ;  and  wore  crystals  bearing  these  emblems, 
as  amulets  or  talismans  to  protect  them  from  danger ;  upon  which 
were  also  a  brilliant  star  and  the  serpent.  They  were  copied  from 
the  talismans  of  Persia  and  Arabia,  and  given  to  every  candidate 
at  his  initiation. 

Irenaeus  tells  us  that  the  Simonians,  one  of  the  earliest  sects  of 
the  Gnostics,  had  a  Priesthood  of  the  Mysteries. 

Tertullian  tells  us  that  the  Valentinians,  the  most  celebrated  of 
all  the  Gnostic  schools,  imitated,  or  rather  perverted,  the  Myste- 
ries of  Eleusis.  Irenreus  informs  us,  in  several  curious  chapters, 
of  the  Mysteries  practised  by  the  Marcosians ;  and  Origen  gives 
much  information  as  to  the  Mysteries  of  the  Ophites ;  and  there  is 
no  doubt  that  all  the  Gnostic  sects  had  Mysteries  and  an  initiation. 
They  all  claimed  to  possess  a  secret  doctrine,  coining  to  them  di- 
rectly from  Jesus  Christ,  different  from  that  of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles,  and  superior  to  those  communications,  which  in  their 
eyes,  were  merely  exoteric.  This  secret  doctrine  they  did  not 
communicate  to  every  one ;  and  among  the  extensive  sect  of  the 
Basilideans  hardly  one  in  a  thousand  knew  it,  as  we  learn  from 
Irenams.  We  know  the  name  of  only  the  highest  class  of  their 
Initiates.  They  were  styled  Elect  or  Elits  •  [ExUxroi],  and 
Strangers  to  the  World  [?£i/or  li^  •/I'frfj.w'].  They  had  at  least 
three  Degrees — the  Material,  the  Intellectual,  and  the  Spiritual: 


FRINGE  OF   MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH    TRINITARIAN.  543 

and  the  lesser  and  greater  Mysteries ;  and  the  number  of  those 
who  attained  the  highest  Degree  was  quite  small. 

Baptism  was  one  of  their  most  important  ceremonies ;  and  the 
Basilideans  celebrated  the  loth  of  January,  as  the  anniversary  of 
the  day  on  which  Christ  was  baptized  in  Jordan. 

They  had  the  ceremony  of  laying  on  of  hands,  by  way  of  purifi- 
cation ;  and  that  of  the  mystic  banquet,  emblem  of  that  to  which 
they  believed  the  Heavenly  Wisdom  would  one  day  admit  them,  in 
the  fullness  of  things  [/7/^/>w//«J. 

Their  ceremonies  were  much  more  like  those  of  the  Christians 
than  those  of  Greece ;  but  they  mingled  with  them  much  that  was 
borrowed  from  the  Orient  and  Egypt :  and  taught  the  primitive 
truths,  mixed  with  a  multitude  of  fantastic  errors  and  fictions, 

The  discipline  of  the  secret  was  the  concealment  (occultatio}  of 
certain  tenets  and  ceremonies.  So  says  Clemens  of  Alexandria. 

To  avoid  persecution,  the  early  Christians  were  compelled  to  use 
great  precaution,  and  to  hold  meetings  of  the  Faithful  [of  the 
Household  of  Faith]  in  private  places,  under  concealment  by 
darkness.  They  assembled  in  the  night,  and  they  guarded  against 
the  intrusion  of  false  brethren  and  profane  persons,  spies  who 
might  cause  their  arrest.  They  conversed  together  figuratively, 
and  by  the  use  of  symbols,  lest  cowans  and  eavesdroppers  might 
overhear :  and  there  existed  among  them  a  favored  class,  or  Order, 
who  were  initiated  into  certain  Mysteries  which  they  were  bound 
by  solemn  promise  not  to  disclose,  or  even  converse  about,  except 
with  such  as  had  received  them  under  the  same  sanction.  They 
were  called  Brethren,  the  Faithful,  Stewards  of  the  Mysteries,  Su- 
perintendents, Devotees  of  the  Secret,  and  ARCHITECTS. 

In  the  Hierarchies,  attributed  to  St.  Dionysius  the  Areopagite, 
the  first  Bishop  of  Athens,  the  tradition  of  the  sacrament  is  said  to 
have  been  divided  into  three  Degrees,  or  grades,  purification,  initia- 
tion, and  accomplishment  or  perfection;  and  it  mentions  also,  as 
part  of  the  ceremony,  the  bringing  to  sight. 

The  Apostolic  Constitutions,  attributed  to  Clemens,  Bishop  of 
Rome,  describe  the  early  church,  and  say :  "These  regulations 
must  on  no  account  be  communicated  to  all  sorts  of  persons,  be- 
cause of  the  Mysteries  contained  in  them."  They  speak  of  the  Dea- 
con's duty  to  keep  the  doors,  that  none  uninitiated  should  enter  at 
the  oblation.  Ostiarii,  or  doorkeepers,  kept  guard,  and  gave  notice 
of  the  time  of  prayer  and  church-assemblies ;  and  also  by  private 


544  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

signal, in  times  of  persecution,  gave  notice  to  those  within,  to  enable 
them  to  avoid  danger.  The  Mysteries  were  open  to  the  Fideles  or 
Faithful  only ;  and  no  spectators  were  allowed  at  the  communion. 

Tertullian,  who  died  about  A.  D.  216,  says  in  his  Apology: 
''None  are  admitted  to  the  religious  Mysteries  without  an  oath  of 
secrecy.  We  appeal  to  your  Thracian  and  Eleusinian  Mysteries : 
and  we  are  especially  bound  to  this  caution,  because  if  we  prove 
faithless,  we  should  not  only  provoke  Heaven,  but  draw  upon  our 
heads  the  utmost  rigor  of  human  displeasure.  -And  should 
strangers  betray  us  ?  They  know  nothing  but  by  report  and  hearsay. 
Far  hence,  ye  Profane !  is  the  prohibition  from  all  holy  Mysteries." 

Clemens,  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  born  about  A.  D.  191,  says,  in 
his  Stromata,  that  he  cannot  explain  the  Mysteries,  because  he 
should  thereby,  according  to  the  old  proverb,  put  a  sword  into  the 
hands  of  a  child.  He  frequently  compares  the  Discipline  of  the 
Secret  with  the  heathen  Mysteries,  as  to  their  internal  and  recon- 
dite wisdom. 

Whenever  the  early  Christians  happened  to  be  in  companv  with 
strangers,  more  properly  termed  the  Profane,  they  never  spoke  of 
their  sacraments,  but  indicated  to  one  another  what  they  meant, 
by  means  of  symbols  and  secret  watchwords,  disguisedly,  and  as 
by  direct  communication  of  mind  with  mind,  and  by  enigmas. 

Origen,  born  A.  D.  134  or  135,  answering  Celsus,  who  had  ob- 
jected thatthe  Christians  had  a  concealed  doctrine  said  :  "Inasmuch 
as  the  essential  and  important  doctrines  and  principles  of  Christian- 
ity are  openly  taught,  it  is  foolish  to  object  that  there  are  other 
things  that  are  recondite ;  for  this  is  common  to  Christian  disci- 
pline with  that  of  those  philosophers  in  whose  teaching'  some 
things  were  exoteric  and  some  esoteric :  and  it  is  enough  to  say 
that  it  was  so  with  some  of  the  disciples  of  Pythagoras." 

The  formula  which  the  primitive  church  pronounced  at  the 
moment  of  celebrating  its  Mysteries,  was  this :  "Depart,  ye 
Profane !  Let  the  Catechumens,  and  those  who  have  not  been 
admitted  or  initiated,  go  forth." 

Archelaus,  Bishop  of  Cascara  in  Mesopotamia,  who,  in  the  year 
2/8,  conducted  a  controversy  with  the  Manicnasans,  said  :  "These 
Mysteries  the  church  now  communicates  to  him  who  has  passed 
through  the  introductory  Degree.  They  are  not  explained  to  the 
Gentiles  at  all ;  nor  are  they  taught  openly  in  the  hearing  of  Cate- 
chumens ;  but  much  that  is  spoken  is  in  disguised  terms,  that 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  545 

the  Faithful  [/Terror],  who  possess  the  knowledge,  may  be  still 
more  informed,  and  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  it,  may 
suffer  no  disadvantage." 

Cyril,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  was  born  in  the  year  315,  and  died 
in  386.  In  his  Catcchcsis  he  says :  "The  Lord  spake  in  parables  to 
His  hearers  in  general ;  but  to  His  disciples  He  explained  in  private 
the  parables  and  allegories  which  He  spoke  in  public.  The 
splendor  of  glory  is  for  those  who  are  early  enlightened :  obscurity 
and  darkness  are  the  portion  of  the  unbelievers  and  ignorant. 
Just  so  the  church  discovers  its  Mysteries  to  those  who  have 
advanced  beyond  the  class  of  Catechumens :  we  employ  obscure 
terms  with  others." 

St.  Basil,  the  Great  Bishop  of  Caesarea  born  in  the  year  326,  and 
dying  in  the  year  376,  says :  "We  receive  the  dogmas  transmitted 
to  us  by  writing,  and  those  which  have  descended  to  us  from  the 
Apostles,  beneath  the  mystery  of  oral  tradition :  for  several  things 
have  been  handed  to  us  without  writing,  lest  the  vulgar,  too  famil- 
iar with  our  dogmas,  should  lose  a  due  respect  for  them.  .  .  .This 
is  what  the  uninitiated  are  not  permitted  to  contemplate ;  and  how 
should  it  ever  be  proper  to  write  and  circulate  among  the  people 
an  account  of  them  ?" 

St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  A.  D.  379, 
says :  "You  have  heard  as  much  of  the  Mystery  as  we  are  allowed 
to  speak  openly  in  the  ears  of  all ;  the  rest  will  be  commu- 
nicated to  you  in  private ;  and  that  you  must  retain  within 
yourself Our  Mysteries  are  not  to  be  made  known  to  stran- 
gers." 

St.  Ambrose,  Archbishop  of  Milan,  who  was  born  in  340,  and 
died  in  393,  says  in  his  work  De  Mystcriis:  "All  the  Mystery 
should  be  kept  concealed,  guarded  by  faithful  silence  lest  it  should 

be  inconsiderately  divulged  to  the  ears  of  the  Profane It  is 

not  given  to  all  to  contemplate  the  depths  of  our  Mysteries 

that  the/  may  not  be  seen  by  those  who  ought  not  to  beheld  them  : 
nor  received  by  those  who  cannot  preserve  them."  And  in  another 
work :  "He  sins  against  God,  who  divulges  to  the  unworthy  the 
Mysteries  confided  to  him.  The  danger  is  not  merely  in  violating 
truth,  but  in  telling  truth,  if  he  allow  himself  to  give  hints  of  them 
to  those  from  whom  they  ought  to  be  concealed Beware  of  cast- 
ing pearls  before  swine !... .Every  Mystery  ought  to  be  kept  secret : 
and, as  it  were,  to  be  covered  over  by  silence,  lest  it  should  rashly  be 


546  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

divulged  to  the  ears  of  the  Profane.  Take  heed  that  you  do  not 
incautiously  reveal  the  Mysteries!" 

St.  Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo,  who  was  born  in  347,  and  died 
in  430,  says  in  one  of  his  discourses :  "Having  dismissed  the  Cat- 
echumens, we  have  retained  you  only  to  be  our  hearers  ;  because,  be- 
sides those  things  which  belong  to  all  Christians  in  common,  we  are 
now  to  discourse  to  you  of  sublime  Mysteries,  which  none  are 
qualified  to  hear,  but  those  who,  by  the  Master's  favor,  are  made 

partakers  of  them To  have  taught  them  openlv,  would  have 

been  to  betray  them/'  And  he  refers  to  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant, 
and  says  that  it  signified  a  Mystery,  or  secret  of  God,  shadowed 
over  by  the  cherubim  of  glory,  and  honored  by  being  veiled. 

St.  Chrysostom  and  St.  Augustine  speak  of  initiation  more  than 
fifty  times.  St.  Ambrose  writes  to  those  who  are  initiated;  and 
initiation  was  not  merely  baptism,  or  admission  into  the  church, 
but  it  referred  to  initiation  into  the  Mysteries.  To  the  baptized 
and  initiated  the  Mysteries  of  religion  were  unveiled ;  they  were 
kept  secret  from  the  Catechumens ;  who  were  permitted  to  hear 
the  Scriptures  read  and  the  ordinary  discourses  delivered,  in 
which  the  Mysteries,  reserved  for  the  Faithful,  were  never  treated 
of.  When  the  services  and  prayers  were  ended,  the  Catechumens 
and  spectators  all  withdrew. 

Chrysostom,  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  was  born  in  354,  and 
died  in  417.  He  says:  "I  wish  to  speak  openly:  but  I  dare  not, 
on  account  of  those  who  are  not  initiated.  I  shall  therefore  avail 

myself  of  disguised  terms,  discoursing  in  a  shadowy  manner 

Where  the  holy  Mysteries  are  celebrated,  we  drive  away  all  unin- 
itiated persons,  and  then  close  the  doors."  He  mentions  the  accla- 
mations of  the  initiated ;  "which,"  he  says,  "I  here  pass  over  in 
silence ;  for  it  is  forbidden  to  disclose  such  things  to  the  Profane." 
Palladius,  in  his  life  of  Chrysostom,  records,  as  a  great  outrage, 
that,  a  tumult  having  been  excited  against  him  by  his  enemies, 
they  forced  their  \vay  into  the  penetralia,  where  the  uninitiated 
beheld  what  was  not  proper  for  them  to  see ;  and  Chrysostom 
mentions  the  same  circumstance  in  his  epistle  to  Pope  Innocent. 

St.  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  who  was  made  Bishop  in  412,  and  died 
in  444,  says  in  his  7th  Book  against  Julian  :  "These  Mysteries 
are  so  profound  and  so  exalted,  that  they  can  be  comprehended  by 
those  only  who  are  enlightened.  I  shall  not,  therefore,  attempt  to 
speak  of  what  is  so  admirable  in  them,  lest  by  discovering  them  to 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  54/ 

the  uninitiated,  I  should  offend  against  the  injunction  not  to  give 
what  is  holy  to  the  impure,  nor  cast  pearls  before  such  as  cannot 

estimate  their  worth I  should  say  much  more,  if  I  were  not 

afraid  of  being  heard  by  those  who  are  uninitiated :  because  men 
are  apt  to  deride  what  they  do  not  understand.  And  the  ignorant, 
not  being  aware  of  the  weakness  of  their  minds,  condemn  what 
they  ought  most  to  venerate." 

Theodoret,  Bishop  of  Cyropolis  in  Syria,  was  born  in  393,  and 
made  Bishop  in  420.  In  one  of  his  three  Dialogues,  called  the 
Immutable,  he  introduces  Orthodoxus,  speaking  thus:  "Answer 
me,  if  you  please,  in  mystical  or  obscure  terms :  for  perhaps  there 
are  some  persons  present  who  are  not  initiated  into  the  Mysteries." 
And  in  his  preface  to  Ezekiel, tracing  up  the  secret  discipline  to  the 
commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  he  says  ;  "These  Mysteries 
are  so  august,  that  we  ought  to  keep  them  with  the  greatest 
caution." 

Minucius  Felix,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Rome,  who  lived  in  212. 
and  wrote  a  defence  of  Christianity,  says:  "Many  of  them  [the 
Christians]  know  each  other  by  tokens  and  signs  (notis  ct  insigni- 
bus),  and  they  form  a  friendship  for  each  other,  almost  before 
they  become  acquainted." 

The  Latin  Word,  tessera,  originally  meant  a  square  piece  of 
wood  or  stone,  used  in  making  tesselated  pavements ;  afterward  a 
tablet  on  which  anything  was  written,  and  then  a  cube  or  die.  Its 
most  general  use  was  to  designate  a  piece  of  metal  or  wood,  square 
in  shape,  on  which  the  watchword  of  an  Army  was  inscribed ; 
whence  tessera  came  to  mean  the  watchword  itself.  There  was 
also  a  tessera  hospitalis,  which  was  a  piece  of  wrood  cut  into  two 
parts,  as  a  pledge  of  friendship.  Each  party  kept  one  of  the  parts ; 
and  they  swore  mutual  fidelity  by  Jupiter.  To  break  the  tessera 
was  considered  a  dissolution  of  the  friendship.  The  early  Chris- 
tians used  it  as  a  Mark,  the  watchword  of  friendship.  With  them 
it  was  generally  in  the  shape  of  a  fish,  and  made  of  bone.  On  its 
face  was  inscribed  the  word  fytt'J',  a  fish,  the  initials  of  which 
represented  the  Greek  words,  Irfitfj^  Xf)cffrb^  6soo  1  lb~  ^.tur^o; 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour. 

St.  Augustine  (dc  Fide  et  S\mbolis}  says:  "This  is  the  faith 
which  in  a  few  words  is  given  to  thfe  Nov ices  to  be  kept  by  a  symbol : 
these  few  words  are  known  to  all  the  Faithful ;  that  by  believing 
they  may  be  submissive  to  God :  by  being  thus  submissive,  they 


548  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

may  live  rightly;  by  living  rightly,  they  may  purify  their  hearts 
and  with  a  pure  heart  may  understand  what  they  believe." 

Maximus  Taurinus  says:  "The  tessera  is  a  symbol  and  sign 
by  which  to  distinguish  between  the  Faithful  and  the  Profane." 

There  are  three  Degrees  in  Blue  Masonry  ;  and  in  addition  to  the 
two  words  of  two  syllables  each,  embodying  the  binary,  three, 
of  three  syllables  each.  There  were  three  Grand  Masters,  the  two 
Kings,  and  Khir-Om  the  Artificer.  The  candidate  gains  admission 
by  three  raps,  and  three  raps  call  up  the  Brethren.  There  are  three 
principal  officers  of  the  Lodge,  three  lights  at  the  Altar,  three  gates 
of  the  Temple,  all  in  the  East,  West,  and  South.  The  three  lights 
represent  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  and  Mercury;  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus  ; 
the  Father,  the  Mother,  and  the  Child;  Wisdom,  Strength,  and 
Beauty  ;  Hakamah,  Binah,  and  Daath ;  Gedulah,  Geburah,  and  Tep- 
areth.  The  candidate  makes  three  circuits  of  the  Lodge :  there  were 
three  assassins  of  Khir-Om,  and  he  was  slain  by  three  blows  while 
seeking  to  escape  by  the  three  gates  of  the  Temple.  The  ejacula- 
tion at  his  grave  was  repeated  three  times.  There  are  three  divis- 
ions of  the  Temple,  and  three,  five,  and  seven  Steps.  A  Master 
works  with  Chalk,  Charcoal,  and  a  vessel  of  Clay ;  there  are  three 
movable  and  three  immovable  jewels.  The  Triangle  appears 
among  the  Symbols :  the  two  parallel  lines  enclosing  the  circle  are 
connected  at  top,  as  are  the  Columns  Jachin  and  Boaz,  symboliz- 
ing the  equilibrium  which  explains  the  great  Mysteries  of  Nature. 

This  continual  reproduction  of  the  number  three  is  not  acciden- 
tal, nor  without  a  profound  meaning :  and  we  shall  find  the  same 
repeated  in  all  the  Ancient  philosophies. 

The  Egyptian  Gods  formed  Triads,  the  third  member  in  each 
proceeding  from  the  other  two.  Thus  we  have  the  Triad  of  Thebes, 
Amun,  Maut,  and  Kharso ;  that  of  Philae,  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus ; 
that  of  Elephantine  and  the  Cataracts,  Neph,  Sate,  and  Anouke. 

Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus  were  the  Father,  Mother,  and  Son ;  the 
latter  being  Light,  the  Soul  of  the  World,  the  Son,  the  Protogonos 
or  First-Begotten. 

Sometimes  this  Triad  was  regarded  as  SPIRIT,  or  the  active 
Principle  or  Generative  Power ;  MATTER,  or  the  PASSIVE  Principle 
or  Productive  Capacity ;  and  the  Universe,  which  proceeds  from 
the  two  Principles. 

We  also  find  in  Egypt  this  Triad  or  Trinity ;  Ammon-Ra.  the 
Creator :  Osiris-Ra,  the  Giver  of  Fruitfulness ;  Horus- Ra,  the 


PRINCE   OF    MERCY,    OR   SCOTTISH    TRINITARIAN'.  549 

Queller  of  Light ;  symbolized  by  the  Summer,  Autumn,  and  Spring 
Sun.  For  the  Egyptians  had  but  three  Seasons,  the  three  gates  of 
the  Temple ;  and  on  account  of  the  different  effects  of  the  Sun  on 
those  three  Seasons,  the  Deity  appears  in  these  three  forms. 

The  Phoenician  Trinity  was  Ulomos,  Chusoros,  and  the  Egg  out 
of  which  the  Universe  proceeded. 

The  Chaldean  Triad  consisted  of  Bel,  [the  Persian  Zervana 
Akherana],  Oromasdes,  and  Ahriman ;  the  Good  and  Evil  Prin- 
ciple alike  outflowing  from  the  Father,  by  their  equilibrium  and 
alternating  preponderance  to  produce  harmony.  Each  was  to  rule, 
iji  turn,  for  equal  periods,  until  finally  the  Evil  Principle  should 
itself  become  good. 

The  Chaldean  and  Persian  oracles  of  Zoroaster  give  us  the 
Triad,  Fire,  Light,  and  Ether. 

Orpheus  celebrates  the  Triad  of  Phanes,  Ouranos,  and  Kronos. 
Corry  says  the  Orphic  Trinity  consisted  of  Metis,  Phanes,  and  Eri- 
capaeus  ;  Will,  Light  or  Love,  and  Life.  Acusilaus  makes  it  consist 
of  Metis,  Eros,  and  yEther :  Will,  Love,  and  Ether.  Phereycides 
of  Syros,  of  Fire,  Water,  and  Air  or  Spirit.  In  the  two  former 
we  readily  recognize  Osiris  and  Isis,  the  Sun  and  the  Nile. 

The  first  three  of  the  Persian  Amshaspands  were  BAH  MAN,  the 
Lord  of  LIGHT  ;  Arclibehest,  the  Lord  of  FIRE  ;  and  Shariver,  the 
Lord  of  SPLENDOR.  These  at  once  lead  us  back  to  the  Kabala. 

Plutarch  says  :  "The  better  and  diviner  nature  consists  of  three  ; 
the  Intelligible  (/.  c.  that  which  exists  within  the  Intellect  only  as 
yet),  and  Matter;  TO  No^roz  and  &l~ty,  and  that  which  proceeds 
from  these,  which  the  Greeks  call  Kosmos :  of  which  Plato  calls 
the  Intelligible,  the  Idea,  the  Exemplar,  the  Father :  Matter,  the 
Mother,  the  Nurse,  and  the  receptacle  and  place  of  generation  :  and 
the  issue  of  these  two,  the  Offspring  and  Genesis." 

The  Pythagorean  fragments  say:  "Therefore,  before  the  Heaven 
was  made, there  existed  Idea  and  Matter,  and  God  the  Demiourgos 
[workman  or  active  instrument],  of  the  former.  He  made  the 
world  out  of  matter,  perfect,  only-begotten,  with  a  soul  and  intel- 
lect, and  constituted  it  a  divinity." 

Plato  gives  us  Thought,  the  Father ;  Primitive  Matter,  the 
Mother;  and  Kosmos,  the  Son,  the  issue  of  the  two  Principles. 
Kosmos  is  the  ensouled  Universe. 

With  the  later  Platonists,  the  Triad  was  Potence,  Intellect,  and 
Spirit.  Philo  represents  Sanchoniathon's  as  Fire,  Light,  and  Flame, 


55°  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  three  Sons  of  Genos;  but  this  is  the  Alexandrian,  not  the 
Phoenician  idea. 

Aurelius  says  the  Demiourgos  or  Creator  is  triple,  and  the  three 
Intellects  are  the  three  Kings :  He  who  exists ;  He  who  possesses ; 
He  who  beholds.  The  first  is  that  which  exists  by  its  essence ;  the 
second  exists  in  the  first,  and  contains  or  possesses  in  itself  the 
Universal  of  things ;  all  that  afterward  becomes :  the  third  be- 
holds this  Universal,  formed  and  fashioned  intellectually,  and  so 
having  a  separate  existence.  The  Third  exists  in  the  Second,  and 
tht:  Second  in  the  First. 

The  most  ancient  Trinitarian  doctrine  on  record  is  that  of  the 
Brahmins.  The  Eternal  Supreme  Essence,  called  PARABRAHMA, 
BRAHM,  PARATMA,  produced  the  Universe  by  self-reflection,  and 
first  revealed  himself  as  BRAHMA,  the  Creating  Power,  then  as 
VISHNU,  the  Preserving  Power,  and  lastly  as  SIVA,  the  Destroying 
and  Renovating  Power ;  the  three  Modes  in  which  the  Supreme 
Essence  reveals  himself  in  the  material  Universe ;  but  which  soon 
came  to  be  regarded  as  three  distinct  Deities.  These  three  Deities 
they  styled  the  TRIMURTI,  or  TRIAD. 

The  Persians  received  from  the  Indians  the  doctrine  of  the 
three  principles,  and  changed  it  to  that  of  a  principle  of  Life, 
which  was  individualized  by  the  Sun,  and  a  principle  of  Death, 
which  was  symbolized  by  cold  and  darkness ;  parallel  of  the  moral 
vvorld ;  and  in  which  the  continual  and  alternating  struggle  be- 
tween light  and  darkness,  life  and  death,  seemed  but  a  phase  of 
the  great  struggle  between  the  good  and  evil  principles,  embodied 
in  the  legend  of  ORMUZD  and  AHRIMAN.  MITHRAS,  a  Median 
reformer,  was  deified  after  his  death,  and  invested  with  the  attri- 
butes of  the  Sun ;  the  different  astronomical  phenomena  being 
figuratively  detailed  as  actual  incidents  of  his  life  ;  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  the  history  of  BUDDHA  was  invented  among  the  Hindus. 

The  Trinity  of  the  Hindus  became  among  the  Ethiopians  and 
Abyssinians  NEPH-AMON,PHTHA,and  NEITH — the  God  CREATOR, 
whose  emblem  was  a  ram — MATTER,  or  the  primitive  mud,  sym- 
bolized by  a  globe  or  an  egg,  and  THOUGHT,  or  the  LIGHT  which 
contains  the  germ  of  everything;  triple  manifestation  of  one  and 
the  same  God  (ATHOM), considered  in  three  aspects, as  tliecrcative 
fro-wcr  goodness,  and  wisdom.  Other  Deities  were  speedily  in- 
vented :  and  among  them  OSIRIS,  represented  by  the  Sun,  Isis,  h;s 
wife,  bv  the  Moon  or  Earth,  TYPHON,  his  Brother,  the  Principle 


I'klNCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  551 

of  Evil  and  Darkness,  who  was  the  son  of  Osiris  and  Isis.  And 
the  Trinity  of  OSIRIS,  Isis,  and  HORUS  became  subsequently  the 
Chief  Gods  and  objects  of  worship  of  the  Egyptians. 

The  ancient  Etruscans  (a  race  that  emigrated  from  the  Rhaetian 
Alps  into  Italy,  along  whose  route  evidences  of  their  migration 
have  been  discovered,  and  whose  language  none  have  yet  succeeded 
in  reading)  acknowledged  only  one  Supreme  God ;  but  they  had 
images  for  His  different  attributes,  and  temples  to  these  images. 
Each  town  had  one  National  Temple,  dedicated  to  the  three  great 
attributes  of  God,  STRENGTH,  RICHES,  and  WISDOM,  or  Tina, 
Talna,  and  Minerva.  The  National  Deity  was  always  a  Triad 
under  one  roof ;  and  it  was  the  same  in  Egypt,  where  one  Supreme 
God  alone  was  acknowledged,  but  was  worshipped  as  a  Triad,  with 
different  names  in  each  different  home.  Each  city  in  Etruria 
might  have  as  many  gods  and  gates  and  temples  as  it  pleased ;  but 
three  sacred  gates,  and  one  Temple  to  three  Divine  Attributes,  were 
obligatory,  wherever  the  laws  of  Tages  (or  Tauut  or  Thoth)  were 
received.  The  only  gate  that  remains  in  Italy,  of  the  olden 
time,  undestroyed,  is  the  Porta  del  Circo  at  Volterra;  and  it  has 
upon  it  the  three  heads  of  the  three  National  Divinities,  one  upon 
the  keystone  of  its  magnificent  arch,  and  one  above  each  side- 
pillar. 

The  Buddhists  hold  that  the  God  SAKYA  of  the  Hindus,  called 
in  Ceylon,  GAUTAMA,  in  India  beyond  the  Ganges,  SOMONAKO- 
DOM,  and  in  China,  CHY-KIA,  or  Fo,  constituted  a  Trinity  [TRi- 
KATNA],  of  BUDDHA,  DHARMA,  and  SANGA, — Intelligence,  La^\ 
and  Union  or  Harmony. 

The  Chinese  Sabasans  represented  the  Supreme  Deity  as  com- 
posed of  CHANG-TI,  the  Supreme  Sovereign;  TIEN,  the  Heavens: 
and  TAO,  the  Universal  Supreme  Reason  and  Principle  of  Faith: 
and  that  from  Chaos,  an  immense  silence,  an  immeasurable  void, 
without  perceptible  forms,  alone,  infinite,  immutable,  moving  in  a 
circle  in  illimitable  space,  without  change  or  alteration,  when  vivi- 
fied by  the  Principle  of  Truth,  issued  all  Beings,  under  the 
influence  of  TAO,  Principle  of  Faith,  who  produced  one.  one 
produced  two.  two  produced  three,  and  three  produced  all 
that  is. 

The  Sclavono-Vendes  typified  the  Trinity  by  the  three  heads  of 
the  God  TRIGLAV;  and  the  Pruczi  or  Prussians  by  the  Tri-une 
God,  PERKOUN,  PIKOLLOS,  and  POTRIMPOS.  the  Deities  of  Light 


55^  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  Thunder,  of  Hell  and  the  Earth,  its  fruits  and  animals :  and 
the  Scandinavians  by  ODIN,  FREA,  and  THOR. 

In  the  KABALAH,  or  the  Hebrew  traditional  philosophy,  the  In- 
finite Deity,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  Human  Intellect,  and  without 
Name,  Form,  or  Limitation,  was  represented  as  developing  Him- 
self, in  order  to  create,  and  by  self-limitation,  in  ten  emanations  or 
out-flowings,  called  SEPHIROTH,  or  rays.  The  first  of  these,  in 
the  world  AZILUTH,  that  is,  within  the  Deity,  was  KETHER,  or  the 
Crown,  by  which  we  understand  the  Divine  Will  or  Potency.  Next 
came,  as  a  pair,  HAKEMAH  and  BAINAH,  ordinarily  translated 
"Wisdom"  and  "Intelligence,"  the  former  termed  the  FATHER, 
and  the  latter  the  MOTHER.  HAKEMAH  is  the  active  Power  or 
Energy  of  Deity,  by  which  He  produces  within  Himself  Intellec- 
tion or  Thinking:  and  BAINAH,  the  passive  Capacity,  from  which, 
acted  on  by  the  Power,  the  Intellection  flows.  This  Intellection  is 
called  DAATH  :  and  it  is  the  "  WORD,  "of  Plato  and  the  Gnostics  ;  the 
unuttered  word,  within  the  Deity.  Here  is  the  origin  of  the  Trinity 
of  the  Father,  the  Mother  or  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  Son  or  Word. 

Another  Trinity  was  composed  of  the  fourth  Sephirah,  GEDU- 
LAH  or  KHASED,  Benignity  or  Mercy,  also  termed  FATHER  (Aba)  ; 
the  ftfth,  GEBURAH,  Severity  or  Strict  Justice,  also  termed  the 
MOTHER  (Imma}  ;  and  the  sixth,  the  SON  or  Issue  of  these,  TIPH- 
ARETH,  Beauty  or  Harmony.  "Everything,"  says  the  SOHAR, 
"proceeds  according  to  the  Mystery  of  the  Balance" — that  is,  by 
the  equilibrium  of  Opposites :  and  thus  from  the  Infinite  Mercy 
and  the  Infinite  Justice,  in  equilibrium,  flows  the  perfect  Har- 
mony of  the  Universe.  Infinite  POWER,  which  is  Lawless,  and 
Infinite  WISDOM,  in  Equilibrium,  also  produce  BEAUTY  or  HAR- 
MONY, as  Son,  Issue,  or  Result — the  Word,  or  utterance  of  the 
Thought  of  God.  Power  and  Justice  or  Severity  are  the  same: 
Wisdom  and  Mercy  or  Benignity  are  the  same ; — in  the  Infinite 
Divine  Nature. 

According  to  Philo  of  Alexandria,  the  Supreme  Being,  Primitive 
Light  or  Archetype  of  Light,  uniting  with  WISDOM  [<Foc^«],  the 
mother  of  Creation,  forms  in  Himself  the  types  of  all  things, 
and  acts  upon  the  Universe  through  the  WORD  \_Aofo$  .  .  Logos], 
who  dwells  in  God,  and  in  whom  all  His  powers  and  attributes 
develop  themselves ;  a  doctrine  borrowed  by  him  from  Plato. 

Simon  Magus  and  his  disciples  taught  that  the  Supreme  Being 
or  Centre  of  Light  produced  first  of  all,  three  couples  of  united 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH   TRINITARIAN.  553 

Existences,  of  both  sexes,  [Jy^r^wc. .  .Suzupas],  which  were  the 
origins  of  all  things:  REASON  and  INVENTIVENESS;  SPEECH  and 
THOUGHT;  CALCULATION  and  REFLECTION  :  \_No~j?  and  Kxcvoca, 
@(ony  and  A'vvwa,  Ao-j-iff/w^  and  Evft')[irt(T)z.  .  .  Nous  and  Epi- 
noia,  Phone  and  Ennoia.Logismos  and  Enthumesis]  ;  of  which  En- 
noia  or  WISDOM  was  the  first  produced,  and  Mother  of  all  that 
exists. 

Other  Disciples  of  Simon,  and  with  them  most  of  the  Gnostics, 
adopting  and  modifying  the  doctrine,  taught  that  the  Jltyptoita 
.  .  Pleroma,  or  PLENITUDE  of  Superior  Intelligences,  having  the 
Supreme  Being  at  their  head,  was  composed  of  eight  Eons  [.-/rwv^c 
.  .  Aiones]  of  different  sexes ;  .  .  PROFUNDITY  and  SILENCE  ; 
SPIRIT  and  TRUTH  ;  the  WORD  and  LIFE;  MAN  and  the  CHURCH  : 
[/A>#oc  and  -V'/J  nvz'jjia  and  Aty&sia;  Aofo^  and  Zwr^ 
Av&fKoxoc  and  Exxtyma.  .  .  .  Buthos  and  Sige ;  Pneuma  and 
Aletheia ;  Logos  and  Zoe ;  Anthropos  and  Ekklesia] . 

Bardesanes,whosedoctrines  theSyrian  Christians  long  embraced, 
taught  that  the  unknown  Father,  happy  in  the  Plenitude  of  His 
Life  and  Perfections,  first  produced  a  Companion  for  Himself 
\_S')^>j-j-o^  .  .  .  Suzugos] ,  whom  He  placed  in  the  Celestial  Paradise 
and  who  became,  by  Him,  the  Mother  of  CHRISTOS,  Son  of  the 
Living  God:  i.  c.  (laying  aside  the  allegory),  that  the  Eternal 
conceived,  in  the  silence  of  His  decrees,  the  Thought  of  revealing 
Himself  by  a  Being  who  should  be  His  image  or  His  Son :  that  to 
the  Son  succeeded  his  Sister  and  Spouse,  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  they 
produced  four  Spirits  of  the  elements,  male  and  female,  Maio  and 
Jabseho,  Nouro  and  Rucho ;  then  Seven  Mystic  Couples  of  Spirits, 
and  Heaven  and  Earth,  and  all  that  is ;  then  seven  spirits  govern- 
ing the  planets,  twelve  governing  the  Constellations  of  the  Zodiac, 
and  thirty-six  Starry  Intelligences  whom  he  called  Deacons  :  while 
the  Holy  Spirit  \Sophia  Achamoth],  being  both  the  Holy  Intelli- 
gence and  the  Soul  of  the  physical  world,  went  from  the  Pleroma 
into  that  material  world  and  there  mourned  her  degradation,  until 
CHRISTOS,  her  former  spouse,  coming  to  her  with  his  Divine  Light 
and  Love,  guided  her  in  the  way  to  purification,  and  she  again 
united  herself  with  him  as  his  primitive  Companion. 

Basilides,  the  Christian  Gnostic,  taught  that  there  were  seven 
emanations  from  the  Supreme  Being:  The  First-born,  Thought, 
the  Word,  Reflection,  Wisdom,  Power,  and  Righteousness 

m^       Zo<fta, 


554  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


and  Jixaioffuvy  Protogonos,  Nous,  Logos,  Phronesis,  Sophia, 
Dunamis,  and  Dikarosune]  ;  from  whom  emanated  other  Intelli- 
gences in  succession,  to  the  number,  in  all,  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  ;  which  were  God  manifested,  and  composed  the  Pleni- 
tude of  the  Divine  Emanations,  or  the  God  Abraxas  ;  of  which  the 
Thought  [or  Intellect,  Nouz  .  .  Nous]  united  itself,  by  baptism  in 
the  river  Jordan,  with  the  man  Jesus,  servant  [draxoi/oc.  .Diakonos] 
of  the  human  race  ;  but  did  not  suffer  with  Him  ;  and  the  disciples 
of  Basilides  taught  that'  the  Nous  put  on  the  appearance  only  of 
humanity,  and  that  Simon  of  Cyrene  was  crucified  in  His  stead  and 
ascended  into  Heaven. 

Basilides  held  that  out  of  the  unrevealed  God,  who  is  at  the  head 
of  the  world  of  emanations,  and  exalted  above  all  conception  or 
designation  \^0  dxarovo/^atrroi,  dyfyS^roc],  were  evolved  seven 
living,  self-subsistent,  ever-active  hyposatized  powers  : 

FIRST  :  THE  INTELLECTUAL  POWERS. 
ist.  Nous  ......  NoZz  .....   The  Mind. 

2d.  LOGOS  .....  Aofoz  ....    The  Reason. 

3d.  Phronesis.  .  0po\srtffiz  .  .    The  Thinking  Power. 
4th.  Sophia.  .  .  .  loifca  ....    Wisdom. 

SECOND:  THE  ACTIVE  OR  OPERATIVE  POWER. 
5th.  Dunamis.  .  .duva/juz  .  .  .   Might,  accomplishing  the  purposes 

of  Wisdom. 

THIRD  :  THE  MORAL  ATTRIBUTES. 

6th.  Dikaiosune  .  Jtxaioffuvy    Holiness  or  Moral  Perfection. 
7th.  Eirene  .....  Ecor^rj  .  .  .    Inward  Tranquillity. 


These  Seven  Powers  (Auvafj.sc$  .  .  Dunameis),  with  the  Primal 
Ground  out  cf  which  they  were  evolved,  constituted  in  his  scheme 
the  llfHorq  0'fooa.c.  [Prote  Ogdoas],  or  First  Octave,  the  root  of  all 
Existence.  From  this  point,  the  spiritual  life  proceeded  to  evolve 
out  of  itself  continually  many  gradations  of  existence,  each 
lower  one  being  still  the  impression,  the  antctype,  of  the  immedi- 
ate higher  one.  He  supposed  there  were  365  of  these  regions  or 
gradations,  expressed  by  the  mystical  word  A^na^a^  [Abraxas]. 

The  afitiazaz  is  thus  interpreted,  by  the  usual  method  of  reck- 
oning Greek  letters  numerically  ....  a,  i  .  .  /?,  2  .  .  />,  100  .  .  a,  i  .  .  £ 


PRINCE  OF   MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH   TRINITARIAN  555 

6o..a,  i..  c,  200=365:  which  is  the  whole  Emanation -World,  as 
the  development  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

In  the  system  of  Basilides,  Light,  Life,  Soul,  and  Good  were 
opposed  to  Darkness,  Death,  Matter,  and  Evil,  throughout  the 
whole  course  of  the  Universe. 

According  to  the  Gnostic  view,  God  was  represented  as  the 
immanent,  incomprehensible  and  original  source  of  all  perfection ; 
the  unfathomable  ABYSS  (/?u#oc  ..buthos),  according  to  Valenti- 
nus,  exalted  above  all  possibility  of  designation ;  of  whom,  prop- 
erly speaking,  nothing  can  be  predicated;  the  dx«rovo//a<7rof  of 
Basilides,  the  5>v  of  Philo.  From  this  incomprehensible  Essence 
of  God,  an  immediate  transition  to  finite  things  is  inconceivable. 
Self -limitation  is  the  first  beginning  of  a  communication  of  life  on 
the  part  of  God — the  first  passing  of  the  hidden  Deity  into  mani- 
festation ;  and  from  this  proceeds  all  further  self-developing 
manifestation  of  the  Divine  Essence.  From  this  primal  link  in  the 
chain  of  life  there. are  evolved,  in  the  first  place,  the  manifold 
powers  or  attributes  inherent  in  the  divine  Essence,  which,  until 
that  first  self-comprehension,  were  all  hidden  in  the  Abyss  of  His 
Essence.  Each  of  these  attributes  presents  the  whole  divine  Es- 
sence under  one  particular  aspect;  and  to  each,  therefore,  in  this 
respect,  the  title  of  God  may  appropriately  be  applied.  These 
Divine  Powers  evolving  themselves  to  self-subsistence,  become 
thereupon  the  germs  and  principles  of  all  further  developments  of 
life.  The  life  contained  in  them  unfolds  and  individualizes  itself 
more  and  more,  but  in  such  a  way  that  the  successive  grades  of 
this  evolution  of  life  continually  sink  lower  and  lower ;  the  spirits 
become  feebler,  the  further  they  are  removed  from  the  first  link  in 
the  series. 

The  first  manifestation  they  termed  rcpairy  xardXr^'t^  kao- 
roD,  [prote  katalepsis  heautou]  or  npcorov  xaTaty-Tov  TOO 
&£ou  [proton  Katalcpton  ton  Theon]  ;  which  was  hypostatically 
represented  in  a  vouc  or  kofoz,  [Nous  or  Logos]. 

In  the  Alexandrian  Gnosis,  the  Platonic  notion  of  the  D/jy 
[Hule]  predominates.  This  is  the  dead,  the  unsubstantial — the 
boundary  that  limits  from  without  the  evolution  of  life  in  its 
gradually  advancing  progression,  whereby  the  Perfect  is  ever  evolv- 
ing itself  into  the  less  Perfect.  This  uty  again,  is  represented 
under  various  images ; — at  one  time  as  the  darkness  that  exists 
alongside  of  the  light ;  at  another,  as  the  void  [xe^wjua, 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Kenoma,  Kenon],  in  opposition  to  the  Fullness,  [ 
....  Pleroma]  of  the  Divine  Life ;  or  as  the  shadow  that  accom- 
panies the  light;  or  as  the  chaos,  or  the  sluggish,  stagnant,  dark 
water.  This  matter,  dead  in  itself,  possesses  by  its  own  nature  no 
inherent  tendency ;  as  life  of  every  sort  is  foreign  to  it,  itself  makes 
no  encroachment  on  the  Divine.  As,  however,  the  evolutions  of 
the  Divine  Life  (the  essences  developing  themselves  out  of  the 
progressive  emanation)  become  feebler,  the  further  they  are 
removed  from  the  first  link  in  the  series ;  and  as  their  connection 
with  the  first  becomes  looser  at  each  successive  step,  there  arises 
at  the  last  step  of  the  evolution,  an  imperfect,  defective  product, 
which,  unable  to  retain  its  connection  with  the  chain  of  Divine 
Life,  sinks  from  the  World  of  Eons  into  the  material  chaos :  or, 
according  to  the  same  notion,  somewhat  differently  expressed 
[according  to  the  Ophites  and  to  Bardesanes],  a  drop  from  the 
fullness  of  the  Divine  life  bubbles  over  into  the  bordering  void. 
Hereupon  the  dead  matter,  by  commixture  with  the  living  prin- 
ciple, which  it  wanted,  first  of  all  receives  animation.  But,  at  the 
same  time,  also,  the  divine,  the  living,  becomes  corrupted  by  min- 
gling with  the  chaotic  mass.  Existence  now  multiplies  itself. 
There  arises  a  subordinate,  defective  life ;  there  is  ground  for  a 
new  world ;  a  creation  starts  into  being,  beyond  the  confines  of 
the  world  of  emanation.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  since  the  chaotic 
principle  of  matter  has  acquired  vitality,  there  now  arises  a  more 
distinct  and  more  active  opposition  to  the  God-like — a  barely  neg- 
ative, blind,  ungodly  nature-power,  which  obstinately  resists  all 
influence  of  the  Divine;  hence,  as  products  of  the  spirit  of  the 
5/5?,  (of  the  7TV£y/u«  uhxov  .  .  Pneuma  Hulikon),  are  Satan,  ma- 
lignant spirits,  wicked  men,  in  none  of  whom  is  there  any  reason- 
able or  moral  principle,  or  any  principle  of  a  rational  will ;  but  blind 
passions  alone  have  the  ascendency.  In  them  there  is  the  same  con- 
flict, as  the  scheme  of  Platonism  supposes,  between  the  soul  under 
the  guidance  of  Divine  reason  [the  vois.  .Nous],  and  the  soul 
blindly  resisting  reason — between  the  irpovoia  [pronoia]  and  the 
avayrj  [anage],  the  Divine  Principle  and  the  natural. 

The  Syrian  Gnosis  assumed  the  existence  of  an  active,  turbulent 
kingdom  of  evil,  or  of  darkness,  which,  by  its  encroachments  on 
the  kingdom  of  light,  brought  about  a  commixture  of  the  light 
with  the  darkness,  of  the  God-like  with  the  ungodlike. 

Even  among-  the  Platonists,  some  thought  that    along  with  an 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  557 

organized,  inert  matter,  the  substratum  of  the  corporeal  world, 
there  existed  from  the  beginning  a  blind,  lawless  motive  power, 
an  ungodlike  soul,  as  its  original  motive  and  active  principle.  As 
the  inorganic  matter  was  organized  into  a  corporeal  world,  by  the 
plastic  power  of  the  Deity,  so,  by  the  same  power,  law  and  reason 
were  communicated  to  that  turbulent,  irrational  soul.  Thus  the 
chaos  of  the  vty  was  transformed  into  an  organized  world,  and 
that  blind  soul  into  a  rational  principle,  a  mundane  soul,  anima- 
ting the  Universe.  As  from  the  latter  proceeds  all  rational,  spirit- 
ual life  in  humanity,  so  from  the  former  proceeds  all  that  is  irra- 
tional, all  that  is  under  the  blind  sway  of  passion  and  appetite ; 
and  all  malignant  spirits  are  its  progeny. 

In  one  respect  all  the  Gnostics  agreed :  they  all  held,  that  there 
was  a  world  purely  emanating  out  of.  the  vital  development  of 
God,  a  creation  evolved  directly  out  of  the  Divine  Essence,  far 
exalted  above  any  outward  creation  produced  by  God's  plastic 
power,  and  conditioned  by  pre-existing  matter.  They  agreed 
in  holding  that  the  framer  of  this  low'er  world  was  not  the  Father 
of  that  higher  world  of  emanation;  but  the  Demiurge  [J;//fOM/>- 
7-0-],  a  being  of  a  kindred  nature  with  the  Universe  framed  and 
governed  by  him,  and  far  inferior  to  that  higher  system  and  the 
Father  of  it. 

But  some,  setting  out  from  ideas  which  had  long  prevailed 
among  certain  Jews  of  Alexandria,  supposed  that  the  Supreme 
God  created  and  governed  the  world  by  His  ministering  spirits, 
by  the  angels.  At  the  head  of  these  angels  stood  one  who  had 
the  direction  and  control  of  all ;  therefore  called  the  Artificer  and 
Governor  of  the  World.  This  Demiurge  they  compared  with  the 
plastic,  animating,  mundane  spirit  of  Plato  and  the  Platonists 
[the  dz'jTznot;  $soc  .  .  Deuteros  Theos;  the  dz<>z  j's^roc  .  .  . 
Theos  Genetos] ,  who,  moreover,  according  to  the  Timseus  of  Plato, 
strives  to  represent  the  IDEA  of  the  Divine  Reason,  in  that  which 
is  becoming  (as  contradistinguished  from  that  which  is}  and  tem- 
poral. This  angel  is  a  representative  of  the  Supreme  God.  on 
the  lower  stage  of  existence :  he  does  not  act  independently,  but 
merely  according  to  the  ideas  inspired  in  him  by  the  Supreme  God : 
just  as  the  plastic,  mundane  soul  of  the  Platonists  creates  all  things 
after  the  pattern  of  the  ideas  communicated  by  the  Supreme 
Reason  [AroL»c  ....  Nous — the  #  sffr:  ^foov  ....  ho  esti  zoon — the 
7rapa8ety//,a  .  paradeigma.  of  the  Divine  Reason  hypostatized  j. 


558  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

But  these  ideas  transcend  his  limited  essence ;  he  cannot  under- 
stand them ;  he  is  merely  their  unconscious  organ ;  and  therefore 
is  unable  himself  to  comprehend  the  whole  scope  and  meaning  of 
the  work  which  he  performs.  As  an  organ  under  the  guidance  of 
a  higher  inspiration,  he  reveals  higher  truths  than  he  himself  can 
comprehend.  The  mass  of  the  Jews,  they  held,  recognized  not  the 
angel,  by  whom,  in  all  the  Theophanies  of  the  Old  Testament, 
God  revealed  Himself;  they  knew  not  the  Demiurge  in  his  true 
relation  to  the  hidden  Supreme  God,  who  never  reveals  Himself  in 
the  sensible  world.  They  confounded  the  type  and  the  archetype, 
the  symbol  and  the  idea.  They  rose  no  higher  than  the  Demiurge ; 
they  took  him  to  be  the  Supreme  God  Himself.  But  the  spiritual 
men  among  them,  on  the  contrary,  clearly  perceived,  or  at  least 
divined,  the  ideas  veiled  under  Judaism ;  they  rose  beyond  the 
Demiurge,  to  a  knowledge  of  the  Supreme  God ;  and  are  therefore 
properly  His  worshippers  [$£/>a/T£urar .  .Therapeutai]. 

Other  Gnostics,  who  had  not  been  followers  of  the  Mosaic  reli- 
gion, but  who  had,  at  an  earlier  period,  framed  to  themselves  an 
oriental  Gnosis,  regarded  the  Demiurge  as  a  being  absolutely 
hostile  to  the  Supreme  God.  He  and  his  angels,  notwithstanding 
their  finite  nature,  wish  to  establish  their  independence :  they 
will  tolerate  no  foreign  rule  within  their  realm.  Whatever  of  a 
higher  nature  descends  into  their  kingdom,  they  seek  to  hold 
imprisoned  there,  lest  it  should  raise  itself  above  their  narrow  pre- 
cincts. Probably,  in  this  system,  the  kingdom  of  the  Demiurgic 
Angels  corresponded,  for  the  most  part,  with  that  of  the  deceitful 
Star-Spirits,  who  seek  to  rob  man  of  his  freedom,  to  beguile  him 
by  various  arts  of  deception,  and  who  exercise  a  tyrannical  sway 
over  the  things  of  this  world.  Accordingly,  in  the  system  of 
these  Sabseans,  the  seven  Planet-Spirits, and  the  twelve  Star-Spirits 
of  the  zodiac,  who  sprang  from  an  irregular  connection  between 
the  cheated  Fctahil  and  the  Spirit  of  Darkness,  play  an  impor- 
tant part  in  everything  that  is  bad.  The  Demiurge  is  a  limited 
and  limiting  being,  proud,  jealous,  and  revengeful ;  and  this  his 
character  betrays  itself  in  the  Old  Testament,  which,  the  Gnostics 
held,  came  from  him.  They  transferred  to  the  Demiurge  him- 
self, whatever  in  the  idea  of  God,  as  presented  by  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, appeared  to  them  defective.  Against  his  will  and  rule  the 
5/w  was  continually  rebelling,  revolting  without  control  against 
the  dominion  which  he.  the  fashioner,  would  exercise  over  it, 


PRINCE  OF   MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH   TRINITARIAN.  559 

casting  off  the  yoke  imposed  on  it,  and  destroying  the  work  he  had 
begun.  The  same  jealous  being,  limited  in  his  power,  ruling  with 
despotic  sway,  they  imagined  they  saw  in  nature.  He  strives  to 
check  the  germination  of  the  divine  seeds  of  life  which  the  Su- 
preme God  of  Holiness  and  Love,  who  has  no  connection  what- 
ever with  the  sensible  world,  has  scattered  among  men.  That  per- 
fect God  was  at  most  known  and  worshipped  in  Mysteries  by  a 
few  spiritual  men. 

The  Gospel  of  St.  John  is  in  great  measure  a  polemic  against 
the  Gnostics,  whose  different  sects,  to  solve  the  great  problems, 
the  creation  of  a  material  world  by  an  immaterial  Being,  the  fall 
of  man,  the  incarnation,  the  redemption  and  restoration  of  the 
spirits  called  men,  admitted  a  long  series  of  intelligences,  inter- 
vening in  a  series  of  spiritual  operations ;  and  which  they  desig- 
nated by  the  names.  The  Beginning,  the  Word,  the  Only-Begotten, 
Life,  Light,  and  Spirit  [Ghost]:  in  Greek,  '-•/,"#?  ^r0^  M°- 
vofsvrjz,  Zcoy,  0wc,  and  Ilusyfta  [Arche,  Logos,  Monogenes, 
Zoe,  Phos,  and  Pneuma] .  St.  John,  at  the  beginning  of  his  Gospel, 
avers  that  it  was  Jesus  Christ  who  existed  in  the  Beginning;  that 
He  was  the  WORD  of  God  by  which  everything  was  made ;  that  He 
was  the  Only-Begotten,  the  Life  and  the  Light,  and  that  He  diffuses 
among  men  the  Holy  Spirit  [or  Ghost] ,  the  Divine  Life  and  Light. 

So  the  Pleroma  [/Lty/w/iflfJ,  Plenitude  or  Fullness,  was  a  favor- 
ite term  with  the  Gnostics,  and  Truth  and  Grace  were  the  Gnos- 
tic Eons ;  and  the  Simonians,  Dokctes,  and  other  Gnostics  held 
that  the  Eon  Christ  Jesus  was  never  really,  but  only  apparently 
clothed  with  a  human  body :  but  St.  John  replies  that  the  Word 
did  really  become  Flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us ;  and  that  in  Him 
were  the  Plerorra  and  Truth  and  Grace. 

In  the  doctrine  of  Valentinus,  reared  a  Christian  at  Alexandria, 
God  was  a  perfect  Being,  an  Abyss  \_ttu&o$  .  .  Buthos],  which  no 
intelligence  could  sound,  because  no  eye  could  reach  the  invisible 
and  ineffable  heights  on  which  He  dwelt,  and  no  mind  could 
comprehend  the  duration  .of  His  existence ;  He  has  always  been ; 
He  is  the  Primitive  Father  and  Beginning1  [the  npo-arwr)  and 
H(>oaf>yf]  .  .  Propator  and  Proarche]  :  He  will  HE  always,  and  does 
not  grow  old.  The  development  of  His  Perfections  produced 
the  intellectual  world.  After  having  passed  infinite  ages  in  repose 
and  silence,  He  manifested  Himself  by  His  Thought,  source  of  all 
His  manifestations,  and  which  received  from  Him  the  germ  of  His 


^fx>  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

creations.  Being  of  His  Being-,  His  Thought  [/vW><r«  .  .  Ennoia] 
is  also  termed  A'aorc  [Charis],  Grace  or  Joy,  and  --'/'£'  or  Ano^- 
ruv  [Sige  or  Arreton],  Silence  or  the  Ineffable.  Its  first  mani- 
festation was  Nous  [Nous],  the  Intelligence,  first  of  the  Eons, 
commencement  of  all  things,  first  revelation  of  the  Divinity,  the 
.VuKOT-ewfc  [Monogenes],  or  Only-Begotten:  next,  Truth  [/%- 
&tta  .  .  Aletheia] ,  his  companion.  Their  manifestations  were  the 
Word  [,4  ofoc  .  .  Logos]  and  Life  \7jMTt  .  .  Zoe]  ;  and  theirs,  Man 
and  the  Church  [AvfrpOKOS  and  Exxbjaca  .  .  Anthropos  and 
Ekklesia]  :  and  from  these,  other  twelve,  six  of  whom  were  Hope, 
Faith,  Charity,  Intelligence,  Happiness,  and  Wisdom;  or,  in  the 
Hebrew,  Kesten,  Kina,  Amphe,  Onananim,  Thaedes,  and  Oubina. 
The  harmony  of  the  Eons,  struggling  to  know  and  be  united  to 
the  Primitive  God,  was  disturbed,  and  to  redeem  and  restore  them, 
the  Intelligence  [Afo^c]  produced  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit  His 
companion ;  who  restored  them  to  their  first  estate  of  happiness 
and  harmony ;  and  thereupon  they  formed  the  Eon  Jesus,  born 
of  a  Virgin,  to  whom  the  Christos  united  himself  in  baptism,  and 
who,  with  his  Companion  Sophia-Achamoth,  saved  and  redeemed 
the  world. 

The  Marcosians  taught  that  the  Supreme  Deity  produced  by  His 
words  the  Aufuz  [Logos]  or  Plenitude  of  Eons:  His  first  utter- 
ance was  a  syllable  of  four  letters,  each  of  which  became  a  being; 
His  second  of  four,  His  third  of  ten,  and  His  fourth  of  twelve : 
thirty  in  all,  which  constituted  the  IItypa)fjia  [Pleroma]. 

The  Yalentinians,  and  others  of  the  Gnostics,  distinguished 
three  orders  of  existences  : — ist.  The  divine  germs  of  life,  exalted 
by  their  nature  above  matter,  and  akin  to  the  -oc>.a  [Sophia],  to 
the  mundane  soul  and  to  the  Pleroma : — the  spiritual  natures, 
(f'jffzez  7:^ti>fj.arcxai  [Phuseis  Pneumatikai]:  2cl.  The  natures 
originating  in  the  life,  divided  from  the  former  by  the  mixture  of 
the  5/^, — the  psvchical  natures,  <fjaztz  </"j%:zat  [Phuseis  Psuchi- 
kai]  ;  with  which  begins  a  perfectly  new  order  of  existence,  an 
image  of  that  higher  mind  and  system,  in  a  subordinate  grade ; 
and  finally,  3d.  The  Ungodlike  or  Hylic  Nature,  which  resists  all 
amelioration,  and  whose  tendency  is  only  to  destroy — the  nature 
of  blind  lust  and  passion. 

The  nature  of  the  xvt'Juarc/Mv  [pneumatikon],  the  spiritual,  is 
essential  relationship  with  G<xl  (the  Ofioo'jatoy  rw  $za>  .  .  Homo- 
ousion  to  Theo)  :  hence  the  'ife  of  Unity,  the  undivided,  the 


PRINCE  OF   MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH   TRINITARIAN  561 

absolutely  simple  (obela  kvcxy,  //ovoe^;  .  ,  Ousia  henike,  mo- 
noeides). 

The  essence  of  the  $u%exoi  [psuchikoi]  is  disruption  into 
multiplicity,  manifoldness ;  which,  however,  is  subordinate  to  a 
higher  unity,  by  which  it  allows  itself  to  be  guided,  first  uncon- 
sciously, then  consciously. 

The  essence  of  the  uhxot  [Hulikoi]  (of  whom  Satan  is  the 
head),  is  the  direct  opposite  to  all  unity;  disruption  and  disunion 
in  itself,  without  the  least  sympathy,  without  any  point  of  coales- 
cence whatever  for  unity ;  together  with  an  effort  to  destroy  all 
unity,  to  extend  its  own  inherent  disunion  to  everything,  and  to 
rend  everything  asunder.  This  principle  has  no  power  to  posit 
anything ;  but  only  to  negative :  it  is  unable  to  create,  to  produce, 
to  form,  but  only  to  destroy,  to  decompose. 

By  Marcus,  the  disciple  of  Valentinus,  the  idea  of  a  Aoynz  TO'J 
ovroc  [Logos  Tou  Ontos],  of  a  WORD,  manifesting  the  hidden 
Divine  Essence,  in  the  Creation,  was  spun  out  into  the  most  subtle 
details — the  entire  creation  being,  in  his  view,  a  continuous  utter- 
ance of  the  Ineffable.  The  way  in  which  the  germs  of  divine  life 
[the  (j-znitara  -^z^jjio-ixa  .  .  spermata  pneumatika],  which  lie 
shut  up  in  the  Eons,  continually  unfold  and  individmlize  them- 
selves more  and  more,  is  represented  as  a  spontaneous  analysis  of 
the  several  names  of  the  Ineffable,  into  their  several  sounds.  An 
echo  of  the  Pleroma  falls  down  into  the  uAy  [Hule],  and  becomes 
the  forming  principle  of  a  new  but  lower  creation. 

One  formula  of  the  pneumatical  baptism  among  the  Gnostics 
ran  thus:  "In  the  NAME  which  is  hidden  from  all  the  Divinities 
and  Powers"  [of  the  Demiurge],  "The  Name  of  Truth"  [the 
AfyfHtf*  [Aletheia],  self-manifestation  of  the  Buthos],  which 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  put  on  in  the  light-zones  of  Christ,  the 
living  Christ,  through  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  the  redemption  of  the 
angels, — the  Name  by  which  all  things  attain  to  Perfection."  The 
candidate  then  said :  "I  am  established  and  redeemed :  I  am 
redeemed  in  my  soul  from  this  world,  and  from  all  that  belongs  to 
it, .by  the  name  of  "IIT,  who  has  redeemed  the  Soul  of  Jesus  by  the 
living  Christ."  The  assembly  then  said:  "Peace  (or  Salvation)  to 
all  on  whom  this  name  rests !" 

The  boy  Dionusos,  torn  in  pieces,  according  to  the  Bacchic 
Mysteries,  by  the  Titans,  was  considered  by  the  Manicheans  as 
simply  representing  the  Soul,  swallowed  up  by  the  powers  of  dark- 


562  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

ness, — the  divine  life  rent  into  fragments  by  matter: — that  part 
of  the  luminous  essence  of  the  primitive  man  [the  -ptarot; 
ai>$tott)7ro<;  [Protos  Anthropos]  of  Mani,  the  "paioy  avfipioxoi; 
[Praon  Anthropos]  of  the  Valentinians,  the  Adam  Kadmon  of 
the  Kabalah;  and  the  Kaiomorts  of  the  Zendavesta],  swallowed 
up  by  the  powers  of  darkness ;  the  Mundane  Soul,  mixed  with 
matter — the  seed  of  divine  life,  which  had  fallen  into  matter,  and 
had  thence  to  undergo  a  process  of  purification  and  development. 

The  FvLoai^  [Gnosis]  of  Carpocrates  and  his  son  Epiphanes 
consisted  in  the  knowledge  of  one  Supreme  Original  being,  the 
highest  unity,  from  whom  all  existence  has  emanated,  and  to 
whom  it  strives  to  return.  The  finite  spirits  that  rule  over  the 
several  portions  of  the  Earth,  seek  to  counteract  this  universal 
tendency  to  unity;  and  from  their  influence,  their  laws,  and 
arrangements,  proceeds  all  that  checks,  disturbs,  or  limits  the 
original  communion,  which  is  the  basis  of  nature,  as  the  outward 
manifestation  of  that  highest  Unity.  These  spirits,  moreover, 
seek  to  retain  under  their  dominion  the  souls  which,  emanating 
from  the  highest  Unity,  and  still  partaking  of  its  nature,  have 
lapsed  into  the  corporeal  world,  and  have  there  been  imprisoned 
in  bodies,  in  order,  under  their  dominion,  to  be  kept  within 
the  cycle  of  migration.  From  these  finite  spirits,  the  popular 
religions  of  different  nations  derive  their  origin.  But  the  souls 
which,  from  a  reminiscence  of  their  former  condition,  soar  upward 
to  the  contemplation  of  that  higher  Unity,  reach  to  such  perfect 
freedom  and  repose,  as  nothing  afterward  can  disturb  or  limit, 
and  rise  superior  to  the  popular  deities  and  religions.  As  examples 
of  this  sort,  they  named  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Christ. 
They  made  no  distinction  between  the  latter  and  the  wise  and 
good  men  of  every  nation.  They  taught  that  any  other  soul 
which  could  soar  to  the  same  height  of  contemplation,  might  be 
regarded  as  equal  with  Him. 

The  Ophites  commenced  their  system  with  a  Supreme  Being, 
long  unknown  to  the  Human  race,  and  still  so  to  the  greater 
number  of  men;  the  Buftoz  [Buthos],  or  Profundity,  Source-  of 
Light,  and  of  Adam-Kadmon,  the  Primitive  Man,  made  by  the 
Demiourgos,  but  perfected  by  the  Supreme  God  by  the  communi- 
cation to  him  of  the  Spirit  [flveufjia  .  .  Pneuma].  The  first 
emanation  was  the  Thought  of  the  Supreme  Deity  [the  Evvota  .  . 
Ennoia],  the  conception  of  the  Universe  in  the  Thought  of  God. 


PRINCE  OF   MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  563 

This  Thought,  called  al-so  Silence  (lepj  •  •  Sige),  produced  the 
Spirit  [IhsLtpa  .  .  Pneuma],  Mother  of  the  Living,  and  Wis- 
dom of  God.  Together  with  this  Primitive  Existence,  Matter 
existed  also  (the  Waters,  Darkness,  Abyss,  and  Chaos),  eternal 
like'  the  Spiritual  Principle.  Buthos  and  His  Thought,  uniting 
with  Wisdom,  made  her  fruitful  by  the  Divine  Light,  and  she  pro- 
duced-a  perfect  and  an  imperfect  being,  Christos, and  a  Second  and 
inferior  wisdom,.S0/>/u'a-^c/iaw0//^who  falling  into  chaos  remained 
entangled  there,  became  enfeebled,  and  lost  all  knowledge  of  the 
Superior  Wisdom  that  gave  her  birth.  Communicating  move- 
ment to  Chaos,  she  produced  laldabaoth,  the  Demiourgos,  Agent 
of  Material  Creation,  and  then  ascended  toward  her  first  place  in 
the  scale  of  creation.  laldabaoth  produced  an  angel  that  was  his 
image,  and  this  a  second,  and  so  on  in  succession  to  the  sixth  after 
the  Demiourgos :  the  seven  being  reflections  one  of  the  other,  yet 
different  and  inhabiting  seven  distinct  regions.  The  names  of 
the  six  thus  produced  were  IAO,  SABAOTH,  ADONAI,  ELOI,  ORAI, 
and  ASTAPHAI.  laldabaoth,  to  become  independent  of  his  mother, 
and  to  pass  for  the  Supreme  Being,  made  the  world,  and  man,  in 
his  own  image ;  and  his  mother  caused  the  Spiritual  principle  to 
pass  from  him  into  man  so  made ;  and  henceforward  the  contest 
between  the  Demiourgos  and  his  mother,  between  light  and  dark- 
ness, good  and  evil,  was  concentrated  in  man ;  and  the  image  of 
laldabaoth,  reflected  upon  matter,became  the  Serpent-Spirit,  Satan, 
the  Evil  Intelligence.  Eve,  created  by  laldabaoth,  had  by  his  Sons 
children  that  were  angels  like  themselves.  The  Spiritual  light  was 
withdrawn  from  man  bySophia,and  the  world  surrendered  to  the  in- 
fluence of  evil ;  until  the  Spirit,  urged  by  the  entreaties  of  Wisdom, 
induced  the  Supreme  Being  to  send  Christos  to  redeem  it.  Compel- 
led, despite  himself,  by  his  Mother,  laldabaoth  caused  the  man  Jesus 
to  be  born  of  a  Virgin,  and  the  Celestial  Saviour,  uniting  with  his 
Sister,  Wisdom,  descended  through  the  regions  of  the  seven  angels, 
appeared  in  each  under  the  form  of  its  chief,  concealed  his  own, 
and  entered  with  his  sister  into  the  man  Jesus  at  the  baptism 
in  Jordan.  laldabaoth,  finding  that  Jesus  was  destroying  his 
empire  and  abolishing  his  worship,  caused  the  Jews  to  hate  and 
crucify  Him ;  before  which  happened,  Christos  and  Wisdom  had 
ascended  to  the  celestial  regions.  They  restored  Jesus  to  life  and 
gave  Him  an  ethereal  body, in  which  He  remained  eighteen  months 
on  earth,  and  receiving  from  Wisdom  the  perfect  knowledge 


564  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


.  .  Gnosis],  communicated  it  to  a  small  number  of  His 
apostles,  and  then  arose  to  the  intermediate  region  inhabited  by 
laldabaoth,  where,  unknown  to  him,  He  sits  at  his  right  hand, 
taking  from  him  the  Souls  of  Light  purified  by  Christos.  When 
nothing  of  the  Spiritual  world  shall  remain  subject  to  laldabaoth, 
the  redemption  will  be  accomplished,  and  the  end  of  the  world, 
the  completion  of  the  return  of  Light  into  the  Plenitude,  will  occur. 

Tatian  adopted  the  theory  of  Emanation,  of  Eons,  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  God  too  sublime  to  allow  Himself  to  be  known,  but  dis- 
playing Himself  by  Intelligences  emanating  from  His  bosom.  The 
first  of  these  was  His  spirit  [77veu//a  .  .  PneumaJ,  God  Himself, 
God  thinking,  God  conceiving  the  Universe.  The  second  was  the 
Word  [/io^oc  .  .  Logos],  no  longer  merely  the  Thought  or  Con- 
ception, but  the  Creative  Utterance,  manifestation  of  the  Divinity, 
but  emanating  from  the  Thought  or  Spirit  ;  the  First-Begotten, 
author  of  the  visible  creation.  This  was  the  Trinity,  composed  of 
the  Father,  Spirit,  and  Word. 

The  Elxa'ites  adopted  the  Seven  Spirits  of'the  Gnostics;  but 
named  them  Heaven,  Water,  Spirit,,  The  Holy  Angels  of  Prayer, 
Oil,  Salt,  and  the  Earth. 

The  opinion  of  the  Doketes  as  to  the  human  nature  of  Jesus 
Christ,  was  that  most  generally  received  among  the  Gnostics. 
They  deemed  the  intelligences  of  the  Superior  World  too  pure  and 
too  much  the  antagonists  of  matter,  to  be  willing  to  unite  with  it  : 
and  held  that  Christ,  an  Intelligence  of  the  first  rank,  in  appear- 
ing upon  the  earth,  did  not  become  confounded  with  matter,  but 
took  upon  Himself  only  the  appearance  of  a  body,  or  at  the  most 
used  it  only  as  an  envelope. 

Noe'tus  termed  the  Son  the  first  Utterance  of  the  Father;  the 
Word,  not  by  Himself,  as  an  Intelligence,  and  unconnected  with 
the  flesh,  a  real  Son  ;  but  a  Word,  and  a  perfect  Only-Begotten  : 
light  emanated  from  the  Light  ;  water  flowing  from  its  spring  ;  a 
ray  emanated  from  the  Sun. 

Paul  of  Samosata  taught  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  Son  of 
Joseph  and  Mary  ;  but  that  the  Word,  Wisdom,  or  Intelligence  of 
God,  the  Arouc[Nous]  of  the  Gnostics,  had  united  itself  with  Him, 
so  that  He  might  be  said  to  be  at  once  the  Son  of  God,  and  God 
Himself. 

Arius  called  the  Saviour  the  first  of  creatures,  non-emanated 
from  God,  but  really  created,  by  the  direct  will  of  God,  before  time 


PRINCE  OF    MERCY,   OR   SCOTTISH    TRINITARIAN.  565 

and  the  ages.  According  la  the  Church,  Christ  was  of  the  same 
nature  as  God ;  according  to  some  dissenters,  of  the  same  nature 
as  man.  Arius  adopted  the  theory  of  a  nature  analogous  to  both. 
When  God  resolved  to  create  the  Human  race,  He  made  a  Being 
which  He  called  THE  WORD,  THE  SON,  WISDOM  [Ao-foz,  ^W, 
2,'o<fia  .  .  Logos,  Uios,  Sophia],  to  the  end  that  He  might  give 
existence  to  men.  This  WORD  is  the  Ormuzd  of  Zoroaster,  the 
Ensoph  of  the  Kabalah,  the  Nou<;  [Nous]  of  Platonism  and  Phi- 
lonism,  and  the  2o<f>ia  or  defltfoupfoc  [Sophia  or  Demiourgos] 
of  the  Gnostics.  He  distinguished  the  Inferior  Wisdom,  or  the 
daughter,  from  the  Superior  Wisdom ;  the  latter  being  in  God, 
inherent  in  His  nature,  and  incapable  of  communication  to  any 
creature :  the  second,  by  which  the  Son  was  made,  communicated 
itself  to  Him,  and  therefore  He  Himself  was  entitled  to  be  called 
the  Word  and  the  Son. 

Manes,  founder  of  the  Sect  of  the  Manicheans,  who  had  lived 
and  been  distinguished  among  the  Persian  Magi,  profited  by  the 
doctrines  of  Scythianus,  a  Kabalist  or  Judaizing  Gnostic  of  the 
times  of  the  Apostles  ;  and  knowing  those  of  Bardesanes  and  Har- 
monius,  derived  his  doctrines  from  Zoroasterism,  Christianity,  and 
Gnosticism.  He  claimed  to  be  the  /7«/>ax/-^roc  [Parakletos]  or 
Comforter,  in  the  Sense  of  a  Teacher,  organ  of  the  Deity,  but  not 
in  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit  or  Holy  Ghost :  and  commenced  his 
Epistola  Fundamenti  in  these  words :  "Manes,  Apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ,  elect  of  God  the  Father;  Behold  the  Words  of  Salvation, 
emanating  from  the  living  and  eternal  fountain."  The  dominant 
idea  of  his  doctrine  was  Pantheism,  derived  by  him  from  its  source 
in  the  regions  of  India  and  on  the  confines  of  China :  that  the 
cause  of  all  that  exists  is  in  God;  and  at  last,  God  is  all  in  all. 
All  souls  are  equal — God  is  in  all,  in  men,  animals,  and  plants. 
There  arc  two  Gods,  one  of  Good  and  the  other  of  Evil,  each  inde- 
pendent, eternal,  chief  of  a  distinct  Empire ;  necessarily,  and  of 
their  very  natures,  hostile  to  one  another.  The  Evil  God,  Satan,  is 
the  Genius  of  matter  alone.  The  God  of  Good  is  infinitely  his 
Superior,  the  True  God ;  while  the  other  is  but  the  chief  of  all 
that  is  the  Enemy  of  God,  and  must  in  the  end  succumb  to  His 
Power.  The  Empire  of  Light  alone  is  eternal  and  true :  and  this 
Empire  is  a  great  chain  of  Emanations,  all  connected  with  the 
Supreme  Being  which  they  make  manifest;  all  HIM,  under  differ- 
ent forms,  chosen  for  one  end,  the  triumph  of  the  Good.  In  each 
57 


566  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  His  members  lie  hidden  thousands  of  ineffable  treasures.  Ex- 
cellent in  His  Glory,  incomprehensible  in  His  Greatness,  the 
Father  has  joined  to  Himself  those  fortunate  and  glorious  Eons 
[./.'ojv^c  .  .Aiones],  whose  Power  and  Number  it  is  impossible 
to  determine.  This  is  Spinoza's  Infinity  of  Infinite  Attributes  of 
God.  Twelve  Chief  Eons,  at  the  head  of  all,  were  the  Genii  of 
the  twelve  Constellations  of  the  Zodiac,  and  called  by  Manes, 
Olamin.  Satan,  also,  Lord  of  the  Empire  of  Darkness,  had  an 
Army  of  Eons  or  Demons,  emanating  from  his  Essence,  and  re- 
flecting more  or  less  his  image,  but  divided  and  inharmonious 
among  themselves.  A  war  among  them  brought  them  to  the  con- 
fines of  the  Realm  of  Light.  Delighted,  they  sought  to  conquer 
it.  But  the  Chief  of  the  Celestial  Empire  created  a  Power  which 
he  placed  on  the  frontiers  of  Heaven  to  protect  his  Eons,  and  de- 
stroy the  Empire  of  Evil.  This  was  the  Mother  of  Life,  the  Soul 
of  the  World,  an  Emanation  from  the  Supreme  Being,  too  pure  to 
come  in  immediate  contact  with  matter.  It  remained  in  the  high- 
est region ;  but  produced  a  Son,  the  first  Man  [the  Kaiomorts, 
Adam-Kadmon,  UpoTOZ  Av$ptoito$  [Protos  Anthropos,]  and 
Hivil-Zivah ;  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Kabalah,  the  Gnosis,  and 
Sabeism]  ;  who  commenced  the  contest  with  the  Powers  of  Evil, 
but,  losing  part  of  his  panoply,  of  his  Light,  his  Son  and  many 
souls  born  of  the  Light,  who  were  devoured  by  the  darkness,  God 
sent  to  his  assistance  the  living  Spirit,  or  the  Son  of  the  First  Man 
[Te(?<?  Av&p(bxou  .  .  .  Uios  Anthropou],  or  Jesus  Christ.  Th? 
Mother  of  Life,  general  Principle  of  Divine  Life,  and  the  first 
Man,  Primitive  Being  that  reveals  the  Divine  Life,  are  too  sub- 
lime to  be  connected  with  the  Empire  of  Darkness.  The  Son  of 
Man  or  Soul  of  the  World,  enters  into  the  Darkness,  becomes  its 
captive,  to  end  by  tempering  and  softening  its  savage  nature.  The 
Divine  Spirit,  after  having  brought  back  the  Primitive  Man  to  the 
Empire  of  Light,  raises  above  the  world  that  part  of  the  Celestial 
Soul  that  remained  unaffected  by  being  mingled  with  the  Empire 
of  Darkness.  Placed  in  the  region  of  the  Sun  and  Moon,  this 
pure  soul,  the  Son  of  Man,  the  Redeemer  or  Christ,  labors  to  de- 
liver and  attract  to  Himself  that  part  of  the  Light  or  of  the  Soul 
of  the  First  Man  diffused  through  matter;  which  done,  the  world 
will  cease  to  exist.  To  retain  the  rays  of  Light  still  remaining 
among  his  Eons,  and  ever  tending  to  escape  and  return,  by  con- 
centrating them,  the  Prince  of  Darkness,  with  their  consent,  made 


PRINCE  OF   MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH   TRINITARIAN.  567 

Adam,  whose  soul  was  of  the  Divine  Light,  contributed  by  the 
Eons,  and  his  body  of  matter,  so  that  he  belonged  to  both  Em- 
pires, that  of  Light  and  that  of  Darkness.  To  prevent  the  light 
from  escaping  at  once,  the  Demons  forbade  Adam  to  eat  the  fruit 
of  "knowledge  of  good  and  evil,"  by  which  he  would  have  known 
the  Empire  of  Light  and  that  of  Darkness.  He  obeyed ;  an  Angel 
of  Light  induced  him  to  transgress,  and  gave  him  the  means  of 
victory ;  but  the  Demons  created  Eve,  who  seduced  him  into  an 
act  of  Sensualism,  that  enfeebled  him,  and  bound  him  anew  in  the 
bonds  of  matter.  This  is  repeated  in  the  case  of  every  man  that 
lives. 

To  deliver  the  soul,  captive  in  darkness,  the  Principle  of  Light, 
or  Genius  of  the  Sun,  charged  to  redeem  the  Intellectual  World, 
of  which  he  is  the  type,  came  to  manifest  Himself  among  men. 
Light  appeared  in  the  darkness,  but  the  darkness  comprehended  it 
not ;  according  to  the  wrords  of  St.  John.  The  Light  could  not 
unite  with  the  darkness.  It  but  put  on  the  appearance  of  a  hu- 
man body,  and  took  the  name  of  Christ  in  the  Messiah,  only  to 
accommodate  itself  to  the  language  of  the  Jews.  The  Light  did 
its  work,  turning  the  Jews  from  the  adoration  of  the  Evil  Princi- 
ple, and  the  Pagans  from  the  worship  of  Demons.  But  the  Chief 
of  the  Empire  of  Darkness  caused  Him  to  be  crucified  by  the  Jews. 
Still  He  suffered  in  appearance  only,  and  His  death  gave  to  all  souls 
the  symbol  of  their  enfranchisement.  The  person  of  Jesus  hav- 
ing disappeared,  there  was  seen  in  His  place  a  cross  of  Light,  over 
which  a  celestial  voice  pronounced  these  words :  "The  cross  of 
Light  is  called  The  Word,  Christ,  The  Gate,  Joy,  The  Bread,  The 
Sun,  The  Resurrection,  Jesus,  The  Father,  The  Spirit,  Life,  Truth, 
and  Grace." 

With  the  Priscillianists  there  were  two  principles,  one  the 
Divinity,  the  other,  Primitive  Matter  and  Darkness ;  each  eternal. 
Satan  is  the  son  and  lord  of  matter;  and  the  secondary  angels  and 
demons,  children  of  matter.  Satan  created  and  governs  the  visible 
world.  But  the  soul  of  man  emanated  from  God,  and  is  of  the 
same  substance  with  God.  Seduced  by  the  evil  spirits,  it  passes 
through  various  bodies,  until,  purified  and  reformed,  it  rises  to 
God  and  is  strengthened  by  His  light.  These  powers  of  evil  hold 
mankind  in  pledge ;  and  to  redeem  this  pledge,  the  Saviour,  Christ 
the  Redeemer,  came  and  died  upon  the  cross  of  expiation,  thus 
discharging  the  written  obligation.  He.  like  all  souls,  was  of  the 


568  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

same  substance  with  God,  a  manifestation  of  the  Divinity,  not 
forming  a  second  person ;  unborn,  like  the  Divinity,  and  nothing 
else  than  the  Divinity  under  another  form. 

It  is  useless  to  trace  these  vagaries  further ;  and  we  stop  at  the 
frontiers  of  the  realm  of  the  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand 
emanations  of  the  Mandaites  from  the  Primitive  Light,  Fira  or 
Ferho  and  Yavar;  and  return  contentedly  to  the  simple  and  sub- 
lime creed  of  Masonry. 

Such  were  some  of  the  ancient  notions  concerning  the  Deity  ;  and 
taken  in  connection  with  what  has  been  detailed  in  the  preceding 
Degrees,  this  Lecture  affords  you  a  true  picture  of  the  ancient 
speculations.  From  the  beginning  until  now,  those  who  have 
undertaken  to  solve  the  great  mystery  of  the  creation  of  a  material 
universe  by  an  Immaterial  Deity,  have  interposed  between  the  two, 
and  between  God  and  man,  divers  manifestations  of,  or  emana- 
tions from,  or  personified  attributes  or  agents  of,  the  Great  Supreme 
God,  who  is  coexistent  with  Time  and  coextensive  with  Space. 

The  universal  belief  of  the  Orient  was,  that  the  Supreme  Being 
did  not  Himself  create  either  the  earth  or  man.  The  fragment 
which  commences  the  Book  of  Genesis,  consisting  of  the  first 
chapter  and  the  three  first  verses  of  the  second, assigns  the  creation 
or  rather  the  formation  or  modelling  of  the  world  from  matter 
already  existing  in  confusion,  not  to  IHUI-I,  but  to  the  ALIIIM,  wc-11 
known  as  Subordinate  Deities,  Forces,  or  Manifestations,  among 
the  Phoenicians.  Thesecond  fragment  imputes  it  tolHUH-ALHlM,* 
and  St.  John  assigns  the  creation  to  the  Aofoq,  or  WORD;  and 
asserts  that  CHRIST  was  that  \YoRD,  as  well  as  LIGHT  and  LIFE, 
other  emanations  from  the  Great  Primeval  Deity,  to  which  other 
faiths  had  assigned  the  work  of  creation. 

An  absolute  existence,  wholly  immaterial,  in  no  way  within  the 
reach  of  our  senses  ;  a  cause,  but  not  an  effect,  that  never  was  not, 
but  existed  during  an  infinity  of  eternities,  before  there  was  any- 
thing else  except  Time  and  Space,  is  wholly  beyond  the  reach  of  our 
conceptions.  The  mind  of  man  has  wearied  itself  in  speculations  as 
to  His  nature.  His  essence,  His  attributes ;  and  ended  in  being  no 
wiser  than  it  began.  In  the  impossibility  of  conceiving  of  imma- 
teriality, we  feel  at  sea  and  lost  whenever  we  go  beyond  the  domain 
of  matter.  And  yet  we  know  that  there  are  Powers,  Forces,  Causes, 


*Tke  Substance,  or  Very  Self,  of  which  the  Alohayim  are  the  manifestations. 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  569 

that  are  themselves  not  matter.  We  give  them  names,  but  what 
they  really  are,  and  what  their  essence,  we  are  wholly  ignorant. 

But,  fortunately,  it  does  not  follow  that  we  may  not  believe,  or 
even  know,  that  which  we  cannot  explain  ta  ourselves,  or  that 
which  is  beyond  the  reach  of  our  comprehension.  If  we  believed 
only  that  which  our  intellect  can  grasp,  measure,  comprehend,  and 
have  distinct  and  clear  ideas  of,  we  should  believe  scarce  anything. 
The  senses  are  not  the  witnesses  that  bear  testimony  to  us  of  the 
loftiest  truths. 

Our  greatest  difficulty  is,  that  language  is  not  adequate  to 
express  our  ideas;  because  our  words  refer  to  things,  and  are 
images  of  what  is  substantial  and  material.  If  we  use  the  word 
"emanation,"  our  mind  involuntarily  recurs  to  something  material, 
floiving  out  of  some  other  thing  that  is  material ;  and  if  we  reject 
this  idea  of  materiality,  nothing  is  left  of  the  emanation  but  an 
unreality.  The  word  "thing"  itself  suggests  to  us  that  which  is 
material  and  within  the  cognizance  and  jurisdiction  of  the  senses. 
If  we  cut  away  from  it  the  idea  of  materiality,  it  presents  itself 
to  us  as  no  thing,  but  an  intangible  unreality,  which  the  mind 
vainly  endeavors  to  grasp.  Existence  and  Being  are  terms  that 
have  the  same  color  of  materiality ;  and  when  we  speak  of  a  Power 
or  Force,  the  mind  immediately  images  to  itself  one  physical 
and  material  thing  acting  upon  another.  Eliminate  that  idea; 
and  the  Power  or  Force,  devoid  of  physical  characteristics, 
seems  as  unreal  as  the  shadow  that  dances  on  a  wall,  itself  a 
mere  absence  of  light ;  as  spirit  is  to  us  merely  that  which  is  not 
matter. 

Infinite  space  and  infinite  time  are  the  two  primary  ideas.  We 
formulize  them  thus :  add  body  to  body  and  sphere  to  sphere,  until 
the  imagination  wearies ;  and  still  there  will  remain  beyond,  a  void, 
empty,  unoccupied  SPACE,  limitless,  because  it  is  void.  Add  event 
to  event  in  continuous  succession,  forever  and  forever,  and  there 
will  still  remain,  before  and  after,  a  TIME  in  which  there  was  and 
will  be  no  event,  and  also  endless  because  it  too  is  void. 

Thus  these  two  ideas  of  the  boundlessness  of  space  and  the  end- 
lessness of  time  seem  to  involve  the  ideas  that  matter  and  events 
are  limited  and  finite.  We  cannot  conceive  of  an  infinity  of 
worlds  or  of  events;  but  only  of  an  indefinite  number  of  each; 
for,  as  we  struggle  to  conceive  of  their  infinity,  the  thought  ever 
occurs  in  despite  of  all  our  efforts — therr>  must  be  space  in  which 


5JO  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

there  are  no  worlds ;  there  must  have  been  time  when  there  were 

no  events. 

We  cannot  conceive  how,  if  this  earth  moves  millions  of  millions 
of  miles  a  million  times  repeated,  it  is  still  in  the  centre  of  space; 
nor  how,  if  we  lived  millions  of  millions  of  ages  and  centuries,  we 
should  still  be  in  the  centre  of  eternity — with  still  as  much  space 
on  one  side  as  on  the  other ;  with  still  as  much  time  before  us  as 
behind ;  for  that  seems  to  say  that  the  world  has  not  moved  nor 
we  lived  at  all. 

Nor  can  we  comprehend  how  an  infinite  series  of  worlds,  added 
together,  is  no  larger  than  an  infinite  series  of  atoms ;  or  an  infi- 
nite series  of  centuries  no  longer  than  an  infinite  series  of  seconds ; 
both  being  alike  infinite,  and  therefore  one  series  containing  no 
more  nor  fewer  units  than  the  other. 

Nor  have  we  the  capacity  to  form  in  ourselves  any  idea  of  that 
which  is  immaterial.  We  use  the  word,  but  it  conveys  to  us  only 
the  idea  of  the  absence  and  negation  of  materiality ;  which  van- 
ishing. Space  and  Time  alone,  infinite  and  boundless,  seem  to  us 
to  be  left. 

We  cannot  form  any  conception  of  an  effect  without  a  cause. 
We  cannot  but  believe,  indeed  we  know,  that,  how  far  soever  we 
may  have  to  run  back  along  the  chain  of  effects  and  causes,  it  can- 
not be  infinite;  but  we  must  come  at  last  to  something  which  is 
not  an  effect,  but  the  first  cause :  and  yet  the  fact  is  literally  be- 
yond our  comprehension.  The  mind  refuses  to  grasp  the  idea  of 
.^//"-existence,  of  existence  without  a  beginning.  As  well  expect 
the  hair  that  grows  upon  our  head  to  understand  the  nature  and 
immortality  of  the  soul. 

It  does  not  need  to  go  so  far  in  search  of  mysteries ;  nor  have 
we  any  right  to  disbelieve  or  doubt  the  existence  of  a  Great  First 
Cause,  itself  no  effect,  because  we  cannot  comprehend  it ;  because 
the  words  we  use  do  not  even  express  it  to  us  adequately. 

We  rub  a  needle  for  a  little  while,  on  a  dark,  inert  mass  of  iron 
ore,  that  had  lain  idle  in  the  earth  for  many  centuries.  Something 
is  thereby  communicated  to  the  steel — we  term  it  a  virtue,  a  power, 
or  a  quality — and  then  we  balance  it  upon  a  pivot;  and,  lo!  drawn 
by  some  invisible,  mysterious  Power,  one  pole  of  the  needle  turns 
to  the  North,  and  there  the  same  Power  keeps  the  same  pole  for 
days  and  years ;  will  keep  it  there,  perhaps,  as  long  as  the  world 
lasts,  carry  the  needle  where  you  will,  and  no  matter  what  seas  or 


PRINCE  OF   MERCY,   OR   SCOTTISH   TRINITARIAN'.  571 

mountains  intervene  between  it  and  the  North  Pole  of  the  world. 
And  this  Power,  thus  acting,  and  indicating  to  the  mariner  his 
course  over  the  trackless  ocean,  when  the  stars  shine  not  for  many 
days,  saves  vessels  from  shipwreck,  families  from  distress,  and 
those  from  sudden  death  on  whose  lives  the  fate  of  nations  and  the 
peace  of  the  world  depend.  But  for  it,  Napoleon  might  never" 
have  reached  the  ports  of  France  on  his  return  from  Egypt,  nor 
Nelson  lived  to  fight  and  win  at  Trafalgar.  Men  call  this  Power 
Magnetism,  and  then  complacently  think  that  they  hive  explained 
it  all ;  and  yet  they  have  but  ^'iven  a  new  name  to  an  unknown 
thing,  to  hide  their  ignorance.  What  is  this  wonderful  Power? 
It  is  a  real,  actual,  active  Power :  that  we  know  and  see.  But  what 
its  essence  is,  or  how  it  acts,  we  do  not  know,  any  more  than  we 
know  the  essence  or  the  mode  of  action  of  the  Creative  Thought 
and  Word  of  God. 

And  again,  what  is  that  which  we  term  galvanism  and  electri- 
city,— which,  evolved  by  the  action  of  a  little  acid  on  two  metals, 
aided  by  a  magnet,  circles  the  earth  in  a  second,  sending  from  land 
to  land  the  Thoughts  that  govern  the  transactions  of  individuals 
and  nations?  The  mind  has  formed  no  notion  of  matter,  that 
will  include  it;  and  no  name  that  we  can  give  it,  helps  us  to  un- 
derstand its  essence  and  its  being.  It  is  a  Power,  like  Thought 
and  the  Will.  We  know  no  more. 

What  is  this  power  of  gravitation  that  makes  everything  upon 
the  earth  tend  to  the  centre?  How  does  it  reach  out  its  invisible 
hands  toward  the  erratic  meteor-stones,  arrest  them  in  their  swift 
course,  and  draw  them  down  to  the  earth's  bosom?  It  is  a  power, 
Wre  know  no  more. 

What  is  that  heat  which  plays  so  wonderful  a  part  in  the  world's 
economy? — that  caloric,  latent  everywhere,  within  us  and  without 
us,  produced  by  combustion,  by  intense  pressure,  and  by  swift  mo- 
tion? Is  it  substance,  matter,  spirit,  or  immaterial,  a  mere  Force 
or  State  of  Matter? 

And  what  is  light?  A  substance,  say  the  books, — matter,  that 
travels  to  us  from  the  sun  and  stars,  each  raj  separable  into  seven, 
by  the  prism,  of  distinct  colors,  and  with  distinct  peculiar  quali- 
ties and  action.  And  if  a  substance,  what  is  its  essence,  and  what 
power  is  inherent  in  it,  by  which  it  journeys  incalculable  myriads 
of  miles,  and  reaches  us  ten  thousand  years  or  more  after  it  leaves 
the  stars  ? 


5/2  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

All  power  is  equally  a  mystery.  Apply  intense  cold  to  a  drop 
of  water  in  the  centre  of  a  globe  of  iron,  and  the  globe  is  shat- 
tered as  the  water  freezes.  Confine  a  little  of  the  same  limpid  ele- 
ment in  a  cylinder  which  Enceladus  or  Typhon  could  not  have 
riven  asunder,  and  apply  to  it  intense  heat,  and  the  vast  power 
that  couched  latent  in  the  water  shivers  the  cylinder  to  atoms.  A 
little  shoot  from  a  minute  seed,  a  shoot  so  soft  and  tender  that  the 
least  bruise  would  kill  it,  forces  its  way  downward  into  the  hard 
earth,  to  the  depth  of  many  feet,  with  an  energy  wholly  incom- 
prehensible. What  are  these  mighty  forces,  locked  up  in  the  small 
seed  and  the  drop  of  water? 

Nay,  what  is  LIFE  itself,  with  all  its  wondrous,  mighty  ener- 
gies,— that  power  which  maintains  the  heat  within  us,  and  pre- 
vents our  bodies,  that  decay  so  soon  without  it,  from  resolution 
into  their  original  elements — Life,  that  constant  miracle,  the 
nature  and  essence  whereof  have  eluded  all  the  philosophers ;  and 
all  their  learned  dissertation,  on  it  are  a  mere  jargon  of  words? 

No  wonder  the  ancient  Persians  thought  that  Light  and  Life 
were  one, — both  emanations  from  the  Supreme  Deity,  the  arche- 
type of  light.  No  wonder  that  in  their  ignorance  they  worship- 
ped the  Sun.  God  breathed  into  man  the  spirit  of  life, — not  mat- 
ter, but  an  emanation  from  Himself ;  not  a  creature  made  by  Him, 
nor  a  distinct  existence,  but  a  Power,  like  His  own  Thought :  and 
light,  to  those  great-souled  ancients,  also  seemed  no  creature,  and 
no  gross  material  substance,  but  a  pure  emanation  from  the  Deity, 
immortal  and  indestructible  like  Himself. 

What,  indeed,  is  REALITY?  Our  dreams  are  as  real,  while  they 
last,  as  the  occurrences  of  the  daytime.  We  see,  hear,  feel,  act, 
experience  pleasure  and  suffer  pain,  as  vividly  and  actually  in  a 
dream  as  when  awake.  The  occurrences  and  transactions  of  a 
year  are  crowded  into  the  limits  of  a  second :  and  the  dream 
remembered  is  as  real  as  the  past  occurrences  of  life. 

The  philosophers  tell  us  that  we  have  no  cognizance  of  substance 
itself,  but  only  of  its  attributes:  that  when  we  sec  that  which  we 
call  a  block  of  marble,  our  perceptions  give  us  information  only 
of  something  extended,  solid,  colored,  heavy,  and  the  like ;  but 
not  of  the  very  thing  itself,  to  which  these  attributes  belong.  And 
yet  the  attributes  do  not  exist  without  the  substance.  They  are 
not  substances,  but  adjectives.  There  is  no  such  thing  or  exist- 
ence as  hardness,  weight  or  color,  by  itself,  detached  from  any  sub- 


PRINCE  OF  MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH  TRINITARIAN.  573 

ject,  moving  first  here,  then  there,  and  attaching  itself  to  this  and 
to  the  other  subject.  And  yet,  they  say,  the  attributes  are  not  the 
subject. 

So  Thought,  Volition,  and  Perception  are  not  the  soul,  but  its 
attributes;  and  we  have  no  cognizance  of  the  soul  itself,  but  only 
of  them,  its  manifestations.  Nor  of  God ;  but  only  of  His  Wis- 
dom, Power,  Magnificence,  Truth,  and  other  attributes. 

And  yet  we  know  that  there  is  matter,  a  soul  within  our  body, 
a  God  that  lives  in  the  Universe. 

Take,  then,  the  attributes  of  the  soul.  I  am  conscious  that  I 
exist  and  am  the  same  identical  person  that  I  was  twenty  years 
ago.  I  am  conscious  that  my  body  is  not  I, — that  if  my  arms 
were  lopped  away,  this  person  that  I  call  ME,  would  still  remain, 
complete,  entire,  identical  as  before.  But  I  cannot  ascertain,  by 
the  most  intense  and  long-continued  reflection,  what  I  am,  nor 
where  within  my  body  I  reside,  nor  whether  I  am  a  point,  or  an 
expanded  substance.  I  have  no  power  to  examine  and  inspect.  I 
exist,  will,  think,  perceive.  That  I  know,  and  nothing  more.  I 
think  a  noble  and  sublime  Thought.  What  is  that  Thought?  It 
is  not  Matter,  nor  Spirit.  It  is  not  a  Thing ;  but  a  Power  and 
Force.  I  make  upon  a  paper  certain  conventional  marks,  that  rep- 
resent that  Thought.  There  is  no  Power  or  Virtue  in  the  marks  I 
write,  but  only  in  the  Thought  which  they  tell  to  others.  I  die, 
but  the  Thought  still  lives.  It  is  a  Power.  It  acts  on  men,  ex- 
cites them  to  enthusiasm,  inspires  patriotism,  governs  their  con- 
duct, controls  their  destinies,  disposes  of  life  and  death.  The 
words  I  speak  are  but  a  certain  succession  of  particular  sounds, 
that  by  conventional  arrangement  communicate  to  others  the  Im- 
material, Intangible,  Eternal  Thought.  The  fact  that  Thought 
continues  to  exist  an'  instant,  after  it  makes  its  appearance  in  the 
soul,  proves  it  immortal :  for  there  is  nothing  conceivable  that  can 
destroy  it.  The  spoken  words,  being  mere  sounds,  may  vanish 
into  thin  air,  and  the  written  ones,  mere  marks,  be  burned,  erased, 
destroyed :  but  the  THOUGHT  itself  lives  still,  and  must  live  on 
forever. 

A  Human  Thought,  then,  is  aa  actual  EXISTENCE,  and  a  FORCE 
and  POWER,  capable  of  acting  upon  and  controlling  matter  as  well 
as  mind.  Is  not  the  existence  of  a  God,  who  is  the  immaterial 
soul  of  the  Universe,  and  whose  THOUGHT,  embodied  or  not 
embodied  in  His  WORD,  is  an  Infinite  Power,  of  Creation  and  pro- 


574  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

duction,  destruction  and  preservation,  quite  as  comprehensible  as 
the  existence  of  a  Soul,  of  a  Thought  separated  from  the  Soul,  of 
the  Power  of  that  Thought  to  mould  the  fate  and  influence  the 
Destinies  of  Humanity? 

And  yet  we  know  not  when  that  Thought  comes,  nor  what  it 
is.  It  is  not  WE.  We  do  not  mould  it,  shape  it,  fashion  it.  It  is 
neither  our  mechanism  nor  our  invention.  It  appears  spontane- 
ously, flashing,  as  it  were,  into  the  soul,  making  that  soul  the 
involuntary  instrument  of  its  utterance  to  the  world.  It  comes  to 
us,  and  seems  a  stranger  to  us,  seeking  a  home. 

As  little  can  we  explain  the  mighty  power  of  the  human  WILL. 
Volition,  like  Thought,  seems  spontaneous,  an  effect  without  a 
cause.  Circumstances  provoke  it,  and  serve  as  its  occasion,  but  do 
not  produce  it.  It  springs  up  in  the  soul,  like  Thought,  as  the 
waters  gush  upward  in  a  spring.  Is  it  the  manifestation  of  the 
soul,  merely  making  apparent  what  passes  within  the  soul,  or  an 
emanation  from  it,  going  abroad  and  acting  outwardly,  itself  a 
real  Existence,  as  it  is  an  admitted  Power?  We  can  but  own  our 
ignorance.  It  is  certain  that  it  acts  on  other  souls,  controls,  directs 
them,  shapes  their  action,  legislates  for  men  and  nations :  and  yet 
it  is  not  material  nor  visible ;  and  the  laws  it  writes  merely  inform 
one  soul  of  what  has  passed  within  another. 

God,  therefore,  is  a  mystery,  only  as  everything  that  surrounds 
us,  and  as  we  ourselves,  are  mysteries.  We  know  that  there  is 
and  must  be  a  FIRST  CAUSE.  His  attributes,  severed  from  Him- 
self, are  unrealities.  As  color  and  extension,  weight  and  hardness, 
do  not  exist  apart  from  matter  as  separate  existences  and  substan- 
tives, spiritual  or  immaterial ;  so  the  Goodjiess,  Wisdom,  Justice, 
Mercy,  and  Benevolence  of  God  are  not  Independent  existences, 
personify  them  as  men  may,  but  attributes  oi  the  Deity,  the  adjec- 
tives of  One  Great  Substantive.  But  we  know  that  He  must  be 
Good,  True,  \Vise,  Just,  Benevolent,  Merciful :  and  in  all  these, 
and  all  His  other  attributes,  Perfect  and  Infinite :  because  we  are 
conscious  that  these  are  laws  imposed  on  us  by  the  very  nature  of 
things,  necessary,  and  without  which  the  Universe  would  be  confu- 
sion and  the  existence  of  a  God  incredible.  They  are  of  His 
essence,  and  necessary,  as  His  existence  is 

He  is  the  Living,  Thinking,  Intelligent  SOUL  of  the  Universe, 
the  PERMANENT,  the  STATIONARY  [/wm.  r  .  .  Estos],  of  Simon 
Magus,  the  ONE  that  always  is  [  To  Ov  .  To  Ox]  of  Plato,  as 


PRINCE  OF   MERCY,  OR  SCOTTISH    TRINITARIAN.  575 

contradistinguished  from  the  perpetual  flux  and  reflux,  or  Genesis, 
of  things. 

And,  as  the  Thought  of  the  Soul,  emanating  from  the  Soul,  be- 
comes audible  and  visible  in  Words,  so  did  THE  THOUGHT  OF  GOD, 
springing  up  within  Himself,  immortal  as  Himself,  when  once 
conceived, — immortal  before,  because  in  Himself,  utter  Itself  in 
THE  WORD,  its  manifestation  and  mode  of  communication,  and 
thus  create  the  Material,  Mental,  Spiritual  Universe,  which,  like 
Him,  never  began  to  exist. 

This  is  the  real  idea  of  the  Ancient  Nations :  GOD,  the 
Almighty  Father,  and  Source  of  All ;  His  THOUGHT,  conceiving 
the  whole  Universe,  and  willing  its  creation :  His  WORD,  uttering 
that  THOUGHT,  and  thus  becoming  the  Creator  or  Demiourgos,  in 
whom  was  Life  and  Light,  and  that  Light  the  Life  of  the  Uni- 
verse. 

Nor  did  that  Word  cease  at  the  single  act  of  Creation ;  and 
having  set  going  the  great  machine,  and  enacted  the  laws  of  its 
motion  and  progression,  of  birth  and  life,  and  change  and  death, 
cease  to  exist,  or  remain  thereafter  in  inert  idleness. 

FOR  THE  THOUGHT  OF  GOD  LIVES  AND  is  IMMORTAL.  Embod- 
ied in  the  WORD,  is  not  only  created,  but  it  preserves.  It  conducts 
and  controls  the  Universe,  all  spheres,  all  worlds,  all  actions  of 
mankind,  and  of  every  animate  and  inanimate  creature.  It  speaks 
in  the  soul  of  every  man  who  lives.  The  Stars,  the  Earth,  the 
Trees,  the  Winds,  the  universal  voice  of  Nature,  tempest,  and  ava- 
lanche, the  Sea's  roar  and  the  grave  voice  of  the  waterfall,  the 
hoarse  thunder  and  the  low  whisper  of  the  brook,  the  song  of  birds, 
the  voice  of  love,  the  speech  of  men,  all  are  the  alphabet  in  which 
it  communicates  itself  to  men,  and  informs  them  of  the  will  and 
law  of  God,  the  Soul  of  the  Universe.  And  thus  most  truly  did 
"THE  WORD  BECOME  FLESH  AND  DWELL  AMONG  MEN/' 

God,  the  unknown  FATHER  [/7«r^o  Afvfoaroz.  .  .  Pater 
Agnostos] ,  known  to  us  only  by  His  Attributes ;  the  ABSOLUTE  I 
AM:..  The  THOUGHT  of  God  [AVvora  .  .  Ennoia],  and  the  WORE 
[Jo^oc.  . .  .Logos],  Manifestation  and  expression  of  the  Thought ; 
....  Behold  THE  TRUE  MASONIC  TRINITY  ;  the  UNIVERSAL  SOUL, 
the  THOUGHT  in  the  Soul,  the  WORD,  or  Thought  expressed ;  the 
THREE  IN  ONE,  of  a  Trinitarian  Ecossais. 

Here  Masonry  pauses,  and  leaves  its  Initiates  to  carry  out  and 
develop  these  great  Truths  in  such  manner  as  to  each  may  seem 


5/6  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

most  accordant  with  reason,  philosophy,  truth,  and  his  religious 
faith.  It  declines  to  act  as  Arbiter  between  them.  It  looks  calmly 
on,  while  each  multiplies  the  intermediates  between  the  Deity  and 
Matter,  and  the  personifications  of  God's  manifestations  and  attri- 
butes, to  whatever  extent  his  reason,  his  conviction,  or  his  fancy 
dictates. 

While  the  Indian  tells  us  that  PARABRAHMA,  BRAHM,  and  PA- 
RATMA  were  the  first  Triune  God,  revealing  Himself  as  BRAHMA, 
VISHNU,  and  SIVA,  Creator,  Preserver,  and  Destroyer;. . .  . 

The  Egyptian, of  AMUN-RE,  NEiTH,and  PU.TK  A,  Creator,  Matter, 
Thought  or  Light;  the  Persian  of  his  Trinity  of  Three  Powers  in 
ORMUZD,  Sources  of  Light,  Fire,  and  Water;  the  Buddhists  of  the 
God  SAKYA,  a  Trinity  composed  of  BUDDHA,,  DHARMA,  and  SAN- 
GA, — Intelligence,  Law,  and  Union  or  Harmony;  the  Chinese  Sa- 
beans  of  their  Trinity  of  Chang-ti,  the  Supreme  Sovereign ;  Tien, 
the  Heavens ;  and  Tao,  the  Universal  Supreme  Reason  and  Prin- 
ciple of  all  things ;  who  produced  the  Unit ;  that,  two ;  two, 
three ;  and  three,  all  that  is ;  .... 

While  the  Sclavono-Vend  typifies  his  Trinity  by  the  three  heads 
of  the  God  Triglav;  the  Ancient  Prussian  points  to  his  Triune 
God,  Perkoun,Pikollos,  and  Po  trim  pos, Deities  of  Light  and  Thun- 
der, of  Hell  and  of  the  Earth ;  the  Ancient  Scandinavian  to  Odin, 
Frea,  and  Thor;  and  the  old  Etruscans  to  TINA,  TALNA,  and 
MINERVA,  Strength,  Abundance,  and  Wisdom; .  . .  . 

While  Plato  tells  us  of  the  Supreme  Good,  the  Reason  or  Intel- 
lect, and  the  Soul  or  Spirit;  and  Philo  of  the  Archetype  of  Light, 
Wisdom  [Jo^Y«],  and  the  Word  [Ao-fo^]',  the  Kabalists,  of 
the  Triads  of  the  Sephiroth ;  .  .  .  . 

While  the  disciples  of  Simon  Magus,  and  the  many  sects  of  the 
Gnostics,  confuse  us  with  their  Eons,  Emanations,  Powers,  Wis- 
dom Superior  and  Inferior,  laldabaoth,  Adam-Kadmon,  even  to 
the  three  hundred  ard  sixty-five  thousand  emanations  of  the  Mal- 
da'ites ;  .  .  .  . 

And  while  the  pious  Christian  believes  that  the  WORD  dwelt  in 
the  Mortal  Body  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  suffered  upon  the 
Cross ;  and  that  the  HOLY  GHOST  was  poured  out  upon  the  Apos- 
tles, and  now  inspires  every  truly  Christian  Soul :  .  .  .  . 

While  all  these  faiths  assert  their  claims  to  the  exclusive  pos- 
session of  the  Truth,  Masonry  inculcates  its  old  doctrine,  and  no 
more  :  .  That  God  is  ONE;  that  His  THOUGHT  uttered  in  His 


PRINCE  OF   MERCY,  OR   SCOTTISH   TRINITARIAN.  57J 

WORD,  created  the  Universe,  and  preserves  it  by  those  Eternal 
Laws  which  are  the  expression  of  that  Thought :  that  the  Soul 
of  Man,  breathed  into  him  by  God,  is  immortal  as  His  Thoughts 
are ;  that  he  is  free  to  do  evil  or  to  choose  good,  responsible  for  his 
acts  and  punishable  for  his  sins :  that  all  evil  and  wrong  and 
suffering  are  but  temporary,  the  discords  of  one  great  Harmony, 
and  that  in  His  good  time  they  will  lead  by  infinite  modulations 
to  the  great,  harmonic  final  chord  and  cadence  of  Truth,  Love, 
Peace,  and  Happiness,  that  will  ring  forever  and  ever  under  the 
Arches  of  Heaven,  among  all  the  Stars  and  Worlds,  and  in  all 
souls  of  men  and  Angels. 


XXVII. 
KNIGHT  COMMANDER  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 

THIS  is  the  first  of  the  really  Chivalric  Degrees  of  the  Ancient 
and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite.  It  occupies  this  place  in  the  Calendar 
of  the  Degrees  between  the  26th  and  the  last  of  the  Philosophical 
Degrees,  in  order,  by  breaking  the  continuity  of  these,  to  relieve 
what  might  otherwise  become  wearisome ;  and  also  to  remind  you 
that,  while  engaged  with  the  speculations  and  abstractions  of  phi- 
losophy and  creeds,  the  Mason  is  also  to  continue  engaged  in  the 
active  duties  of  this  great  warfare  of  life.  He  is  not  only  a  Moral- 
ist and  Philosopher,  but  a  Soldier,  the  Successor  of  those  Knights 
of  the  Middle  Age,  who,  while  they  wore  the  Cross,  also  wielded 
the  Sword,  and  were  the  Soldiers  of  Honor,  Loyalty,  and  Duty. 

Times  change,  and  circumstances ;  but  Virtue  and  Duty  remain 
the  same.  The  Evils  to  be  warred  against  but  take  another  shape, 
and  are  developed  in  a  different  form. 

There  is  the  same  need  now  of  truth  and  loyalty  as  in  the  days 
of  Frederic  Barbarossa. 

The  characters,  religious  and  military,  attention  to  the  sick  and 
wounded  in  the  Hospital,  and  war  against  the  Infidel  in  the  field, 
are  no  longer  blended ;  but  the  same  duties,  to  be  performed  in 
another  shape,  continue  to  exist  and  to  environ  us  all. 

The  innocent  virgin  is  no  longer  at  the  mercy  of  the  brutal 
Baron  or  licentious  man-at-arms ;  but  purity  and  innocence  still 
need  protectors. 

\Yar  is  no  longer  the  apparently  natural  State  of  Society ;  and 
for  most  men  it  is  an  empty  obligation  to  assume,  that  they  will 
not  recede  before  the  enemy ;  but  the  same  high  duty  and  obliga- 
tion still  rest  upon  all  men. 

Truth,  in  act,  profession,  and  opinion,  is  rarer  now  than  in  the 
days  of  chivalry.  Falsehood  has  become  a  current  coin,  and  cir- 
culates with  a  certain  degree  of  respectability ;  because  it  has  an 
actual  value.  It  is  indeed  the  great  Vice  of  the  Age — it,  and  its 
twin-sister.  Dishonesty.  Men,  for  political  preferment,  profess 
578 


KNIGHT  COMMANDER  OF  THE  TEMPLE. 

whatever  principles  are  expedient  and  profitable.  At  the  bar,  in 
the  pulpit,  and  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  men  argue  against  their 
own  convictions,  and,  with  what  they  term  logic,  prove  to  the 
satisfaction  of  others  that  which  they  do  not  themselves  believe. 
Insincerity  and  duplicity  are  valuable  to  their  possessors,  like 
estates  in  stocks,  that  yield  a  certain  revenue :  and  it  is  no  longer 
the  truth  of  an  opinion  or  a  principle,  but  the  net  profit  that  may 
be  realized  from  it,  which  is  the  measure  of  its  value. 

The  Press  is  the  great  sower  of  falsehood.  To  slander  a  political 
antagonist,  to  misrepresent  all  that  he  says,  and,  if  that  be  impos- 
sible, to  invent  for  him  what  he  does  not  say ;  to  put  in  circu- 
lation whatever  baseless  calumnies  against  him  are  necessary  to 
defeat  him, — these  are  habits  so  common  as  to  have  ceased  to 
excite  notice  or  comment,  much  less  surprise  or  disgust. 

There  was  a  time  when  a  Knight  would  die  rather  than  utter  a 
lie,  or  break  his  Knightly  word.  The  Knight  Commander  of  the 
Temple  revives  the  old  Knightly  spirit ;  and  devotes  himself  to 
the  old  Knightly  worship  of  Truth.  No  profession  of  an  opinion 
not  his  own,  for  expediency's  sake  or  profit,  or  through  fear  of  the 
world's  disfavor ;  no  slander  of  even  an  enemy ;  no  coloring  or 
perversion  of  the  sayings  or  acts  of  other  men ;  no  insincere 
speech  and  argument  for  any  purpose,  or  under  any  pretext,  must 
soil  his  fair  escutcheon.  Out  of  the  Chapter,  as  well  as  in  ,it,  he 
must  speak  the  Truth,  and  all  the  Truth,  no  more  and  no  less ;  or 
else  speak  not  at  all. 

To  purity  and  innocence  everywhere,  the  Knight  Commander 
owes  protection,  as  of  old ;  against  bold  violence,  or  those,  more 
guilty  than  murderers,  who  by  art  and  treachery  seek  to  slay  the 
soul ;  and  against  that  want  and  destitution  that  drive  too  many 
to  sell  their  honor  and  innocence  for  food. 

In  no  age  of  the  world  has  man  had  better  opportunity  than 
now  to  display  those  lofty  virtues  and  that  noble  heroism  that  so 
distinguished  the  three  great  military  and  religious  Orders,  in 
their  youth,  before  they  became  corrupt  and  vitiated  by  prosperity 
and  power. 

When  a  fearful  epidemic  ravages  a  city,  and  death  is  inhaled 
with  the  air  men  breathe ;  w:hen  the  living  scarcely  suffice  to  bury 
the  dead, — most  men  flee  in  abject  terror,  to  return  and  live,  re- 
spectable and  influential,  when  the  danger  has  passed  away.  But 
the  old  Knightly  spirit  of  devotion  and  disinterestedness  and  con- 


580  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

tempt  of  death  still  lives,  and  is  not  extinct  in  the  human  heart. 
Everywhere  a  few  are  found  to  stand  firmly  and  unflinchingly  at 
their  posts,  to  front  and  defy  the  danger,  not  for  money,  or  to  be 
honored  for  it,  or  to  protect  their  own  household ;  but  from  mere 
humanity,  and  to  obey  the  unerring  dictates  of  duty.  They  nurse 
the  sick,  breathing  the  pestilential  atmosphere  of  the  hospital. 
They  explore  the  abodes  of  want  and  misery.  With  the  gentleness 
of  woman,  they  soften  the  pains  of  the  dying,  and  feed  the  lamp 
of  life  in  the  convalescent.  They  perform  the  last  sad  offices  to 
the  dead ;  and  they  seek  no  other  reward  than  the  approval  of 
their  own  consciences. 

These  are  the  true  Knights  of  the  present  age :  these,  and  the 
captain  who  remains  at  his  post  on  board  his  shattered  ship  until 
the  last  boat,  loaded  to  the  water's  edge  with  passengers  and  crew, 
has  parted  from  her  side ;  and  then  goes  calmly  down  with  her 
into  the  mysterious  depths  of  the  ocean : — the  pilot  who  stands  at 
the  wheel  while  the  swift  flames  eddy  round  him  and  scorch  away 
his  life : — the  fireman  who  ascends  the  blazing  walls,  and  plunges 
amid  the  flames  to  save  the  property  or  lives  of  those  who  have 
upon  him  no  claim  by  tie  of  blood,  or  friendship,  or  even  of  ordi- 
nary acquaintance : — these,  and  others  like  these : — all  men,  who, 
set  at  the  post  of  duty,  stand  there  manfully ;  to  die,  if  need  be, 
but  not  to  desert  their  post :  for  these,  too,  are  sworn  not  to  recede 
before  the  enemy. 

To  the  performance  of  duties  and  of  acts  of  heroism  like  these, 
you  have  devoted  yourself,  my  Brother,  by  becoming  a  Knight 
Commander  of  the  Temple.  Soldier  of  the  Truth  and  of  Loyalty ! 
Protector  of  Purity  and  Innocence !  Defier  of  Plague  and  Pesti- 
lence !  Nurser  of  the  Sick  and  Burier  of  the  Dead !  Knight,  pre- 
ferring Death  to  abandonment  of  the  Post  of  Duty !  Welcome  to 
the  bosom  of  this  Order ! 


XXVIII. 

KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE 
ADEPT. 

GOD  is  the  author  of  everything  that  existeth ;  the  Eternal,  the 
Supreme,  the  Living,  and  Awful  Being;  from  Whom  nothing  in 
the  Universe  is  hidden.  Make  of  Him  no  idols  and  visible  images ; 
but  rather  worship  Him  in  the  deep  solitudes  of  sequestered 
forests ;  for  He  is  invisible,  and  fills  the  Universe  as  its  soul,  and 
liveth  not  in  any  Temple ! 

Light  and  Darkness  are  the  World's  Eternal  ways.  God  is  the 
principle  of  everything  that  exists,  and  the  Father  of  all  Beings. 
He  is  eternal,  immovable,  and  Self-Existent.  There  are  no  bounds 
to  His  power.  At  one  glance  He  sees  the  Past,  the  Present,  and 
the  Future ;  and  the  procession  of  the  builders  of  the  Pyramids, 
with  us  and  our  remotest  Descendants,  is  now  passing  before  Him. 
He  reads  our  thoughts  before  they  are  known  to  ourselves.  He 
rules  the  movements  of  the  Universe,  and  all  events  and  revolu- 
tions are  the  creatures  of  His  will.  For  He  is  the  Infinite  Mind 
and  Supreme  Intelligence. 

In  the  beginning  Man  had  the  WORD,  and  that  WORD  was  from 
God :  and  out  of  the  living  power  which,  in  and  by  that  WORD, 
was  communicated  to  man,  came  the  LIGHT  of  his  existence.  Let 
no  man  speak  the  WORD,  for  bv  it  THE  FATHER  made  light  and 
darkness,  the  world  and  living  creatures ! 

3*  581 


582  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

The  Chaldean  upon  his  plains  worshipped  me,  and  the  sea-loving 
Phoenician.  They  builded  me  temples  and  towers,  and  burned 
sacrifices  to  me  upon  a  thousand  altars.  Light  was  divine  to 
them,  and  they  thought  me  a  God.  But  I  am  nothing — nothing; 
and  LIGHT  is  the  creature  of  the  unseen  GOD  that  taught  the  true 
religion  to  the  Ancient  Patriarchs:  AWFUL,  MYSTEAIOUS,  THE 
ABSOLUTE. 

Man  was  created  pure ;  and  God  gave  him  TRUTH,  as  He  gave 
him  LIGHT.  He  has  lost  the  truth  and  found  error.  He  has 
wandered  far  into  darkness ;  and  round  him  Sin  and  Shame  hover 
evermore.  The  Soul  that  is  impure,  and  sinful,  and  defiled  with 
earthly  stains,  cannot  again  unite  with  God,  until,  by  long  trials 
and  many  purifications,  it  is  finally  delivered  from  the  old  calam- 
ity ;  and  Light  overcomes  Darkness  and  dethrones  it,  in  the 
Soul. 

God  is  the  First;  indestructible,  eternal,  UNCREATED,  INDI- 
VISIBLE. Wisdom,  Justice,  Truth,  and  Mercy,  with  Harmony  and 
Love,  are  of  His  essence,  and  Eternity  and  Infinitude  of  Extension. 
He  is  silent,  and  consents  with  MIND,  and  is  known  to  Souls 
through  MIND  alone.  In  Him  were  all  things  originally  con- 
tained, and  from  Him  all  things  were  evolved.  For  out  of  His 
Divine  SILENCE  and  REST,  after  an  infinitude  of  time,  was  un- 
folded the  WORD,  or  the  Divine  POWER  ;  and  then  in  turn  the 
Mighty,  ever-acting,  measureless  INTELLECT  ;  and  from  the  WORD 
were  evolved  the  myriads  of  suns  and  systems  that  make  the 
Universe ;  and  fire,  and  light,  and  the  electric  HARMONY,  which 
is  the  harmony  of  spheres  and  numbers :  and  from  the  INTELLECT 
all  Souls  and  intellects  of  men. 

In  the  Beginning,  the  Universe  was  but  ONE  SOUL.  HE  was 
THE  ALL,  alone  with  TIME  and  SPACE,  and  Infinite  as  they. 

HE  HAD  THIS  THOUGHT:  "I  Create  Worlds:"  and  lol 

the  Universe,  and  the  laws  of  harmony  and  motion  that  rule  it, 
the  expression  of  a  thought  of  God ;  and  bird  and  beast,  and  every 
living  thing  but  Man :  and  light  and  air,  and  the  mysterious 
currents,  and  the  dominion  of  mysterious  numbers ! 

HE  HAD  THIS  THOUGHT:  "I  Create  Man,  whose  Soul 

shall  be  my  image,  and  he  shall  rule."  And  lo !  Man,  with  senses, 
instinct,  and  a  reasoning  mind ! 

And  yet  not  MAN  !  but  an  animal  that  breathed,  and 

saw,  and  thought :  until  an  immaterial  spark  from  God's  own 


KNIGHT  OK  THE  SUN,  OK  PRINCE  ADEPT.  583 

Infinite  Being-  penetrated  the  brain,  and  became  the  Soul:  and 
lo,  MAN  THE  IMMORTAL!  Thus,  threefold,  fruit  of  God's  thought, 
is  Man;  that  sees  and  hears  and  feels;  that  thinks  and  reasons; 
that  loves  and  is  in  harmony  with  the  Universe. 

Before  the  world  grew  old,  the  primitive  Truth  faded  out  from 
men's  Souls.  Then  man  asked  himself,  'What  am  I?  and  how 
and  -whence  am  I?  and  whither  do  I  go?"  And  the  Soul,  looking 
inward  upon  itself,  strove  to  learn  whether  that  "I"  were  mere 
matter;  its  thought  and  reason  and  its  passions  and  affections 
mere  results  of  material  combination  ;  or  a  material  Being  envelop- 
ing an  immaterial  Spirit :  .  .  and  further  it  strove,  by  self-exami- 
nation, to  learn  whether  that  Spirit  were  an  individual  essence, 
with  a  separate  immortal  existence,  or  an  infinitesimal  portion  of 
a  Great  First  Principle,  inter-penetrating  the  Universe  and  the 
infinitude  of  space,  and  undulating  like  light  and  heat:  .  .  and 
so  they  wandered  further  amid  the  mazes  of  error ;  and  imagined 
vain  philosophies  ;  wallowing  in  the  sloughs  of  materialism  and 
sensualism,  of  beating  their  wings  vainly  in  the  vacuum  of  ab- 
stractions and  idealities. 

While  yet  the  first  oaks  still  put  forth  their  leaves,  man  lost  the 
perfect  knowledge  cf  the  One  True  God,  the  Ancient  Absolute 
Existence,  the  Infinite  'Mind  and  Supreme  Intelligence;  and 
floated  helplessly  out  upon  the  shoreless  ocean  of  conjecture. 
Then  the  soul  vexed  itself  with  seeking  to  learn  whether  the 
material  Universe  was  a  mere  chance  combination  of  atoms,  or  the 
work  of  Infinite,  Uncreated  Wisdom :  .  .  whether  the  Deity  was  a 
concentrated,  and  the  Universe  an  extended  immateriality;  or 
whether  He  was  a  personal  existence,  an  Omnipotent,  Eternal, 
Supreme  Essence,  regulating  matter  at  will ;  or  subjecting  it  to 
unchangeable  laws  throughout  eternity ;  and  to  Whom,  Himself 
Infinite  and  Eternal,  Space  and  Time  are  unknown.  With  their 
finite  limited  vision,  they  sought  to  learn  the  source  and  explain 
the  existence  of  Evil,  and  Pain,  and  Sorrow ;  and  so  they  wan- 
dered ever  deeper  into  the  darkness,  and  were  lost ;  and  there  was 
for  them  no  longer  any  God ;  but  only  a  great,  dumb,  soulless 
Universe,  full  of  mere  emblems  and  symbols. 

You  have  heretofore,  in  some  of  the  Degrees  through  which  you 
have  passed,  heard  much  of  the  ancient  worship  of  the  Sun,  the 
Moon,  and  the  other  bright  luminaries  of  Heaven,  and  of  the  Ele- 
ments and  Powers  of  Universal  Nature.  You  have  been  made,  to 


584  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

some  extent,  familiar  with  their  personifications  as  Heroes  suffer- 
ing or  triumphant,  or  as  personal  Gods  or  Goddesses,  with  human 
characteristics  and  passions,  and  with  the  multitude  of  legends 
and  fables  that  do  but  allegorically  represent  their  risings  and 
settings,  their  courses,  their  conjunctions  and  oppositions,  their 
domiciles  and  places  of  exaltation. 

Perhaps  you  have  supposed  that  we,  like  many  who  have  writ- 
ten on  these  subjects,  have  intended  to  represent  this  worship  to 
you  as  the  most  ancient  and  original  worship  of  the  first  men  that 
lived.  To  undeceive  you,  if  such  was  your  conclusion,  we  have 
caused  the  Personifications  of  the  Great  Luminary  of  Heaven, 
under  the  names  by  which  he  was  known  to  the  most  ancient 
nations,  to  proclaim  the  old  primitive  truths  that  were  known  to 
the  Fathers  of  our  race,  before  men  came  to  worship  the  visible 
manifestations  of  the  Supreme  Power  and  Magnificence  and  the 
Supposed  Attributes  of  the  Universal  Deity  in  the  Elements  and 
in  the  glittering  armies  that  Night  regularly  marshals  and  arrays 
upon  the  blue  field  of  the  firmament. 

We  ask  now  your  attention  to  a  still  further  development  of 
these  truths,  after  we  shall  have  added  something  to  what  we 
have  already  said  in  regard  to  the  Chief  Luminary  of  Heaven,  in 
explanation  of  the  names  and  characteristics  of  the  several  imagi- 
nary Deities  that  represented  him  among  the  ancient  races  of 
men. 

ATHOM  or  ATHOM-RE,  was  the  Chief  and  Oldest  Supreme  God 
of  Upper  Egypt,  worshipped  at  Thebes ;  the  same  as  the  OM  or 
AUM  of  the  Hindus,  whose  name  was  unpronounceable,  and  who, 
like  the  BREHM  of  the  latter  People,  was  "The  Being  that  was, 
and  is,  and  is  to  come ;  the  Great  God,  the  Great  Omnipotent, 
Omniscient,  and  Omnipresent  One,  the  Greatest  in  the  Universe, 
the  Lord ;"  whose  emblem  was  a  perfect  sphere,  showing  that  He 
was  first,  last,  midst,  and  without  end;  superior  to  all  Nature- 
Gods,  and  all  personifications  of  Powers,  Elements,  and  Lumi- 
naries ;  symbolized  by  Light,  the  Principle  of  Life. 

AMUN  was  the  Nature-God,  or  Spirit  of  Nature,  called  by  that 
name  or  AMUN-RE,  and  worshipped  at  Memphis  in  Lower  Egypt, 
and  in  Libya,  as  well  as  in  Upper  Egypt.  He  was  the  Libyan 
Jupiter,  and  represented  the  intelligent  and  organizing  force  that 
develops  itself  in  Nature,  when  the  intellectual  types  or  forms 
of  bodies  are  revealed  to  the  senses  in  the  world's  order,  by  their 


KNIGHT  OF   THE   SUN,   OR    PRINCE   ADEPT.  585 

union  with  matter,  whereby  the  generation  of  bodies  is  effected. 
He  was  the  same  with  Kneph,  from  whose  mouth  issued  the 
Orphic  egg  out  of  which  came  the  Universe. 

DIONUSOS  was  the  Nature-God  of  the  Greeks,  as  AMUN  was  of 
the  Egyptians.  In  the  popular  legend,  Dionusos,  as  well  as  Hercu- 
les, was  a  Theban  Hero,  born  of  a  mortal  mother.  Both  were  sons 
of  Zeus,  both  persecuted  by  Here.  But  in  Hercules  the  God  is 
subordinate  to  the  Hero ;  while  Dionusos,  even  in  poetry,  retains 
his  divine  character,  and  is  identical  with  lacchus,  the  presiding 
genius  of  the  Mysteries.  Personification  of  the  Sun  in  Taurus,  as 
his  ox-hoofs  showed, he  delivered  earth  from  the  harsh  dominion  of 
Winter,  conducted  the  mighty  chorus  of  the  Stars,  and  the  celestial 
revolution  of  the  year,  changed  with  the  seasons,  and  underwent 
their  periodical  decay.  He  was  the  Sun  as  invoked  by  the  Eleans, 
/Ty/^fsvjyc.  ushered  into  the  world  amidst  lightning  and  thunder, 
the  Mighty  Hunter  of  the  Zodiac,  Zagreus  the  Golden  or  ruddy- 
faced.  The  Mysteries  taught  the  doctrine  of  Divine  Unity ;  and 
that  Power  whose  Oneness  is  a  seeming  mystery, but  really  a  truism, 
was  Dionusos,  the  God  of  Nature,  or  of  that  moisture,  which  is  the 
life  of  Nature,  who  prepares  in  darkness,  in  Hades  or  Iasion,the  re- 
turn of  life  and  vegetation,  or  is  himself  the  light  and  change  evolv- 
ing their  varieties.  In  the  Egean  Islands  he  was  Butes,  Dardanus, 
Himeros  or  Imbros;  in  Crete  he  appears  as  lasius  or  even  Zeus, 
whose  orgiastic  worship,  remaining  unveiled  by  the  usual  forms  of 
mystery,  betrayed  to  profane  curiosity  the  symbols  which,  if  irrev- 
erently contemplated,  were  sure  to  be  misunderstood. 

He  was  the  same  with  the  dismembered  Zagreus,  the  son  of  Per- 
sephone, an  Ancient  Subterranean  Dionusos,  the  horned  progeny 
of  Zeus  in  the  Constellation  of  the  Serpent,  entrusted  by  his  father 
with  the  thunderbolt,  and  encircled  with  the  protecting  dance  of 
Curetes.  Through  the  envious  artifices  of  Here,  the  Titans  eluded 
the  vigilance  of  his  guardians  and  tore  him  to  pieces ;  but  Pallas 
restored  the  still  palpitating  heart  to  his  father,  who  commanded 
Apollo  to  bury  the  dismembered  remains  upon  Parnassus. 

Dionusos,  as  well  as  Apollo,  was  leader  of  the  Muses ;  the  tomb 
of  one  accompanied  the  worship  of  the  other :  they  were  the  same, 
yet  different,  contrasted,  yet  only  as  filling  separate  parts  in  the 
same  drama;  and  the  mystic  and  heroic  personifications,  the  God 
of  Nature  and  of  Art,  seem,  at  some  remote  period,  to  have?  pro- 
ceeded from  a  common  source.  Their  separation  was  one  of  form 


586  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

rather  than  of  substance :  and  from  the  time  when  Hercules 
obtained  initiation  from  Triptolemus,  or  Pythagoras  received  Or- 
phic tenets,  the  two  conceptions  were  tending  to  re-combine.  It 
was  said  that  Dionusos  or  Poseidon  had  preceded  Apollo  in  the 
Oracular  office ;  and  Dionusos  continued  to  be  esteemed  in  Greek 
Theology  as  Healer  and  Saviour,  Author  of  Life  and  Immortality. 
The  dispersed  Pythagoreans,  "Sons  of  Apollo,"  immediately  be- 
took themselves  to  the  Orphic  Service  of  Dionusos,  and  there  are 
indications  that  there  was  always  something  Dionysiac  in  the 
worship  of  Apollo. 

Dionusos  is  the  Sun,  that  liberator  of  the  elements ;  and  his 
spiritual  mediation  was  suggested  by  the  same  imagery  which 
made  the  Zodiac  the  supposed  path  of  the  Spirits  in  their  descent 
and  their  return.  His  second  birth,  as  offspring  of  the  highest,  is 
a  type  of  the  spiritual  regeneration  of  man.  He,  as  well  as  Apollo, 
was  precentor  of  the  Muses  and  source  of  inspiration.  His  rule 
prescribed  no  unnatural  mortification :  its  yoke  was  easy,  and  its 
mirthful  choruses,  combining  the  gay  with  the  severe,  did  but  com- 
memorate that  golden  age  when  earth  enjoyed  eternal  spring,  and 
when  fountains  of  honey,  milk,  and  wine  burst  forth  out  of  its 
bosom  at  the  touch  of  the  thyrsus.  He  is  the  "Liberator."  Like- 
Osiris,  he  frees  the  soul,  and  guides  it  in  its  migrations  beyond  the 
grave,  preserving  it  from  the  risk  of  again  falling  under  the  sla- 
very of  matter  or  of  some  inferior  animal  form.  All  soul  is  part 
of  the  Universal  Soul,  whose  totality  is  Dionusos ;  and  he  leads 
back  the  vagrant  spirit  to  its  home,  and  accompanies  it  through 
the  purifying  processes,  both  real  and  symbolical,  of  its  earthly 
transit.  He  died  and  descended  to  the  Shades :  and  his  suffering 
was  the  great  secret  of  the  Mysteries,  as  death  is  the  grand  mystery 
of  existence.  He  is  the  immortal  suitor  of  Psyche  (the  Soul),  the 
Divine  influence  which  physically  called  the  world  into  being,  and 
which,  awakening  the  soul  from  its  Stygian  trance,  restores  it 
from  earth  to  Heaven. 

Of  HERMES,  the  Mercury  of  the  Greeks,  the  Thoth  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  the  Taaut  of  the  Phoenicians,  we  have  heretofore 
spoken  sufficiently  at  length.  He  was  the  inventor  of  letters  and 
of  Oratory,  the  winged  messenger  of  the  Gods,  bearing  the  Cadu- 
ceus  wreathed  with  serpents ;  and  in  our  Council  he  is  represented 
by  the  ORATOR. 

The  Hindus  called  the  Sun  SURYA  ;  the  Persians,  MITHRAS; 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  587 

the  Egyptians,  OSIRIS;  the  Assyrians  and  Chaldccans,  BEL;  the 
Scythians  and  Etruscans  and  the  ancient  Pelasgi,  ARKALEUS  or 
HERCULES;  the  Phoenicians,  ADONAI  or  ADON  ;  and  the  Scandina- 
vians, ODIN. 

From  the  name  SURYA,  given  by  the  Hindus  to  the  Sun,  the 
Sect  who  paid  him  particular  adoration  were  called  Souras.  Their 
painters  describe  his  car  as  drawn  by  seven  green  horses.  In  the 
Temple  of  Visweswara,  at  Benares,  there  is  an  ancient  piece  of 
sculpture,  well  executed  in  stone,  representing  him  sitting  in  a 
car  drawn  by  a  horse  with  twelve  heads.  His  charioteer,  by  whom 
he  is  preceded,  is  ARUN  [from  IIS,  AUR  the  Crepnsculum?},  or 
the  Dawrn ;  and  among  his  many  titles  are  twelve  that  denote  his 
distinct  powers  in  each  of  the  twelve  months.  Those  powers  are 
called  Adityas,  each  of  whom  has  a  particular  name.  Surya  is 
supposed  frequently  to  have  descended  upon  earth,  in  a  human 
shape,  and  to  have  left  a  race  on  earth,  equally  renowned  in  Indian 
story  with  the  Heliades  of  Greece.  He  is  often  styled  King  of  the 
Stars  and  Planets,  and  thus  reminds  us  of  the  Adon-Tsbauth 
(Lord  of  the  Starry  Hosts)  of  the  Hebrew  writings. 

MITHRAS  was  the  Sun-God  of  the  Persians ;  and  was  fabled  to 
have  been  born  in  a  grotto  or  cave,  at  the  Winter  Solstice.  His 
feasts  were  celebrated  at  that  period,  at  the  moment  when  the  sun 
commenced  to  return  Northward,  and  to  increase  the  length  of 
the  days.  This  was  the  great  Feast  of  the  Magian  religion.  The 
Roman  Calendar,  published  in  the  time  of  Constantine,  at  which 
period  his  worship  began  to  gain  ground  in  the  Occident,  fixed  his 
feast-day  on  the  25th  of  December.  His  statues  and  images  were 
inscribed,  Deo-Soli  invicto  Mithrce — to  the  invincible  Sun-God 
Mithras.  Nomcn  imnctum  Sol  Mithra.  .Soli  Omnipotent:  Mithra:. 
To  him,  gold,  incense,  and  myrrh  were  consecrated.  "Thee,"  says 
Martianus  Capella,  in  his  hymn  to  the  Sun,  "the  dwellers  on  the 
Nile  adore  as  Serapis,  and  Memphis  worships  as  Osiris ;  in  the 
sacred  rites  of  Persia  thou  art  Mithras,  in  Phrygia,Atys,and  Libya 
bows  down  to  thee  as  Ammon,  and  Phoenician  Byblos  as  Adonis ; 
and  thus  the  whole  world  adores  thee  under  different  names." 

OSIRIS  was  the  son  of  Helios  (Phra),  the  "divine  offspring  con- 
generate  with  the  dawn,"  and  at  the  same  time  an  incarnation  of 
Kneph  or  Agathodsemon,  the  Good  Spirit,  including  all  his  possi- 
ble manifestations,  either  physical  or  moral.  He  represented  in  a 
familiar  form  tJoe  beneficent  aspect  of  all  higher  emanations  and 


588  MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

in  him  was  developed  the  conception  of  a  Being  purely  good,  so 
that  it  became  necessary  to  set  up  another  power  as  his  adversary, 
called  Seth,  Babys  or  Typhon,  to  account  for  the  injurious  influ- 
ences of  Nature. 

With  the  phenomena  of  agriculture,supposed  to  be  the  invention 
of  Osiris,  the  Egyptians  connected  the  highest  truths  of  their 
religion.  The  soul  of  man  was  as  the  seed  hidden  in  the  ground, 
and  the  mortal  framework,  similarly  consigned  to  its  dark  resting- 
place,  awaited  its  restoration  to  life's  unfailing  source.  Osiris  was 
not  only  benefactor  of  the  living ;  he  was  also  Hades,  Serapis,  and 
Rhadamanthus,  the  monarch  of  the  dead.  Death,  therefore,  in 
Egyptian  opinion,  was  only  another  name  for  renovation,  since  its 
God  is  the  same  power  who  incessantly  renews  vitality  in  Nature. 
Every  corpse  duly  embalmed  was  called  "Osiris,"  and  in  the  grave 
was  supposed  to  be  united,  or  at  least  brought  into  approximation, 
to  the  Divinity.  For  when  God  became  incarnate  for  man's 
benefit,  it  was  implied  that,  in  analogy  with  His  assumed  character, 
He  should  submit  to  all  the  conditions  of  visible  existence.  In 
death,  as  in  life,  Isis  and  Osiris  were  patterns  and  precursors  of 
mankind ;  their  sepulchres  stood  within  the  temples  of  the  Supe- 
rior Gods ;  yet  though  their  remains  might  be  entombed  at  Mem- 
phis or  Abydus,  their  divinity  was  unimpeached,  and  they  either 
shone  as  luminaries  in  the  heavens,  or  in  the  unseen  world 
presided  over  the  futurity  of  the  disembodied  spirits  whom  death 
had  brought  nearer  to  them. 

The  notion  of  a  dying  God,  so  frequent  in  Oriental  legend,  and 
of  which  we  have  already  said  much  in  former  Degrees,  was  the 
natural  inference  from  a  literal  interpretation  of  nature-worship ; 
since  nature,  which  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  seasons  seems  to  un- 
dergo a  dissolution,  was  to  the  earliest  religionists  the  express 
image  of  the  Deity,  and  at  a  remote  period  one  and  the  same  with 
the  "varied  God,"  whose  attributes  were  seen  not  only  in  its  vital- 
ity, but  in  its  changes.  The  unseen  Mover  of  the  Universe  was 
rashly  identified  with  its  obvious  fluctuations.  The  speculative 
Deity  suggested  by  the  drama  of  nature,  was  worshipped  with 
imitative  and  sympathetic  rites.  A  period  of  mourning  about  the 
Autumnal  Equinox,  and  of  joy  at  the  return  of  Spring,  was  almost 
universal.  Phrygians  and  Paphlagonians,  Boeotians,  and  even 
Athenians,  were  all  more  or  less  attached  to  such  observances ;  the 
Syrian  damsels  sat  weeping  for  Thammuz  or  Adoni,  mortally 


KNIGHT  OF  THE   SUN,   Ok    J'UJXCE    ADEPT.  5&, 

wounded  by  the  tooth  of  Winter,  symbolized  by  the  boar,  its  very 
general  emblem :  and  these  rites,  and  those  of  Atys  and  Osiris, 
were  evidently  suggested  by  the  arrest  of  vegetation,  when  the 
Sun,  descending  from  his  altitude,  seems  deprived  of  his  generat- 
ing power. 

Osiris  is  a  being  analogous  to  the  Syrian  ADOXI  ;  and  the  fable 
of  his  history,  which  we  need  not  here  repeat,  is  a  narrative  form 
of  the  popular  religion  of  Egypt,  of  which  the  Sun  is  the  Hero, 
and  the  agricultural  calendar  the  moral.  The  moist  valley  of  the 
Nile,  owing  its  fertility  to  the  annual  inundation,  appeared,  in 
contrast  with  the  surrounding  desert,  like  life  in  the  midst  of 
death.  The  inundation  was  in  evident  dependence  on  the  Sun, 
and  Egypt,  environed  with  arid  deserts,  like  a  heart  within  a  burn- 
ing censer,  was  the  female  power,  dependent  on  the  influences  per- 
sonified in  its  God.  Typhon  his  brother,  the  type  of  darkness, 
drought,  and  sterility,  threw  his  body  into  the  Nile ;  and  thus 
Osiris,  the  "good,"  the  "Saviour,"  perished,  in  the  2^th  year  of 
his  life  or  reign,  and  on  the  I7th  day  of  the  month  Athor,  or  the 
1 3th  of  November.  He  is  also  made  to  die  during  the  heats  of 
the  early  Summer,  when,  from  March  to  July,  the  earth  was 
parched  with  intolerable  heat,  vegetation  was  scorched,  and  the 
languid  Nile  exhausted.  From  that  death  he  rises  when  the  Sol- 
stitial Sun  brings  the  inundation,  and  Egypt  is  filled  with 
mirth  and  acclamation  anticipatory  of  the  second  harvest. 
From  his  Wintry  death  he  rises  with  the  early  flowers  of 
Spring,  and  then  the  joyful  festival  of  Osiris  found  was  cele- 
brated. 

So  the  pride  of  Jemsheed,  one  of  the  Persian  Sun-heroes,  or  the 
solar  year  personified,  was  abruptly  cut  off  by  Zohak,  the  tyrant  of 
the  West.  He  was  sawn  asunder  by  a  fish-bone,  and  immediately 
the  brightness  of  Iran  changed  to  gloom.  Ganymede  and  Adonis, 
like  Osiris,  were  hurried  off  in  all  their  strength  and  beauty ;  the 
premature  death  of  Linus,  the  burthen  of  the  ancient  lament  of 
Greece,  was  like  that  of  the  Persian  Siamek,  the  Bithvnian  Hylas, 
and  the  Egyptian  Maneros,  Son  of  Menes  or  the  Eternal.  The 
elegy  called  Maneros  was  sung  at  Egyptian  banquets,  and  an  effigy 
enclosed  within  a  diminutive  Sarcophagus  was  handed  round  to 
remind  the  guests  of  their  brief  tenure  of  existence.  The  beautiful 
Memnon,  also,  perished  in  his  prime ;  and  Enoch,  whose  early 
death  was  lamented  at  Iconium,  lived  365  years,  the  number  of 


59O  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

days  of  the  solar  year ;  a  brief  space  when  compared  with  the  lon- 
gevity of  his  patriarchal  kindred. 

The  story  of  Osiris  is  reflected  in  those  of  Orpheus  and  Dionu- 
sos  Zagreus,  and  perhaps  in  the  legends  of  Absyrtus  and  Pelias, 
of  sEson,  Thyestes,  Melicertes,  Itys,  and  Pelops.  lo  is  the  discon- 
solate Isis  or  Niobe :  and  Rhea  mourns  her  dismembered  Lord, 
Hyperion,  and  the  death  of  her  son  Helios,  drowned  in  the  Erida- 
nus ;  and  if  Apollo  and  Dionusos  are  immortal,  they  had  died 
under  other  names,  as  Orpheus,  Linus,  or  Hyacinthus.  The  sep- 
ulchre of  Zeus  was  shown  in  Crete.  Hippolytus  was  associated  in 
divine  honors  with  Apollo,  and  after  he  had  been  torn  to  pieces 
like  Osiris,  was  restored  to  life  by  the  Pseonian  herbs  of  Diana, 
and  kept  darkling  in  the  secret  grove  of  Egeria.  Zeus  deserted 
Olympus  to  visit  the  Ethiopians ;  Apollo  underwent  servitude  to 
Admetus ;  Theseus,  Peirithous,  Hercules,  and  other  heroes,  de- 
scended for  a  time  to  Hades ;  a  dying  Nature-God  was  exhibited 
in  the  Mysteries,  the  Attic  women  fasted,  sitting  on  the  ground, 
during  the  Thesmophoria,  and  the  Boeotians  lamented  the  descent 
of  Cora-Proserpine  to  the  Shades. 

But  the  death  of  the  Deity,  as  understood  by  the  Orientals,  was 
not  inconsistent  with  His  immortality.  The  temporary  decline  of 
the  Sons  of  Light  is  but  an  episode  in  their  endless  continuity ; 
and  as  the  day  and  year  are  more  convenient  subdivisions  of  the 
Infinite,  so  the  fiery  deaths  of  Phaethon  or  Hercules  are  but  breaks 
in  the  same  Phoenix  process  of  perpetual  regeneration,  by  which 
the  spirit  of  Osiris  lives  forever  in  the  succession  of  the  Memphian 
Apis.  Every  year  witnesses  the  revival  of  Adonis ;  and  the  amber 
tears  shed  by  the  Heliades  for  the  premature  death  of  their 
brother,  are  the  golden  shower  full  of  prolific  hope,  in  which  Zeus 
descends  from  the  brazen  vault  of  Heaven  into  the  bosom  of  the 
parched  ground. 

BAL,  representative  or  personification  of  the  sun,  was  one  of  the 
Great  Gods  of  Syria,  Assyria,  and  Chaldea,  and  his  name  is  found 
upon  the  monuments  of  Nimroud,  and  frequently  occurs  in  the 
Hebrew  writings.  He  was  the  Great  Nature-God  of  Babylonia, 
the  Power  of  heat,  life,  and  generation.  His  symbol  was  the  Sun, 
and  be  was  figured  seated  on  a  bull.  All  the  accessories  of  his 
great  temple  at  Babylon,  described  by  Herodotus,  are  repeated 
with  singular  fidelity,  but  on  a  smaller  scale,  in  the  Hebrew  tab- 
ernacle and  temple.  The  golden  statue  alone  is  wanted  to  com- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCF  ADEPT.  .      5QI 

plete  the  resemblance.  The  word  Bal  or  Baal,  like  the  word  Adon, 
signifies  Lord  and  Master.  He  was  also  the  Supreme  Deity  of  the 
Moabites,  Amonites,  and  Carthaginians,  and  of  the  Sabeans  in 
general;  the  Gauls  worshipped  the  Sun  under  the  name  of  Belin 
or  Belinus :  and  Bela  is  found  among  the  Celtic  Deities  upon  the 
ancient  monuments. 

The  Northern  ancestors  of  the  Greeks  maintained  with  hardier 
habits  a  more  manly  style  of  religious  symbolism  than  the  effemi- 
nate enthusiasts  of  the  South,  and  had  embodied  in  their  Perseus, 
HERCULES  and  MITHRAS,  the  consummation  of  the  qualities  they 
esteemed  and  exercised. 

Almost  every  nation  will  be  found  to  have  had  a  mythical  being, 
whose  strength  or  weakness,  virtues  or  defects,  more  or  less  nearly 
describe  the  Sun's  career  through  the  seasons.  There  was  a  Celtic, 
a  Teutonic,  a  Scythian,  an  Etruscan,  a  Lydian  Hercules,  all  whose 
legends  became  tributary  to  those  of  the  Greek  hero.  The  name 
of  Hercules  was  found  by  Herodotus  to  have  been  long  familiar 
in  Egypt  and  the  East,  and  to  have  originally  belonged  to  a  much 
higher  personage  than  the  comparatively  modern  hero  known  in 
Greece  as  the  Son  of  Alcmena.  The  temple  of  the  Hercules  of 
Tyre  was  reported  to  have  been  built  2300  years  before  the  time 
of  Herodotus ;  and  Hercules,  whose  Greek  name  has  been  some- 
times supposed  to  be  of  Phoenician  origin,  in  the  sense  of  Circui- 
tor,  i.  e.  "rover"  and  "perambulator"  of  earth,  as  well  as  "Hype- 
rion" of  the  sky,  was  the  patron  and  model  of  those  famous  navi- 
gators who  spread  his  altars  from  coast  to  coast  through  the  Medi- 
terranean, to  the  extremities  of  the  West,  where  "ARKALEUS" 
built  the  City  of  Gades,  and  where  a  perpetual  fire  burned  in  his 
service.  He  was  the  lineal  descendant  of  Perseus,  the  luminous 
child  of  darkness,  conceived  within  a  subterranean  vault  of  brass ; 
and  he  a  representation  of  the  Persian  Mithras,  rearing  his  emble- 
matic lions  above  the  gates  of  Mycenae,  and  bringing  the  sword 
of  Jemshecd  to  battle  against  the  Gorgons  of  the  West.  Mithras 
is  similarly  described  in  the  Zend-Avesta  as  the  "mighty  hero,  the 
rapid  runner,  whose  piercing  eye  embraces  all,  whose  arm  bears 
the  club  for  the  destruction  of  the  Darood." 

Hercules  Ingeniculus,  who,  bending  on  one  knee,  uplifts  his  club 
and  tramples  on  the  Serpent's  head,  was,  like  Prometheus  and 
Tantalus,  one  of  the  varying  aspects  of  the  struggling  and  de- 
clining Sun.  The  victories  of  Hercules  are  but  exhibitions  of 


592  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Solar  power  which  have  ever  to  be  repeated.  It  was  in  the  far 
North,  among  the  Hyperboreans,  that,  divested  of  hh  Lion's  skin, 
he  lay  down  to  sleep,  and  for  a  time  lost  the  horses  of  his  chariot. 
Henceforth  that  Northern  region  of  gloom,  called  the  "p^ace  of 
the  death  and  revival  of  Adonis,"  that  Caucasus  whose  summit 
was  so  lofty,  that,  like  the  Indian  Meru,  it  seemed  to  be  both  the 
goal  and  commencement  of  the  Sun's  career,  became  to  Greek  im- 
aginations the  final  bourne  of  all  things,  the  abode  of  Winter  and 
desolation,  the  pinnacle  of  the  arch  connecting  the  upper  and 
lower  world,  and  consequently  the  appropriate  place  for  the  ban- 
ishment of  Prometheus.  The  daughters  of  Israel,  weeping  for 
Thammuz,  mentioned  by  Ezekiel,  sat  looking  to  the  North,  and 
waiting  for  his  return  from  that  region.  It  was  while  Cybele  with 
the  Sun-God  was  absent  among  the  Hyperboreans,  that  Phrygia, 
abandoned  by  her,  suffered  the  horrors  of  famine.  Delos  and 
Delphi  awaited  the  return  of  Apollo  from  the  Hyperboreans,  and 
Hercules  brought  thence  to  Olympia  the  olive.  To  all  Masons, 
the  North  has  immemorially  been  the  place  of  darkness ;  and  of 
the  great  lights  of  the  Lodge,  none  is  in  the  North. 

Mithras,  the  rock-born  hero  (U^rnoft^^)^  heralded  the  Sun's 
return  in  Spring,  as  Prometheus,  chained  in  his  cavern,  betokened 
the  continuance  of  Winter.  The  Persian  beacon  on  the  moun- 
tain-top represented  the  Rock-born  Divinity  enshrined  in  his 
worthiest  temple ;  and  the  funeral  conflagration  of  Hercules  was 
the  sun  dying  in  glory  behind  the  Western  hills.  But  though  the 
transitory  manifestation  suffers  or  dies,  the  abiding  and  eternal 
power  liberates  and  saves.  It  was  an  essential  attribute  of  a  Titan, 
that  he  should  arise  again  after  his  fall ;  for  the  revival  of  Nature 
is  as  certain  as  its  decline,  and  its  alternations  are  subject  to  the 
appointment  of  a  power  which  controls  them  both. 

"God, "says  Maximus  Tvrius,"did  not  spare  His  own  Son  [Her- 
cules], or  exempt  Him  from  the  calamities  incidental  to  humanity. 
The  Theban  progeny  of  Jove  had  his  share  of  pain  and  trial.  By 
vanquishing  earthly  difficulties  he  proved  his  affinity  with  Heaven. 
His  life  was  a  continuous  struggle.  He  fainted  before  Typhon  in 
the  desert;  and  in  the  commencement  of  the  Autumnal  season 
(cum  longae  redit  hora  noctis),  descended  under  the  guidance  of 
Minerva  to  Hades.  He  died ;  but  first  applied  for  initiation  to  Eu- 
molpus,  in  order  to  foreshadow  that  state  of  religious  preparation 
which  should  precede  the  momentous  change.  Even  in  Hades  he 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OK  PRINCE  ADEPT.  593 

rescued  Theseus  and  removed  the  stone  of  Ascalaphus,  reanimated 
the  bloodless  spirits,  and  dragged  into  the  light  of  day  the  monster 
Cerberus,  justly  reputed  invincible  because  an  emblem  of  Time 
itself;  he  burst  the  chains  of  the  grave  (for  Busiris  is  the  grave 
personified),  and  triumphant  at  the  close  as  in  the  dawn  of  his 
career,  was  received  after  his  labors  into  the  repose  of  the  heavenly 
mansions,  living  forever  with  Zeus  in  the  arms  of  Eternal  Youth. 

ODIN  is  said  to  have  borne  twelve  names  among  the  old  Ger- 
mans, and  to  have  had  114  names  besides.  He  was  the  Apollo  of 
the  Scandinavians,  and  is  represented  in  the  Voluspa  as  destined 
to  slay  the  monstrous  snake.  Then  the  Sun  will  be  extinguished, 
the  earth  be  dissolved  in  the  ocean,  the  stars  lose  their  brightness, 
and  all  Nature  be  destroyed  in  order  that  it  may  be  renewed  again. 
From  the  bosom  of  the  waters  a  new  world  will  emerge  clad  in 
verdure ;  harvests  will  be  seen  to  ripen  where  no  seed  was  sown, 
and  evil  will  disappear. 

The  free  fancy  of  the  ancients,  which  wove  the  web  of  their 
myths  and  legends,  was  consecrated  by  faith.  It  had  not,  like  the 
modern  mind,  set  apart  a  petty  sanctuary  of  borrowed  beliefs, 
beyond  which  all  the  rest  was  common  and  unclean.  Imagination, 
reason,  and  religion  circled  round  the  same  symbol :  and  in  all 
their  symbols  there  was  serious  meaning,  if  we  could  but  find  it 
out.  They  did  not  devise  fictions  in  the  same  vapid  spirit  in 
which  we,  cramped  by  conventionalities,  read  them.  In  endeavor- 
ing to  interpret  creations  of  fancy,  fancy  as  well  as  reason  must 
guide :  and  much  of  modern  controversy  arises  out  of  heavy  mis- 
apprehensions of  ancient  symbolism. 

To  those  ancient  peoples,this  earth  was  the  centre  of  theUni  verse. 
To  them  there  were  no  other  worlds,  peopled  with  living  beings,  to 
divide  the  care  and  attention  of  the  Deity.  To  them  the  world 
was  a  great  plain,  of  unknown,  perhaps  inconceivable  limits,  and 
the  Sun,  the  Moon,  and  the  Stars  journeyed  above  it,  to  give  them 
light.  The  worship  of  the  Sun  became  the  basis  of  all  the  religions 
of  antiquity.  To  them  light  and  heat  were  mysteries ;  as  indeed 
they  still  are  to  us.  As  the  Sun  caused  the  day,  and  his  absence 
the  night ;  as,  when  he  journeyed  Northward,  Spring  and  Summer 
followed  him ;  and  when  he  again  turned  to  the  South,  Autumn 
and  inclement  Winter,  and  cold  and  long  dark  nights  ruled  the 
earth;  ...  as  his  influence  produced  the  leaves  and  flowers,  and 
ripened  the  harvests,  and  brought  regular  inundation,  he  neces- 


ecu  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

sarily  became  to  them  the  most  interesting  object  of  the  material 
Universe.  To  them  he  was  the  innate  fire  of  bodies,  the  fire  of 
nature.  Author  of  Life,  heat,  and  ignition,  he  was  to  them  the 
efficient  cause  of  all  generation,  for  without  him  there  was  no 
movement,  no  existence,  no  form.  He  was  to  them  immense,  indi- 
visible, imperishable,  and  everywhere  present.  It  was  their  need 
of  light,  and  of  his  creative  energy,  that  was  felt  by  all  men ;  and 
nothing  was  more  fearful  to  them  than  his  absence.  His  benefi- 
cent influences  caused  his  identification  with  the  Principle  of 
Good;  and  the  BRAHMA  of  the  Hindus,  the  MITHRAS  of  the  Per- 
sians, and  ATHOM,  AMUN,  PHTHA,  and  OSIRIS,  of  the  Egyptians, 
the  BEL  of  the  Chaldeans,  the  ADONAI  of  the  Phoenicians,  the 
ADONIS  and  APOLLO  of  the  Greeks  became  but  personifications  of 
the  Sun,  the  regenerating  Principle,  image  of  that  fecundity  which 
perpetuates  and  rejuvenates  the  world's  existence. 

So  too  the  struggle  between  the  Good  and  Evil  Principles  was 
personified,  as  was  that  between  life  and  death,  destruction  and 
re-creation ;  in  allegories  and  fables  which  poetically  represented 
the  apparent  course  of  the  Sun ;  who,  descending  toward  the 
Southern  Hemisphere,  was  figuratively  said  to  be  conquered  and 
put  to  death  by  darkness,  or  the  genius  of  Evil ;  but,  returning 
again  toward  the  Northern  Hemisphere,  he  seemed  to  be  victo- 
rious, and  to  arise  from  the  tomb.  This  death  and  resurrection 
were  also  figurative  of  the  succession  of  day  and  night,  of  death, 
which  is  a  necessity  of  life,  and  of  life  which  is  born  of  death : 
and  everywhere  the  ancients  still  saw  the  combat  between 
the  two  Principles  that  ruled  the  world.  Everywhere  this 
contest  was  embodied  in  allegories  and  fictitious  histories  :  into 
which  were  ingeniously  woven  all  the  astronomical  phenomena  that 
accompanied,  preceded,  or  followed  the  different  movements  of  the 
Sun,  and  the  changes  of  Seasons,  the  approach  or  withdrawal  of 
inundation.  And  thus  grew  into  stature  and  strange  proportions 
the  histories  of  the  contests  between  Typhon  and  Osiris,  Hercules 
and  Juno,  the  Titans  and  Jupiter,  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  the  re- 
bellious Angels  and  the  Deity,  the  Evil  Genii  and  the  Good :  and 
the  other  like  fables,  found  not  only  in  Asia,  but  in  the  North  of 
Europe,  and  even  among  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  of  the  New 
World ;  carried  thither,  in  all  probability,  by  those  Phoenician 
voyagers  who  bore  thither  civilization  and  the  arts.  The  Scythians 
lamented  the  death  of  Acmon,  the  Persians  that  of  Zohak  con- 


KNIGLIT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  £95 

quered  by  Pheridoun,  the  Hindus  that  of  Soura-Parama  slain  by 
Soupra-Muni,  as  the  Scandinavians  did  that  of  Balder,  torn  to 
pieces  by  the  blind  Hother. 

The  primitive  idea  of  infinite  space  existed  in  the  first  men,  as 
it  exists  in  us.  It  and  the  idea  of  infinite  time  are  the  first  two 
innate  ideas.  Man  cannot  conceive  how  thing  can  be  added  to 
thing,  or  event  follow  event,  forever.  The  idea  will  ever  return, 
that  no  matter  how  long  bulk  is  added  to  bulk,  there  must  be, 
still  beyond,  an  empty  void,  without  limit;  in  which  is  nothing. 
In  the  same  way  the  idea  of  time  without  beginning  or  end  forces 
itself  on  him.  Time,  without  events,  is  also  a  void,  and  nothing. 

In  that  empty  void  space  the  primitive  men  knew  there  was  no 
light  nor  warmth.  They  felt,  what  we  know  scientifically,  that 
there  must  be  a  thick  darkness  there,  and  an  intensity  of  cold  of 
which  we  have  no  conception.  Into  that  void  they  thought  the 
Sun,  the  Planets,  and  the  Stars  went  down  when  they  set  under 
the  Western  Horizon.  Darkness  was  to  them  an  enemy,  a  harm, 
a  vague  dread  and  terror.  It  was  the  very  embodiment  of  the 
evil  principle;  and  out  of  it  they  said  that  he  was  formed.  As 
the  Sun  bent  Southward  toward  that  void,  they  shuddered  with 
dread :  and  when,  at  the  Winter  Solstice,  he  again  commenced  his 
Northward  march,  they  rejoiced  and  feasted ;  as  they  did  at  the 
Summer  Solstice,  when  most  he  appeared  to  smile  upon  them  in 
his  pride  of  place.  These  days  have  been  celebrated  by  all  civil- 
ized nations  ever  since.  The  Christian  has  made  them  feast-days 
of  the  church,  and  appropriated  them  to  the  two  Saints  John; 
and  Masonry  has  done  the  same. 

We,  to  whom  the  vast  Universe  has  become  but  a  great  machine, 
not  instinct  with  a  great  SOUL,  but  a  clockwork  of  proportions 
unimaginable,  but  still  infinitely  less  than  infinite ;  and  part  at 
least  of  which  we  with  our  orreries  can  imitate ;  we,  who  have 
measured  the  distances  and  dimensions,  and  learned  the  specific 
gravity  and  determined  the  orbits  of  the  moon  and  the  planets ; 
we,  who  know  the  distance  to  the  sun,  and  his  size ;  have  meas- 
ured the  orbits  of  the  flashing  comets,  and  the  distances  of  the 
fixed  stars ;  and  know  the  latter  to  be  suns  like  our  sun,  each 
with  his  retinue  of  worlds,  and  all  governed  by  the  same  unerr- 
ing, mechanical  laws  and  outwardly  imposed  forces,  centripetal 
and  centrifugal ;  we,  who  with  our  telescopes  have  separated  the 
galaxy  and  the  nebul?e  into  other  stars  and  groups  of  stars ;  dis- 


596  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

covered  new  planets,  by  first  discovering  their  disturbing  forces 
upon  those  already  known ;  and  learned  that  they  all,  Jupiter, 
Venus,  and  the  fiery  Mars,  and  Saturn  and  the  others,  as  well  as 
the  bright,  mild,  and  ever-changing  Moon,  are  mere  dark,  dull, 
opaque  clods  like  our  earth,  and  not  living  orbs  of  brilliant  fire 
and  heavenly  light ;  we,  who  have  counted  the  mountains  and 
chasms  in  the  moon,  with  glasses  that  could  distinctly  reveal  to 
us  the  temple  of  Solomon,  if  it  stood  there  in  its  old  original 
glory ;  we,  who  no  longer  imagine  that  the  stars  control  our  des- 
tinies, and  who  can  calculate  the  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon, 
backward  and  forward,  for  ten  thousand  years ;  we,  with  our 
vastly  increased  conceptions  of  the  powers  of  the  Grand  Architect 
of  the  Universe,  but  our  wholly  material  and  mechanical  view  of 
that  Universe  itself ;  we  cannot,  even  in  the  remotest  degree,  feel, 
though  we  may  partially  and  imperfectly  imagine,  how  those  great, 
primitive,  simple-hearted  children  of  Nature  felt  in  regard  to  the 
Starry  Hosts,  there  upon  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas,  on  the 
Chaldean  plains,  in  the  Persian  and  Median  deserts,  and  upon  the 
banks  of  that  great,  strange  River,  the  Nile.  To  them  the  Uni- 
verse was  alive — instinct  with  forces  and  powers,  mysterious  and 
beyond  their  comprehension.  To  them  it  was  no  machine,  no 
great  system  of  clockwork ;  but  a  great  live  creature,  an  army  of 
creatures,  in  sympathy  with  or  inimical  to  man.  To  them,  all  was 
a  mystery  and  a  miracle,  and  the  stars  flashing  overhead  spoke  to 
their  hearts  almost  in  an  audible  language.  Jupiter,  with  his 
kingly  splendors,  was  the  Emperor  of  the  starry  legions.  Venus 
looked  lovingly  on  the  earth  and  blessed  it ;  Mars,  with  his  crim- 
son fires,  threatened  war  and  misfortune ;  and  Saturn,  cold  and 
grave,  chilled  and  repelled  them.  The  ever-changing  Moon,  faith- 
ful companion  of  the  Sun,  was  a  constant  miracle  and  wonder; 
the  Sun  himself  the  visible  emblem  of  the  creative  and  generative 
power.  To  them  the  earth  was  a  great  plain,  over  which  the  sun, 
the  moon,  and  the  planets  revolved,  its  servants,  framed  to  give  it 
light.  Of  the  stars,  some  were  beneficent  existences  that  brought 
with  them  Spring-time  and  fruits  and  flowers, — some,  faithful 
sentinels,  advising  them  of  coming  inundation,  of  the  season  of 
storm  and  of  deadly  winds  ;  some  heralds  of  evil,  which,  steadily 
foretelling,  they  seemed  to  cause.  To  them  the  eclipses  were  por- 
tents of  evil,  and  their  causes  hidden  in  mystery,  and  supernatural. 
The  regular  returns  of  the  stars,  the  comings  of  Arcturus,  Orion, 


KNKJHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  597 

Sirius,  the  Pleiades,  and  Aldebaran,  and  the  journeyings  of  the 
Sun,  were  voluntary  and  not  mechanical  to  them.  What  wonder 
that  astronomy  became  to  them  the  most  important  of  sciences ; 
that  those  who  learned  it  became  rulers ;  and  that  vast  edifices, 
the  Pyramids,  the  tower  or  temple  of  Bel,  and  other  like  erections 
everywhere  in  the  East, were  builded  for  astronomical  purposes  ? — 
and  what  wonder  that,  in  their  great  child-like  simplicity,  they 
worshipped  Light,  the  Sun,  the  Planets,  and  the  Stars,  and  per- 
sonified them,  and  eagerly  believed  in  the  histories  invented  for 
them ;  in  that  age  when  the  capacity  for  belief  was  infinite ;  as 
indeed,  if  we  but  reflect,  it  still  is  and  ever  will  be? 

If  we  adhered  to  the  literally  historic  sense,  antiquity  would  be 
a  mere  inexplicable,  hideous  chaos,  and  all  the  Sages  deranged : 
and  so  it  would  be  with  Masonry  and  those  who  instituted  it.  But 
when  these  allegories  are  explained,  they  cease  to  be  absurd  fables, 
or  facts  purely  local ;  and  become  lessons  of  wisdom  for  entire 
humanity.  No  one  can  doubt,  who  studies  them,  that  they  all 
came  from  a  common  source. 

And  he  greatly  errs  who  imagines  that,  because  the  mythological 
legends  and  fables  of  antiquity  are  referable  to  and  have  their 
foundation  in  the  phenomena  of  the  Heavens,  and  all  the  Heathen 
Gods  are  but  mere  names  given  to  the  Sun,  the  Stars,  the  Planets, 
the  Zodiacal  Signs,  the  Elements,  the  Powers  of  Nature,  and  Uni- 
versal Nature  herself,  therefore  the  first  men  worshipped  the  Stars, 
and  whatever  things,  animate  and  inanimate,  seemed  to  them  to 
possess  and  exercise  a  power  or  influence,  evident  or  imagined, 
over  human  fortunes  and  human  destiny. 

For  ever,  in  all  the  nations,  ascending  to  the  remotest  antiquity 
to  which  the  light  of  History  or  the  glimmerings  of  tradition 
reach,  we  find,  seated  above  all  the  gods  which  represent  the 
luminaries  and  the  elements,  and  those  which  personify  the  innate 
Powers  of  universal  nature,  a  still  higher  Deity,  silent,  undefined, 
incomprehensible,  the  Supreme,  one  God,  from  Whom  all  the  rest 
flow  or  emanate,  or  by  Him  are  created.  Above  the  Time-God 
Horus,  the  Moon-Goddess  or  Earth-Goddess  Isis,  and  the  Sun-God 
Osiris,  of  the  Egyptians,  was  Amuh,  the  Nature-God ;  and  above 
him,  again,  the  Infinite,  Incomprehensible  Deity,  ATHOM.  BREHM, 
the  silent,  self-contemplative,  one  original  God.  was  the  Source,  to 
the  Hindus,  of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva.  Above  Zeus,  or  before 
him,  were  Kronos  and  Ouranos.  Over  the  Alohayim  was  the  great 
S9 


508  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

Nature-God  AL,  and  still  beyond  him,  Abstract  Existence, IHUH — 
He  that  IS,  WAS,  and  SHALL  BE.  Above  all  the  Persian  Deities 
was  the  Unlimited  Time,  ZERUANE-AKHERENE  ;  and  over  Odin 
and  Thor  was  the  Great  Scandinavian  Deity  ALFADIR. 

The  worship  of  Universal  Nature  as  a  God  was  too  near  akin  to 
the  worship  of  a  Universal  Soul,  to  have  been  the  instinctive  creed 
of  any  savage  people  or  rude  race  of  men.  To  imagine  all  nature, 
with  all  its  apparently  independent  parts,  as  forming  one  con- 
sistent whole,  and  as  itself  a  unit,  required  an  amount  of  experi- 
ence and  a  faculty  of  generalization  not  possessed  by  the  rude 
uncivilized  mind,  and  is  but  a  step  below  the  idea  of  a  universal 
Soul. 

In  the  beginning  man  had  the  WORD  ;  and  that  WORD  was  from 
God ;  and  out  of  the  living  POWER  communicated  to  man  in  and 
by  that  WORD,  came  THE  LIGHT  of  His  Existence. 

God  made  man  in  His  own  likeness.  When,  by  a  long  succession 
of  geological  changes,  He  had  prepared  the  earth  to  be  his  habita- 
tion, He  created  him,  and  placed  him  in  that  part  of  Asia  which  all 
the  old  nations  agreed  in  calling  the  cradle  of  the  human  race,  and 
whence  afterward  the  stream  of  human  life  flowed  forth  to  India, 
China,  Egypt,  Persia,  Arabia,  and  Phoenicia.  HE  communicated 
to  him  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  his  Creator,  and  of  the  pure, 
primitive,  undefiled  religion.  The  peculiar  and  distinctive  excel- 
lence and  real  essence  of  the  primitive  man, and  his  true  nature  and 
destiny,  consisted  in  his  likeness  to  God.  HE  stamped  His  own 
image  upon  man's  soul.  That  image  has  been,  in  the  breast  of 
every-  individual  man  and  of  mankind  in  general,  greatly  altered, 
impaired,  and  defaced ;  but  its  old,  half-obliterated  characters  are 
still  to  be  found  on  all  the  pages  of  primitive  history  ;  and  the 
impress,  not  entirely  effaced,  every  reflecting  mind  may  discover 
in  its  own  interior. 

Of  the  original  revelation  to  mankind,  of  the  primitive  WORD 
of  Divine  TRUTH,  we  find  clear  indications  and  scattered  traces 
in  the  sacred  traditions  of  all  the  primitive  Nations ;  traces  which, 
when  separately  examined,  appear  like  the  broken  remnants,  the 
mysterious  and  hieroglyphic  characters,  of  a  mighty  edifice  that 
has  been  destroyed ;  and  its  fragments,  like  those  of  the  old  Tem- 
ples and  Palaces  of  Nimroud,  wrought  incongruously  into  edifices 
many  centuries  younger.  And,  although  amid  the  ever-growing 
degeneracy  of  mankind,  this  primeval  word  of  revelation  was 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  599 

falsified  by  the  admixture  of  various  errors,  and  overlaid  and 
obscured  by  numberless  and  manifold  fictions,  inextricably  con- 
fused, and  disfigured  almost  beyond  the  power  of  recognition,  still 
a  profound  inquiry  will  discover  in  .heathenism  many  luminous 
vestiges  of  primitive  Truth. 

For  the  old  Heathenism  had  everywhere  a  foundation  in  Truth ; 
and  if  we  could  separate  that  pure  intuition  into  nature  and  into 
the  simple  symbols  of  nature,  that  constituted  the  basis  of  all 
Heathenism,  from  the  alloy  of  error  and  the  additions  of  fiction, 
those  first  hieroglyphic  traits  of  the  instinctive  science  of  the  first 
men,  would  be  found  to  agree  with  truth  and  a  true  knowledge  of 
nature,  and  to  afford  an  image  of  a  free,  pure,  comprehensive,  and 
finished  philosophy  of  life. 

The  struggle,  thenceforward  to  be  eternal,  between  the  Divine 
will  and  the  natural  will  in  the  souls  of  men,  commenced  imme- 
diately after  the  creation.  Cain  slew  his  brother  Abel,  and  went 
forth  to  people  parts  of  the  earth  with  an  impious  race,  forgetters 
and  defiers  of  the  true  God.  The  other  Descendants  of  the  Com- 
mon Father  of  the  race  intermarried  with  the  daughters  of  Cain's 
Descendants :  and  all  nations  preserved  the  remembrance  of  that 
division  of  the  human  family  into  the  righteous  and  impious,  in 
their  distorted  legends  of  the  wars  between  the  Gods,  and  the 
Giants  and  Titans.  When,  afterward,  another  similar  division 
occurred,  the  Descendants  of  Seth  alone  preserved  the  true  primi- 
tive religion  and  science,  and  transmitted  them  to  posterity  in  the 
ancient  symbolical  character,  on  monuments  of  stone :  and  many 
nations  preserved  in  their  legendary  traditions  the  memory  of  the 
columns  of  Enoch  and  Seth. 

Then  the  world  declined  from  its  original  happy  condition  and 
fortunate  estate,  into  idolatry  and  barbarism :  but  all  nations 
retained  the  memory  of  that  old  estate ;  and  the  poets,  in  those 
early  days  the  only  historians,  commemorated  the  succession  of  the 
ages  of  gold,  silver,  brass,  and  iron. 

In  the  lapse  of  those  ages,  the  sacred  tradition  followed  various 
courses  among  each  of  the  most  ancient  nations ;  and  from  its 
original  source,  as  from  a  common  centre,  its  various  streams 
flowed  downward ;  some  diffusing  through  favored  regions  of  the 
world  fertility  and  life ;  but  others  soon  losing  themselves,  and 
being  dried  up  in  the  sterile  sands  of  human  error. 

After  the  internal  and  Divine  WORD  originally  communicated 


6OO  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

oy  God  to  man,  had  become  obscured;  after  man's  connection 
with  his  Creator  had  been  broken,  even  outward  language  neces- 

'  o  O 

sarily  fell  into  disorder  and  confusion.  The  simple  and  Divine 
Truth  was  overlaid  with  various  and  sensual  fictions,  buried  under 
illusive  symbols,  and  at  last  perverted  into  horrible  phantoms. 

For  in  the  progress  of  idolatry  it  needs  came  to  pass,  that  what 
was  originally  revered  as  the  symbol  of  a  higher  principle,  became 
gradually  confounded  or  identified  with  the  object  itself,  and  was 
worshipped ;  until  this  error  led  to  a  more  degraded  form  of  idol- 
atry. The  early  nations  received  much  from  the  primeval  source 
of  sacred  tradition ;  but  that  haughty  pride  which  seems  an 
inherent  part  of  human  nature  led  each  to  represent  these 
fragmentary  relics  of  original  truth  as  a  possession  peculiar  to 
themselves;  thus  exaggerating  their  value,  and  their  own  impor- 
tance, as  peculiar  favorites  of  the  Deity,  who  had  chosen  them  as 
the  favored  people  to  whom  to  commit  these  truths.  To  make 
these  fragments,  as  far  as  possible,  their  private  property,  they 
reproduced  them  under  peculiar  forms,  wrapped  them  up  in 
symbols,  concealed  them  in  allegories,  and  invented  fables  to 
account  for  their  own  special  possession  of  them.  So  that,  instead 
of  preserving  in  their  primitive  simplicity  and  purity  these  bless- 
ings of  original  revelation,  they  overlaid  them  with  poetical 
ornament;  and  the  whole  wears  a  fabulous  aspect,  until  by  close 
and  severe  examination  we  discover  the  truth  which  the  apparent 
fable  contains. 

These  being  the  conflicting  elements  in  the  breast  of  man ;  the 
old  inheritance  or  original  dowry  of  truth,  imparted  to  him  by 
God  in  the  primitive  revelation ;  and  error,  or  the  foundation  for 
error,  in  his  degraded  sense  and  spirit  now  turned  from  God  to 
nature,  false  faiths  easily  sprung  up  and  grew  rank  and  luxuriant, 
when  the  Divine  Truth  was  no  longer  guarded  with  jealous  care, 
nor  preserved  in  its  pristine  purity.  This  soon  happened  among 
most  Eastern  nations,  and  especially  the  Indians,  the  Chaldeans, 
the  Arabians,  the  Persians,  and  the  Egyptians ;  with  whom  imagi- 
nation, and  a  very  deep  but  still  sensual  feeling  for  nature,  were 
very  predominant.  The  Northern  firmament,  visible  to  their  eyes, 
possesses  by  far  the  largest  and  most  brilliant  constellations ;  and 
they  were  more  alive  to  the  impressions  made  by  such  objects,  than 
are  the  men  of  the  present  day. 

With  the  Chinese,  a  patriarchal,  simple,  and  secluded  people, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  6oi 

idolatry  long  made  but  little  progress.  They  invented  writing  within 
three  or  four  generations  after  the  flood  ;  and  they  long  preserved 
the  memory  of  much  of  the  primitive  revelation ;  less  overlaid 
with  fiction  than  those  fragments  which  other  nations  have  remem- 
bered. They  were  among  those  who  stood  nearest  to  the  source  of 
sacred  tradition ;  and  many  passages  in  their  old  writings  contain 
remarkable  vestiges  of  eternal  truth,  and  of  the  WORD  of  primi- 
tive revelation,  the  heritage  of  old  thought,  which  attest  to  us 
their  original  eminence. 

But  among  the  other  early  nations,  a  wild  enthusiasm  and  a  sen- 
sual idolatry  of  nature  soon  superseded  the  simple  worship  of  the 
Almighty  God,  and  set  aside  or  disfigured  the  pure  belief  in  the 
Eternal  Uncreated  Spirit.  The  great  powers  and  elements  of 
nature,  and  the  vital  principle  of  production  and  procreation 
through  all  generations ;  then  the  celestial  spirits  or  heavenly 
Host,  the  luminous  armies  of  the  Stars,  and  the  great  Sun,  and 
mysterious,  ever-changing  Moon  (all  of  which  the  whole  ancient 
world  regarded  not  as  mere  globes  of  light  or  bodies  of  fire,  but  as 
animated  living  substances,  potent  over  man's  fate  and  destinies)  ; 
next  the  genii  and  tutelar  spirits,  and  even  the  souls  of  the  dead, 
received  divine  worship.  The  animals,  representing  the  starry 
constellations,  first  reverenced  as  symbols  merely,  came  to  be  wor- 
shipped as  gods ;  the  heavens,  earth,  and  the  operations  of  nature 
were  personified ;  and  fictitious  personages  invented  to  account 
for  the  introduction  of  science  and  arts,  and  the  fragments  of  the 
old  religious  truths ;  and  the  good  and  bad  principles  personified, 
became  also  objects  of  worship ;  while,  through  all,  still  shone 
the  silver  threads  of  the  old  primitive  revelation. 

Increasing  familiarity  with  early  oriental  . ecords  seems  more 
and  more  to  confirm  the  probability  that  they  all  originally  ema- 
nated from  one  source.  The  eastern  and  southern  slopes  of  the 
Paropismus,  or  Hindukusch,  appear  to  have  been  inhabited  by  kin- 
dred Iranian  races,  similar  in  habits,  language,  and  religion.  The 
earliest  Indian  and  Persian  Deities  are  for  the  most  part  symbols 
of  celestial  light,  their  agency  being  regarded  as  an  eternal  warfare 
with  the  powers  of  \Yinter,  storm,  and  darkness.  The  religion  of 
both  was  originally  a  worship  of  outward  nature,  especially  the 
manifestations  of  fire  and  light ;  the  coincidences  being  too  marked 
to  be  merely  accidental.  Deva,  God,  is  derived  from  the  root  div, 
to  shine.  Indra,  like  Ormuzd  or  Ahura-Mazda,  is  the  bright  firma- 


6O2  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

ment ;  Sura  or  Surya,  the  Heavenly,  a  name  of  the  Sun,  recurs  in 
the  Zend  word  Huare,  the  Sun,  whence  Khur  and  Khorshid  or 
Corasch.  Uschas  and  Mitra  are  Medic  as  well  as  Zend  Deities 
and  the  Amschaspands  or  "immortal  Holy  Ones"  of  the  Zend- 
Avesta  may  be  compared  with  the  seven  Rishis  or  Vedic  Star-God, 
of  the  constellation  of  the  Bear.  Zoroastrianism,  like  Buddhism, 
was  an  innovation  in  regard  to  an  older  religion ;  and  between  the 
Parsee  and  Brahmin  may  be  found  traces  of  disruption  as  well  as 
of  coincidence.  The  original  Nature-worship,  in  which  were  com- 
bined the  conceptions  both  of  a  Universal  Presence  and  perpetuity 
of  action,  took  different  directions  of  development,  according  to 
the  difference  between  the  Indian  and  Persian  mind. 

The  early  shepherds  of  the  Punjaub,  then  called  the  country  of 
the  Seven  Rivers,  to  whose  intuitional  or  inspired  wisdom  (Veda) 
we  owe  what  are  perhaps  the  most  ancient  religious  effusions  ex- 
tant in  any  language,  apostrophized  as  living  beings  the  physical 
objects  of  their  worship.  First  in  this  order  of  Deities  stands  Indra, 
the  God  of  the  "blue"  or  "glittering"  firmament,  called  Devaspiti, 
Father  of  the  Devas  or  Elemental  Powers,  who  measured  out  the 
circle  of  the  sky,  and  made  fast  the  foundations  of  the  Earth ;  the 
ideal  domain  of  Yarouna,  "the  All-encompasser,"  is  almost  equally 
extensive,  including  air,  water,  night,  the  expanse  between  Heaven 
and  Earth :  Agni,  vrho  lives  on  the  fire  of  the  sacrifice,  on  the 
domestic  hearth,  and  in  the  lightnings  of  the  sky,  is  the  great 
Mediator  between  God  and  Man ;  Uschas,  or  the  Dawn,  leads 
forth  the  Gods  in  the  morning  to  make  their  daily  repast  in  the 
intoxicating  Soma  of  Nature's  offertory,  of  which  the  Priest  could 
only  compound  from  simples  a  symbolical  imitation.  Then  came 
the  various  Sun-Gods,  Adityas  or  Solar  Attributes,  Surya  the 
Heavenly,  Savitri  the  Progenitor,  Pashan  the  Nourisher,  Bagha 
the  Felicitous,  and  Mitra  the  Friend. 

The  coming  forth  of  the  Eternal  Being  to  the  work  of  creation 
was  represented  as  a  marriage,  his  first  emanation  being  a  univer- 
sal mother,  supposed  to  have  potentially  existed  with  him  from 
Eternity,  or,  in  metaphorical  language,  to  have  been  "his  sister  and 
his  spouse."  She  became  eventually  promoted  to  be  the  Mother 
of  the  Indian  Trinity,  of  the  Deity  under  His  three  Attributes,  of 
Creation,  Preservation,  and  Change  or  Regeneration. 

The  most  popular  forms  or  manifestations  of  Vishnu  the  Pre- 
server, were  his  successive  avataras  or  historic  fmpersonations, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  603 

which  represented  the  Deity  coming  forth  out  of  the  incompre- 
hensible mystery  of  His  nature,  and  revealing  Himself  at  those 
critical  epochs  which  either  in  the  physical  or  moral  world  seemed 
to  mark  a  new  commencement  of  prosperity  and  order.  Combating 
the  power  of  Evil  in  the  various  departments  of  Nature,  and  in 
successive  periods  of  time,  the  Divinity,  though  varying  in  form, 
is  ever  in  reality  the  same,  whether  seen  in  useful  agricultural  or 
social  inventions,  in  traditional  victories  over  rival  creeds,  or  in 
physical  changes  faintly  discovered  through  tradition, or  suggested 
by  cosmogonical  theory.  As  Rama,  the  Epic  hero  armed  with 
sword,  club,  and  arrows,  the  prototype  of  Hercules  and  Mithras,  he 
wrestles  like  the  Hebrew  Patriarch  with  the  Powers  of  Darkness ; 
as  Chrishna-Govinda,  the  Divine  Shepherd,  he  is  the  Messenger  of 
Peace,  overmastering  the  world  by  music  and  love.  Under  the 
human  form  he  never  ceases  to  be  the  Supreme  Being.  "The 
foolish"  (he  says,  in  Bhagavad  Ghita),  "unacquainted  with 
my  Supreme  Nature,  despise  me  in  this  human  form,  while  men 
of  great  minds,  enlightened  by  the  Divine  principle  within  them, 
acknowledge  me  as  incorruptible  and  before  all  things,  and  serve 
me  with  undivided  hearts."  "I  am  not  recognized  by  all,"  he  says 
again,  "because  concealed  by  the  supernatural  power  which  is  in 
me ;  yet  to  me  are  known  all  things  past,  present,  and  to  come ;  I 
existed  before  Vaivaswata  and  Menou.  I  am  the  Most  High  God, 
the  Creator  of  the  World,  the  Eternal  Poorooscha  (Man-World  or 
Genius  of  the  World).  And  although  in  my  own  nature  I  am 
exempt  from  liabilitv  to  birth  or  death,  and  am  Lord  of  all  created 
things,  yet  as  often  as  in  the  world  virtue  is  enfeebled,  and  vice 
and  injustice  prevail,  so  often  do  I  become  manifest  and  am 
revealed  from  age  to  age.  to  save  the  just,  to  destroy  the  guilty, 
and  to  reassure  the  faltering  steps  of  virtue.  He  who  acknowleclg- 
eth  me  as  even  so,  doth  not  on  quitting  this  mortal  frame  enter 
into  another,  for  he  entereth  into  me :  and  many  who  have  trusted 
in  me  have  already  entered  into  me,  being  purified  by  the  power 
of  wisdom.  I  help  those  who  walk  in  my  path,  even  as  they  serve 
me." 

Brahma,  the  creating  agent,  sacrificed  himself,  when,  by  descend- 
ing into  material  forms,  he  became  incorporated  with  his  work ; 
and  his  mythological  history  was  interwoven  with  that  of  the 
Universe.  Thus,  although  spiritually  allied  to  the  Supreme,  and 
Lord  of  all  creatures  (Prajapati),  he  shared  the  imperfection  and 


604  MORALS  AND  DOGMA.      . 

corruption  of  an  inferior  nature,  and,  steeped  in  manifold  and 
perishable  forms,  might  be  said,  like  the  Greek  Uranus,  to  be 
mutilated  and  fallen.  He  thus  combined  two  characters,  formless 
form,  immortal  and  mortal,  being  and  non-being,  motion  and  rest. 
As  incarnate  Intelligence,  or  THE  WORD,  he  communicated  to 
man  what  had  been  revealed  to  himself  by  the  Eternal,  since  he  is 
creation's  Soul  as  well  as  Body,  within  which  the  D-ivine  Word  is 
written  in  those  living  letters  which  it  is  the  prerogative  of  the 
self-conscious  spirit  to  interpret. 

The  fundamental  principles  of  the  religion  of  the  Hindus  con- 
sisted in  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  One  Being  only,  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  and  of  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments. Their  precepts  of  morality  inculcate  the  practice  of  virtue 
as  necessary  for  procuring  happiness  even  in  this  transient  life; 
and  their  religious  doctrines  make  their  felicity  in  a  future  state 
to  depend  upon  it. 

Besides  their  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  their 
dogmas  may  be  epitomized  under  the  following  heads :  ist.  The 
existence  of  one  God,  from  Whom  all  things  proceed,  and  to  Whom 
all  must  return.  To  Him  they  constantly  apply  these  expressions 
— The  Universal  and  Eternal  Essence ;  that  which  has  ever  been 
and  will  ever  continue ;  that  which  vivifies  and  pervades  all  things ; 
He  who  is  everywhere  present,  and  causes  the  celestial  bodies  to 
revolve  in  the  course  He  has  prescribed  to  them.  2d.  A  tripartite 
division  of  the  Good  Principle,  for  the  purposes  of  Creation,  Pres- 
ervation, and  Renovation  by  change  and  death.  3d.  The  necessary 
existence  of  an  Evil  Principle,  occupied  in  counteracting  the 
benevolent  purposes  of  the  first,  in  their  execution  by  the  Devata 
or  Subordinate  Genii,  to  whom  is  entrusted  the  control  over  the 
various  operations  of  nature. 

And  this  was  part  of  their  doctrine :  "One  great  and  incompre- 
hensible Being  has  alone  existed  from  all  Eternity.  Everything 
we  behold  and  we  ourselves  'ire  portions  of  Him.  The  soul,  mind 
or  intellect,  of  gods  and  men,  and  of  all  sentient  creatures,  are 
detached  portions  of  the  Universal  Soul,  to  which  at  stated  periods 
they  are  destined  to  return.  But  the  mind  of  finite  beings  is  im- 
pressed by  one  uninterrupted  series  of  illusions,  which  they  con- 
sider as  real,  until  again  united  to  the  great  fountain  of  truth. 
Of  these  illusions,  the  first  and  most  essential  is  individuality.  By 
its  influence,  when  detached  from  its  source,  the  soul  becomes 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  605 

ignorant  of  its  own  nature,  origin,  and  destiny.  It  considers  itself 
as  a  separate  existence,  and  no  longer  a  spark  of  the  Divinity,  a 
link  of  one  immeasurable  chain,  an  infinitely  small  but  indispen- 
sable portion  of  one  great  whole." 

Their  love  of  imagery  caused  them  to  personify  what  they  con- 
ceived to  be  some  of  the  attributes  of  God,  perhaps  in  order  to 
present  things  in  a  way  better  adapted  to  the  comprehensions  of 
the  vulgar,  than  the  abstruse  idea  of  an  indescribable,  invisible 
God ;  and  hence  the  invention  of  a  Brahma,  a  Vishnu,  and  a  Siva 
or  Iswara.  These  were  represented  under  various  forms ;  but  no 
emblem  or  visible  sign  of  Brihm  or  Brehm,  the  Omnipotent,  is  to 
be  found.  They  considered  the  great  mystery  of  the  existence  of 
the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  as  beyond  human  compre- 
hension. Every  creature  endowed  with  the  faculty  of  thinking, 
they  held,  must  be  conscious  of  the  existence  of  a  God,  a  first 
cause ;  but  the  attempt  to  explain  the  nature  of  that  Being,  or  in 
any  way  to  assimilate  it  with  our  own,  they  considered  not  only  a 
proof  of  folly,  but  of  extreme  impiety. 

The  following  extracts  from  their  books  will  serve  to  show  what 
were  the  real  tenets  of  their  creed : 

"By  one  Supreme  Ruler  is  this  Universe  pervaded ;  even  every 
world  in  the  whole  circle  of  nature.  .  .  .  There  is  one  Supreme 
Spirit,  which  nothing  can  shake,  more  swift  than  the  thought  of 
man.  That  Supreme  Spirit  moves  at  pleasure,  but  in  itself  is 
immovable ;  it  is  distant  from  us,  yet  near  us ;  it  pervades  this 
whole  system  of  worlds ;  yet  it  is  infinitely  beyond  it.  That  man 
who  considers  all  beings  as  existing  even  in  the  Supreme  Spirit, 
and  the  Supreme  Spirit  as  pervading  all  beings,  henceforth  views 

no  creature  with  contempt All  spiritual  beings  are  the  same 

in  kind  with  the  Supreme  Spirit.  .  .  .The  pure  enlightened  soul 
assumes  a  luminous  form,  with  no  gross  body,  with  no  perfora- 
tion, with  no  veins  or  tendons,  unblemished,  untainted  by  sin ; 
itself  being  a  ray  from  the  Infinite  Spirit,  which  knows  the  Past 
and  the  Future,  which  pervades  all,  which  existed  with  no  cause 
but  itself,  which  created  all  things  as  they  are. in  ages  most  remote. 
That  all-pervading  Spirit  which  gives  light  to  the  visible  Sun, 
even  the  same  in  kind  am  I,  though  infinitely  distant  in  degree. 
Let  my  soul  return  to  the  immortal  Spirit  of  God,  and  then  let 
my  body,  which  ends  in  ashes,  return  to  dust !  O  Spirit,  who  per- 
vadest  fire,  lead  us  in  a  straight  path  to  the  riches  of  beatitude. 


606  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Thou,  O  God,  possessest  all  the  treasures  of  knowledge !  Removt 
each  foul  taint  from  our  souls ! 

"From  what  root  springs  mortal  man,  when  felled  by  the  hand 
of  death?  Who  can  make  him  spring  again  to  birth?  God,  who 
is  perfect  wisdom,  perfect  happiness.  He  is  the  final  refuge  of  the 
man  who  has  liberally  bestowed  his  wealth,  who  has  been  firm 
in  virtue,  who  knows  and  adores  that  Great  One.  .  .  .Let  us  adore 
the  supremacy  of  that  Divine  Sun,  the  Godhead  who  illuminates 
all,  wrho  re-creates  all,  from  whom  all  proceed,  to  whom  all  must 
return,  whom  we  invoke  to  direct  our  understandings  aright,  in 
our  progress  toward  his  holy  seat.  .  .  .What  the  Sun  and  Light 
are  to  this  visible  world,  such  is  truth  to  the  intellectual  and  visi- 
ble Universe.  . .  .Our  souls  acquire  certain  knowledge,  by  medita- 
ting on  the  light  of  Truth,  wrhich  emanates  from  the  Being  of 
Beings.  .  .  .That  Being,  without  eyes  sees,  without  ears  hears  all ; 
he  knows  whatever  can  be  known,  but  there  is  none  who  knows 
him ;  him  the  wise  call  the  Great,  Supreme,  Pervading  Spirit.  .  .  . 
Perfect  Truth,  Perfect  Happiness,  without  equal,  immortal ; 
absolute  unity,  whom  neither  speech  can  describe,  nor  mind  com- 
prehend :  all-pervading,  all-transcending,  delighted  with  his  own 
boundless  intelligence,  nor  limited  by  space  or  time ;  without  feet, 
running  swiftly ;  without  hands,  grasping  all  worlds ;  without 
eyes,  all-surveying;  without  ears,  all-hearing;  without  an  intelli- 
gent guide, understanding  all ;  without  cause,  the  first  of  all  causes  ; 
all-ruling,  all-powerful,  the  Creator,  Preserver,  Transformer  of 
all  things :  such  is  the  Great  One ;  this  the  Vedas  declare. 

"May  that  soul  of  mine,  which  mounts  aloft  in  my  waking 
hours  as  an  ethereal  spark,  and  which,  even  in  my  slumber,  has 
a  like  ascent,  soaring  to  a  great  distance,  as  an  emanation  from 
the  Light  of  Lights,  be  united  by  devout  meditation  with  the  Spirit 
supremely  blest,  and  supremely  intelligent !  .  .  .  .May  that  soul  of 
mine,  which  was  itself  the  primeval  oblation  placed  within  all 
creatures.  .  .  .which  is  a  ray  of  perfect  wisdom,  which  is  the  inex- 
tinguishable light  fixed  within  created  bodies,  without  which  no 
good  act  is  performed.  .  .  .in  which  as  an  immortal  essence  may  be 
comprised  whatever  has  passed,  is  present,  or  will  be  hereafter.  .  .  . 
be  united  by  devout  meditation  with  the  Spirit  supremely  blest  and 
supremely  intelligent ! 

"The  Being  of  Beings  is  the  Only  God,  eternal  and  everywhere 
present,  Who  comprises  everything.  There  is  no  God  but  He.  .  .  . 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT. 

The  Supreme  Being  is  invisible,  incomprehensible,  immovable,  w'tb- 
out  figure  or  shape.  No  one  has  ever  seen  Him ;  time  never  com- 
prised Him ;  His  essence  pervades  everything ;  all  was  derived 
from  Him. 

"The  duty  of  a  good  man,  even  in  the  moment  of  his  destruc- 
tion, consists  not  only  in  forgiving,  but  even  in  a  desire  of  benefit- 
ing his  destroyer ;  as  the  sandal-tree,  in  the  instant  of  its  over- 
throw, sheds  perfume  on  the  axe  which  fells  it." 

The  Vedanta  and  Nyaya  philosophers  acknowledge  a  Supreme 
Eternal  P<eing,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul :  though,  like  the 
Greeks,  they  differ  in  their  ideas  of  those  subjects.  They  speak 
of  the  Supreme  Being  as  an  eternal  essence  that  pervades  space, 
and  gives  life  or  existence.  Of  that  universal  and  eternal  pervad- 
ing spirit,  the  Vedanti  suppose  four  modifications ;  but  as  these 
do  not  change  its  nature,  and  as  it  would  be  erroneous  to  ascribe 
to  each  of  them  a  distinct  essence,  so  it  is  equally  erroneous,  they 
say,  to  imagine  that  the  various  modifications  by  which  the  All- 
pervading  Being  exists,  or  displays  His  power,  are  individual 
existences.  Creation  is  not  considered  as  the  instant  production 
of  things,  but  only  as  the  manifestation  of  that  which  exists  eter- 
nally in  the  one  Universal  Being.  The  Nyaya  philosophers  believe 
that  spirit  and  matter  are  eternal ;  but  they  do  not  suppose  that 
the  world  in  its  present  form  has  existed  from  eternity,  but  only 
the  primary  matter  from  which  it  sprang  when  operated  on  by 
the  almighty  Word  of  God,  the  Intelligent  Cause  and  Supreme 
Being,  Who  produced  the  combinations  or  aggregations  which  com- 
pose the  material  Universe.  Though  they  believe  that  soul  is  an 
emanation  from  the  Supreme  Being,  they  distinguish  it  from  that 
Being,  in  its  individual  existence.  Truth  and  Intelligence  are  the 
eternal  attributes  of  God,  not,  they  say,  of  the  individual  soul, 
which  is  susceptible  both  of  knowledge  and  ignorance,  of  pleasure 
and  pain ;  and  therefore  God  and  it  are  distinct.  Even  when  it 
returns  to  the  Eternal,  and  attains  supreme  bliss,  it  undoubtedly 
does  not  cease.  Though  united  to  the  Supreme  Being,  it  is  not 
absorbed  in  it,  but  still  retains  the  abstract  nature  of  definite  or 
visible  existence. 

"The  dissolution  of  the  world,"  they  say,  "consists  in  the  de- 
struction of  the  visible  forms  arid  qualities  of  thing's ;  but  their 
material  essence  remains,  and  from  it  new  worlds  are  formed  by 
the  creative  energy  of  God  ;  and  thus  the  Universe  is  dissolved  and 
renewed  in  endless  succession." 


608  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  Jainas,  a  sect  at  Mysore  and  elsewhere,  say  that  the  ancient 
religion  of  India  and  of  the  whole  world  consisted  in  the  belief 
in  one  God,  a  pure  Spirit,  indivisible,  omniscient  and  all-power- 
ful; that  God,  having  given  to  all  things  their  appointed  order 
and  course  of  action,  and  to  man  a.  sufficient  portion  of  reason, 
or  understanding,  to  guide  him  in  his  conduct,  leaves  him  to 
the  operation  of  free  will,  without  the  entire  exercise  of  which 
he  could  not  be  held  answerable  for  his  conduct. 

Menou,  the  Hindu  lawgiver,  adored,  not  the  visible,  material 
Sun,  but  "that  divine  and  incomparably  greater  light,"  to  use  the 
words  of  the  most  venerable  text  in  the  Indian  Scripture,  "which 
illumines  all,  delights  all,  from  which  all  proceed,  to  which  all 
must  return,  and  which  alone  can  irradiate  our  intellects."  He 
thus  commences  his  Institutes : 

"Be  it  heard ! 

"This  Universe  existed  only  in  the  first  divine  idea  yet  unex- 
panded,  as  if  involved  in  darkness,  imperceptible,  undefinable, 
undiscoverable  by  reason,  and  undiscovered  by  revelation,  as  if  it 
were  wholly  immersed  in  sleep  : 

"Then  the  Sole  Self-existing  Power,  Himself  undiscovered,  but 
making  this  world  discernible,  with  five  elements,  and  other  prin- 
ciples of  nature,  appeared  with  undiminished  glory,  expanding  His 
idea,  or  dispelling  the  gloom. 

"He  Whom  the  mind  alone  can  perceive,  whose  essence  eludes 
the  eternal  organs,  who  has  no  visible  parts,  who  exists  from  Eter- 
nity, even  He,  the  soul  of  all  beings,  Whom  no  being  can  compre- 
hend, shone  forth. 

"He,  having  willed  to  produce  various  beings  from  His  own 
divine  Substance,  first  with  a  thought  created  the  waters.  .  .  .From 
that  which  is  [precisely  the  Hebrew  STiiT1],  the  first  cause,  not  the 
object  of  sense,  existing  everywhere  in  substance,  not  existing  to 
our  perception,  without  beginning  or  end"  [the  A.-,  and  •£.'.,  or 
the  /.•.-•/.•.-(?.•.],  "was  produced  the  divine  male  famed  in  all 
worlds  under  the  appellation  of  Brahma." 

Then  recapitulating  the  different  things  created  by  Brahma,  he 
adds:  "He,"  meaning  Brahma  [the  /loyoz,  the  WORD],  "whose 
powers  are  incomprehensible,  having  thus  created  this  Universe, 
was  again  absorbed  in  the  Supreme  Spirit,  changing  the  time  of 
energy  for  the  time  of  repose." 

The  Antarcya  A'ran'ya,  one  of  the  Vedas,  gives  this  primi- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  609 

tive  idea  of  the  creation :  "In  the  beginning,  the  Universe  was 
but  a  Soul :  nothing  else,  active  or  inactive,  existed.  Then  HE 
had  this  thought,  I  will  create  worlds;  and  thus  HE  created  these 
different  worlds ;  air,  the  light,  mortal  beings,  and  the  waters. 

"HE  had  this  thought :  Behold  the  worlds;  I  will  create  guar- 
dians for  the  worlds.  So  HE  took  of  the  water  and  fashioned  a 
being  clothed  with  the  human  form.  He  looked  upon  him,  and 
of  that  being  so  contemplated,  the  mouth  opened  like  an  egg,  and 
speech  came  forth,  and  from  the  speech  fire.  The  nostrils  opened, 
and  through  them  went  the  breath  of  respiration,  and  by  it  the 
air  was  propagated.  The  eyes  opened ;  from  them  came  a  lumi- 
nous ray,  and  from  it  was  produced  the  sun.  The  ears  dilated ; 
from  them  came  hearing,  and  from  hearing  space :"  .  .  .  and,  after 
the  body  of  man,  with  the  senses,  was  formed ; — "HE,  the  Univer- 
sal Soul,  thus  reflected :  How  can  this  body  exist  without  Me? 
He  examined  through  what  extremity  He  could  penetrate  it.  He 
said  to  Himself :  If,  without  Me,  the  World  is  articulated,  breath 
exhales,  and  sight  sees;  if  hearing  hears,  the  skin  feels,  and  the 
mind  reflects,  deglutition  swallows,  and  the  generative  organ  ful- 
fils its  functions,  what  then  am  I?  And  separating  the  suture  of 
the  cranium,  He  penetrated  into  man." 

Behold  the  great  fundamental  primitive  truths !  God,  an  infinite 
Eternal  Soul  or  Spirit.  Matter,  not  eternal  nor  self-existent,  but 
created — created  by  a  thought  of  God.  After  matter,  and  worlds, 
then  man,  by  a  like  thought :  and  finally,  after  endowing  him 
with  the  senses  and  a  thinking  mind,  a  portion,  a  spark,  of  God 
Himself  penetrates  the  man,  and  becomes  a  living  spirit  within 
him. 

The  Vedas  thus  detail  the  creation  of  the  world : 

"In  the  beginning  there  was  a  single  God,  existing  of  Himself ; 
Who,  after  having  passed  an  eternity  absorbed  in  the  contempla- 
tion of  His  own  being,  desired  to  manifest  His  perfections  out- 
wardly of  Himself;  and  created  the  matter  of  the  world.  The 
four  elements  being  thus  produced,  but  still  mingled  in  confusion, 
He  breathed  upon  the  waters,  which  swelled  up  into  an  immense 
ball  in  the  shape  of  an  egg,  and,  developing  themselves,  became 
the  vault  and  orb  of  Heaven  which  encircles  the  earth.  Having 
made  the  earth  and  the  bodies  of  animal  beings,  this  God,  the 
essence  of  movement,  gave  to  them,  to  animate  them,  a  portion 
of  His  own  being.  Thus,  the  soul  of  everything  that  breathes 


6lO  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

being  a  fraction  of  the  universal  soul,  none  perishes ;  but  each 
soul  merely  changes  its  mould  and  form,  by  passing  successively 
into  different  bodies.  Of  all  forms,  that  which  most  pleases  the 
Divine  Being  is  Man,  as  nearest  approaching  His  own  perfections. 
When  a  man,  absolutely  disengaging  himself  from  his  senses,  ab- 
sorbs himself  in  self-contemplation,  he  comes  to  discern  the  Di- 
vinity, and  becomes  part  of  Him." 

The  Ancient  Persians  in  many  respects  resembled  the  Hindus, — 
in  their  language,  their  poetry,  and  their  poetic  legends.  Their 
conquests  brought  them  in  contact  with  China ;  and  they  subdued 
Egypt  and  Judea.  Their  views  of  God  and  religion  more  resem- 
bled those  of  the  Hebrews  than  those  of  any  other  nation ;  and 
indeed  the  latter  people  borrowed  from  them  some  prominent  doc- 
trines, that  we  are  in  the  habit  of  regarding  as  an  essential  part 
of  the  original  Hebrew  creed. 

Of  the  King  of  Heaven  and  Father  of  Eternal  Light,  of  the 
pure  World  of  LIGHT,  of  the  Eternal  WORD  by  which  all  things 
were  created,  of  the  Seven  Mighty  Spirits  that  stand  next  to  the 
Throne  of  Light  and  Omnipotence,  and  of  the  glory  of  those 
Heavenly  Hosts  that  encompass  that  Throne,  of  the  Origin  of 
Evil,  and  the  Prince  of  Darkness,  Monarch  of  the  rebellious 
spirits,  enemies  of  all  good,  they  entertained  tenets  very  similar 
to  those  of  the  Hebrews.  Toward  Egyptian  idolatry  they  felt  the 
strongest  abhorrence,  and  under  Cambyses  pursued  a  regular  plan 
for  its  utter  extirpation.  Xerxes,  when  he  invaded  Greece,  de- 
stroyed the  Temples  and  erected  fire-chapels  along  the  whole 
course  of  his  march.  Their  religion  was  eminently  spiritual,  and 
the  earthly  fire  and  earthly  sacrifice  were  but  the  signs  and  em- 
blems of  another  devotion  and  a  higher  powrer. 

Thus  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  ancient  religion  of  India 
and  Persia  was  at  first  nothing  more  than  a  simple  veneration  of 
nature,  its  pure  elements  and  its  primary  energies,  the  sacred  fire, 
and  above  all,  Light, — the  air,  not  the  lower  atmospheric  air.  but 
the  purer  and  brighter  air  of  Heaven,  the  breath  that  animates 
and  pervades  the  breath  of  mortal  life.  This  pure  and  simple  ven- 
eration of  nature  is  perhaps  the  most  ancient,  and  was  by  far  the 
most  generally  prevalent  in  the  primitive  and  patriarchal  world. 
It  was  not  originally  a  deification  of  nature,  or  a  denial  of  the 
sovereignty  of  God.  Those  pure  elements  and  primitive  essences 
of  created  nature  offered  to  the  first  men,  still  in  a  close  commu- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  6ll 

nication  with  the  Deity,  not  a  likeness  of  resemblance,  nor  a  mere 
fanciful  image  or  a  poetical  figure,  but  a  natural  and  true  symbol 
of  Divine  power.  Everywhere  in  the  Hebrew  writings  the  pure 
light  or  sacred  fire  is  employed  as  an  image  of  the  all-pervading 
and  all-consuming  power  and  omnipresence  of  the  Divinity.  His 
breath  was  the  first  source  of  life;  and  the  faint  whisper  of  the 
breeze  announced  to  the  prophet  His  immediate  presence. 

"All  things  are  the  progeny  of  one  fire.  The  Father  perfected 
all  things,  and  delivered  them  over  to  the  Second  Mind,  whom  all 
nations  of  men  call  the  First.  Natural  works  co-exist  with  the 
intellectual  light  of  the  Father;  for  it  is  the  Soul  which  adorns 
the  great  Heaven,  and  which  adorns  it  after  the  Father.  The 
Soul,  being  a  bright  fire,  by  the  power  of  the  Father,  remains  im- 
mortal, and  is  mistress  of  life,  and  fills  up  the  recesses  of  the 
world.  For  the  fire  which  is  first  beyond,  did  not  shut  up  his 
power  in  matter  by  works,  but  by  mind,  for  the  framer  of  the  fiery 
world  is  the  mind  of  mind,  who  first  sprang  from  mind,  clothing 
fire  with  fire.  Father-begotten  Light !  for  He  alone,  having  from 
the  Father's  power  received  the  essence  of  intellect,  is  enabled  to 
understand  the  mind  of  the  Father ;  and  to  instill  into  all  sources 
and  principles  the  capacity  of  understanding,  and  of  ever  contin- 
uing in  ceaseless  revolving  moiion."  Such  was  the  language  of 
Zoroaster,  embodying  the  old  Persian  ideas. 

And  the  same  ancient  sage  thus  spoke  of  the  Sun  and  Stars : 
"The  Father  made  the  whole  Universe  of  fire  and  water  and  earth, 
and  all-nourishing  ether.  He  fixed  a  great  multitude  of  moveless 
stars,  that  stand  still  forever,  not  by  compulsion  and  unwillingly, 
but  without  desire  to  wander,  fire  acting  upon  fire.  He  congre- 
gated the  seven  firmaments  of  the  world,  and  so  surrounded  the 
earth  with  the  convexity  of  the  Heavens ;  and  therein  set  seven 
living  existences,  arranging  their  apparent  disorder  in  regular 
orbits,  six  of  them  planets,  and  the  Sun,  placed  in  the  centre,  the 
seventh ; — in  that  centre  from  which  all  lines,  diverging  which 
way  soever,  are  equal ;  and  the  swift  sun  himself,  revolving  around 
a  principal  centre,  and  ever  striving  to  reach  the  central  and  all- 
pervading  light,  bearing  with  him  the  bright  Moon." 

And  yet  Zoroaster  added :  "Measure  not  the  journeyings  of  the 
Sun,  nor  attempt  to  reduce  them  to  rule ;  for  he  is  carried  by  the 
eternal  will  of  the  Father,  not  for  your  sake.  Do  not  endeavor 
to  understand  the  impetuou?  Bourse  of  the  Moon;  for  she  runs 


MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

evermore  under  the  impulse  of  necessity ;  and  the  progression  of 
the  Stars  was  not  generated  to  serve  any  purpose  of  yours." 

Ormuzd  says  to  Zoroaster,  in  the  Boundehesch :  "I  am  he  who 
holds  the  Star-Spangled  Heaven  in  ethereal  space;  who  makes 
this  sphere,  which  once  was  buried  in  darkness,  a  flood  of  light. 
Through  me  the  Earth  became  a  world  firm  and  lasting — the 
earth  on  which  walks  the  Lord  of  the  world.  I  am  he  who  makes 
the  light  of  Sun,  Moon,  and  Stars  pierce  the  clouds.  I  make  the 
corn  seed,  which  perishing  in  the  ground  sprouts*  anew.  ...  I 
created  man,  whose  eye  is  light,  whose  life  is  the  breath  of  his  nos- 
trils. I  placed  within  him  life's  unextinguishable  power." 

.Ormuzd  or  Ahura-Mazda  himself  represented  the  primal  light, 
distinct  from  the  heavenly  bodies,  yet  necessary  to  their  existence, 
and  the  source  of  their  splendor.  The  Amschaspands  (Amescha- 
spenta,  "immortal  Holy  Ones"),  each  presided  over  a  special  de- 
partment of  nature.  Earth  and  Heaven,  fire  and  water,  the  Sun 
and  Moon,  the  rivers,  trees,  and  mountains,  even  the  artificial  divi- 
sions of  the  day  and  year  were  addressed  in  prayer  as  tenanted  by 
Divine  beings,  each  separately  ruling  within  his  several  sphere. 
Fire,  in  particular,  that  "most  energetic  of  immortal  powers,"  the 
visible  representative  of  the  primal  light,  was  invoked  as  "Son  of 
Ormuzd."  The  Sun,  the  Archimagus,  that  noblest  and  most  pow- 
erful agent  of  divine  power,  who  "steps  forth  as  a  Conqueror 
from  the  top  of  the  terrible  Alborj  to  rule  over  the  world  which 
he  enlightens  from  the  throne  of  Ormuzd,"  was  worshipped  among 
other  symbols  by  the  name  of  MITHRAS,  a  beneficent  and  friendly 
genius,  who,  in  the  hymn  addressed  to  him  in  the  Zend-Avesta, 
bears  the  names  given  him  by  the  Greeks,  as  the  "Invincible"  and 
the  "Mediator" ;  the  former,  because  in  his  daily  strife  with  dark- 
ness he  is  the  most  active  confederate  of  Ormuzd;  the  latter,  as 
being  the  medium  through  which  Heaven's  choicest  blessings  are 
communicated  to  men.  He  is  called  "the  eye  of  Ormuzd,  the 
effulgent  Hero,  pursuing  his  course  triumphantly,  fertilizer  of 
deserts,  most  exalted  of  the  Izeds  or  Yezatas,  the  never-sleeping, 
the  projector  of  the  land."  "When  che  dragon  foe  devastates  my 
provinces, '  says  Ormuzd,  "and  afmets  them  with  famine,  then  is 
he  struck  down  by  the  strong  arm  of  Mithras,  together  with  the 
Devs  of  Mazanderan.  With  his  lance  and  his  immortal  club,  the 
Sleepless  Chief  hurls  down  the  Devs  into  the  dust,  when  as  Me- 
diator he  interposes  to  guard  the  City  from  evil." 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN     OR   PRINCE  ADEPT. 

Ahriman  was  by  some  Parsee  sects  considered  older  than 
Ormuzd,  as  darkness  is  older  than  light ;  he  is  imagined  to  have 
been  unknown  as  a  Malevolent  Being  in  the  early  ages  of  the 
world,  and  the  fall  of  man  is  attributed  in  the  Boundehesch  to  an 
apostate  worship  of  him,  from  which  men  were  converted  by  a 
succession  of  prophets  terminating  with  Zoroaster. 

Mithras  is  not  only  light,  but  intelligence ;  that  luminary  which, 
though  born  in  obscurity,  will  not  only  dispel  darkness  but  con- 
quer death.  The  warfare  through  which  this  consummation  is  to 
be  reached,  is  mainly  carried  on  through  the  instrumentality  of  the 
"Word,"  that  "ever-living  emanation  of  the  Deity,  by  virtue  of 
which  the  world  exists,"  and  of  which  the  revealed  formulas  inces- 
santly repeated  in  the  liturgies  of  the  Magi  are  but  the  expression. 
"What  shall  I  do,"  cried  Zoroaster,  "O  Ormuzd,  steeped  in  bright- 
ness, in  order  to  battle  with  Daroodj-Ahriman,  father  of  the  Evil 
Law ;  how  shall  I  make  men  pure  and  holy  ?"  Ormuzd  answered 
and  said :  "Invoke,  O  Zoroaster,  the  pure  law  of  the  Servants  of 
Ormuzd ;  invoke  the  Amschaspands  who  shed  abundance  through- 
out the  seven  Keshwars ;  invoke  the  Heaven,  Zeruana-Akarana, 
the  birds  travailing  on  high,  the  swift  wind,  the  Earth ;  invoke 
my  Spirit,  me  who  am  Ahura-Mazda,  the  purest,  strongest,  wisest, 
best  of  beings ;  me  who  have  the  most  majestic  body,  who  through 
purity  am  Supreme,  whose  Soul  is  the  Excellent  Word ;  and  ye,  all 
people,  invoke  me  as  I  have  commanded  Zoroaster." 

Ahura-Mazda  himself  is  the  living  WORD  ;  he  is  called  "First- 
born of  all  things,  express  image  of  the  Eternal,  very  light  of  very 
light,  the  Creator,  who  by  power  of  the  Word  which  he  never 
ceases  to  pronounce,  made  in  365  days  the  Heaven  and  the  Earth." 
The  Word  is  said  in  the  Yashna  to  have  existed  before  all,  and  to 
be  itself  a  Yazata,  a  personified  object  of  prayer.  It  was  revealed 
in  Serosch,  in  Homa,  and  again,  under  Gushtasp,  was  manifested 
in  Zoroaster. 

Between  life  and  death,  between  sunshine  and  shade,  Mithras 
is  the  present  exemplification  of  the  Primal  Unity  from  which  all 
things  arose,  and  into  which,  through  his  mediation,  all  con- 
trarieties will  ultimately  be  absorbed.  His  annual  sacrifice  is 
the  passover  of  the  Magi,  a  symbolical  atonement  or  pledge  of 
moral  and  physical  regeneration.  He  created  the  world  in  the 
beginning ;  and  as  at  the  close  of  each  successive  year  he  sets  free 
the  current  of  life  to  invigorate  a  fresh  circle  of  being,  so  in  the 
40 


/>14  MORALS    AND   DOGM/ 

• 

end  of  all  things  he  will  bring  the  weary  sum  of  ages  as  a  heca- 
tomb before  God,  releasing  by  a  final  sacrifice  the  Soul  of  Nature 
from  her  perishable  frame,  to  commence  a  brighter  and  purer 
existence. 

lamblichus  (De  Mys.  viii.  4)  says  :  "The  Egyptians  are  far  from 
ascribing  all  things  to  physical  causes;  life  and  intellect  they 
distinguish  from  physical  being,  both  in  man  and  in  the  Universe. 
They  place  intellect  and  reason  first  as  self-existent,  and  from  these 
they  derive  the  created  world.  As  Parent  of  generated  things 
they  constitute  a  Demiurge,  and  acknowledge  a  vital  force  both  in 
the  Heavens  and  before  the  Heavens.  They  place  Pure  Intellect 
above  and  beyond  the  Universe,  and  another  (that  is,  Mind  re- 
vealed in  the  Material  World),  consisting  of  one  continuous  mind 
pervading  the  Universe,  and  apportioned  to  all  its  parts  and 
spheres."  The  Egyptian  idea,  then,  was  that  of  all  transcendental 
philosophy — that  of  a  Deity  both  immanent  and  transcendent — 
spirit  passing  into  its  manifestations,  but  not  exhausted  by  so 
doing. 

The  wisdom  recorded  in  the  canonical  rolls  of  Hermes  quickly 
attained  in  this  transcendental  lore,  all  that  human  curiosity  can 
ever  discover.  Thebes  especially  is  said  to  have  acknowledged  a 
being  without  beginning  or  end,  called  Amun  or  Amun-Kneph, 
the  all-prevading  Spirit  or  Breath  of  Nature,  or  perhaps  even  some 
still  more  lofty  object  of  reverential  reflection,  whom  it  was 
forbidden  even  to  name.  Such  a  being  would  in  theory  stand  at 
the  head  of  the  three  orders  of  Gods  mentioned  by  Herodotus, 
these  being  regarded  as  arbitrary  classifications  of  similar  or  equal 
beings,  arranged  in  successive  emanations,  according  to  an  esti- 
mate of  their  comparative  dignity.  The  Eight  Great  Gods,  or 
primary  class,  were  probably  manifestations  of  the  emanated  God 
in  the  several  parts  and  powers  of  the  Universe,  each  potentially 
comprising  the  whole  Godhead. 

In  the  ancient  Hermetic  books,  as  quoted  by  lamblichus,  oc- 
curred the  following  passage  in  regard  to  the  Supreme  Being: — 

"Before  all  the  things  that  actually  exist,  and  before  all  begin- 
nings, there  is  one  God,  prior  even  to  the  first  God  and  King, 
remaining  unmoved  in  the  singleness  of  his  own  Unity  :  for  neither 
is  anything  conceived  by  intellect  inwoven  with  him,  nor  anything 
else ;  but  he  is  established  as  the  exemplar  of  the  God  who  is 
good,  who  is  his  own  father,  self -begotten,  and  has  only  one 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRIN'CE  ADEPT.  615 

Parent.  For  he  is  something  greater  and  prior  to,  and  the  foun- 
tain of  all  things,  and  the  foundation  of  things  conceived  by 
the  intellect,  which  are  the  first  species.  And  from  this  ONE,  the 
self-originated  God  caused  himself  to  shine  forth ;  for  which 
reason  he  is  his  own  father,  and  self-originated.  For  he  is  both  a 
beginning  and  God  of  Gods,  a  Monad  from  the  One,  prior  to 
substance  and  the  beginning  of  substance;  for  from  him  is  sub- 
stantiality and  substance,  whence  also  he  is  called  the  beginning 
of  things  conceived  by  the  intellect.  These  then  are  the  most 
ancient  beginnings  of  all  things,  which  Hermes  places  before  the 
ethereal  and  empyrean  and  celestial  Gods." 

"CHANG-TI,  or  the  Supreme  Lord  or  Being,"  said  the  old  Chi- 
nese creed,  "is  the  principle  of  everything  that  exists,  and  Father 
of  all  living.  He  is  eternal,  immovable,  and  independent :  His 
power  knows  no  bounds :  His  sight  equally  comprehends  the  Past, 
the  Present,  and  the  Future,  and  penetrates  even  to  the  inmost 
recesses  of  the  heart.  Heaven  and  earth  are  under  his  govern- 
ment :  all  events,  all  revolutions,  are  the  consequences  of  his' 
dispensation  and  will.  He  is  pure,  holy,  and  impartial ;  wickedness 
offends  his  sight ;  but  he  beholds  with  an  eye  of  complacency  the 
virtuous  actions  of  men.  Severe,  yet  just,  he  punishes  vice  in  an 
exemplary  manner,  even  in  Princes  and  Rulers ;  and  often  casts 
down  the  guilty,  to  crown  with  honor  the  man  who  walks  after 
his  own  heart,  and  whom  he  raises  from  obscurity.  Good, 
merciful,  and  full  of  pity,  he  forgives  the  wicked  upon 
their  repentance :  and  public  calamities  and  the  irregular- 
ity of  the  seasons  are  but  salutary  warnings,  which  his  fa- 
therly goodness  gives  to  men,  to  induce  them  to  reform  and 
amend." 

Controlled  by  reason  infinitely  more  than  by  the  imagination, 
that  people,  occupying  the  extreme  East  of  Asia,  did  not  fall  into 
idolatry  until  after  the  time  of  Confucius,  and  within  two  centu- 
ries of  the  birth  of  Christ ;  when  the  religion  of  BUDDHA  or  Fo 
was  carried  thither  from  India.  Their  system  was  long  regulated 
by  the  pure  worship  of  God,  and  the  foundation  of  their  moral  and 
political  existence  laid  in  a  sound,  upright  reason,  conformable  to 
true  ideas  of  the  Deity.  They  had  no  false  gods  or  images,  and 
their  third  Emperor  Hoam-ti  erected  a  Temple,  the  first  probably 
ever  erected,  to  the  Great  Architect  of  the  Universe.  And  though 
they  offered  sacrifices  to  divers  tutelary  angels,  yet  they  honored 


6l6  MORALS    AND  DOGMA. 

them  infinitely  less  than  XAM-TI  or  CHANG-TI,  the   Sovereign 
Lord  of  the  World. 

Confucius  forbade  making  images  or  representations  of  the 
Deity.  He  attached  no  idea  of  personality  to  Him ;  but  considered 
Him  as  a  Power  or  Principle,  pervading  all  Nature.  And  the 
Chinese  designated  the  Divinity  by  the  name  of  THE  DIVINE 
REASON. 

The  Japanese  believe  in  a  Supreme  Invisible  Being,  not  to  be 
represented  by  images  or  worshipped  in  Temples.  They  styled  him 
AMIDA  or  OMITH  ;  and  say  that  he  is  without  beginning  or  end : 
that  he  came  on  earth,  where  he  remained  a  thousand  years,  and 
became  the  Redeemer  of  our  fallen  race:  that  he  is  to  judge  all 
men ;  and  the  good  are  to  live  forever,  while  the  bad  are  to  be 
condemned  to  Hell. 

"The  Chang-ti  is  represented,"  said  Confucius,  "under  the 
general  emblem  of  the  visible  firmament,  as  well  as  under  the 
.  particular  symbols  of  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  and  the  Earth,  because 
by  their  means  we  enjoy  the  gifts  of  the  Chang-ti.  The  Sun  is 
the  source  of  life  and  light :  the  Moon  illuminates  the  world  by 
night.  By  observing  the  course  of  these  luminaries,  mankind  are 
enabled  to  distinguish  times  and  seasons.  The  Ancients,  with 
the  view  of  connecting  the  act  with  its  object,  when  they  estab- 
lished the  practice  of  sacrificing  to  the  Chang-ti,  fixed  the  day  of 
the  Winter  Solstice,  because  the  Sun,  after  having  passed  through 
the  twelve  places  assigned  apparently  by  the  Chang-ti  as  its  annual 
residence,  began  its  career  anew,  to  distribute  blessings  through- 
out the  Earth." 

He  said :  "The  TEEN  is  the  universal  principle  and  prolific 
source  of  all  things.  .  .  .  The  Chang-ti  is  the  universal  principle 
of  existence." 

The  Arabians  never  possessed  a  poetical,  high-wrought,  and 
scientifically  arranged  system  of  Polytheism.  Their  historical 
traditions  had  much  analogy  with  those  of  the  Hebrews,  and 
coincided  with  them  in  a  variety  of  points.  The  tradition  of  a 
purer  faith  and  the  simple  Patriarchal  worship  of  the  Deity, 
appear  never  to  have  been  totally  extinguished  among  them ; 
nor  did  idolatry  gain  much  foothold  until  near  the  time  of 
Mahomet ;  who,  adopting  the  old  primeval  faith,  taught  again  the 
doctrine  of  one  God,  adding  to  it  that  he  was  His  Prophet. 

To  the  mass  of  Hebrews,  as  well  as  to  other  nations,  seem  to 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  6l/ 

have  come  fragments  only  of  the  primitive  revelation :  nor  do 
they  seem,  until  after  their  captivity  among  the  Persians,  to  have 
concerned  themselves  about  metaphysical  speculations  in  regard  to 
the  Divine  Nature  and  essence ;  although  it  is  evident,  from  the 
Psalms  of  David,  that  a  select  body  among  them  preserved  a 
knowledge,  in  regard  to  the  Deity,  which  was  wholly  unknown  to 
the  mass  of  the  people ;  and  those  chosen  few  were  made  the 
medium  of  transition  for  certain  truths,  to  later  ages. 

Among  the  Greeks,  the  scholars  of  the  Egyptians,  all  the 
higher  ideas  and  severer  doctrines  on  the  Divinity,  his  Sovereign 
Nature  and  Infinite  Might,  the  Eternal  Wisdom  and  Providence 
that  conducts  and  directs  all  things  to  their  proper  end,  the 
Infinite  Mind  and  Supreme  Intelligence  that  created  all  things, 
and  is  raised  far  above  external  nature, — all  these  loftier  ideas  and 
nobler  doctrines  were  expounded  more  or  less  perfectly  by  Py- 
thagoras, Anaxagoras,  and  Socrates,  and  developed  in  the  most 
beautiful  and  luminous  manner  by  Plato,  and  the  philosophers 
that  succeeded  him.  And  even  in  the  popular  religion  of  the 
Greeks  are  many  things  capable  of  a  deeper  import  and  more 
spiritual  signification ;  though  they  seem  only  rare  vestiges  of 
ancient  truth,  vague  presentiments,  fugitive  tones,  and  moment- 
ary flashes,  revealing  a  belief  in  a  Supreme  Being,  Almighty 
Creator  of  the  Universe,  and  Common  Father  of  Mankind. 

Much  of  the  primitive  Truth  was  taught  to  Pythagoras  by 
Zoroaster,  who  himself  received  it  from  the  Indians.  His 
disciples  rejected  the  use  of  Temples,  of  Altars,  and  of  Statues; 
and  smiled  at  the  folly  of  those  nations  who  imagined  that  the 
Deity  sprang  from  or  had  any  affinity  with  human  nature.  The 
tops  of  the  highest  mountains  were  the  places  chosen  for  sacrifices. 
Hymns  and  prayers  were  their  principal  worship.  The  Supreme 
God,  who  fills  the  wide  circle  of  Heaven,  was  the  object  to  Whom 
they  were  addressed.  Such  is  the  testimony  of  Herodotus.  Light 
they  considered  not  so  much  as  an  object  of  worship,  as  rather  the 
most  pure  and  lively  emblem  of,  and  first  emanation  from,  the 
Eternal  God ;  and  thought  that  man  required  something'  visible 
or  tangible  to  exalt  his  mind  to  that  degree  of  adoration  which 
is  due  to  the  Divine  Being. 

There  was  a  surprising  similarity  between  the  Temples,  Priests, 
doctrines,  and  worship  of  the  Persian  Magi  and  the  British 
Druids.  The  latter  did  not  worship  idols  in  the  human  shape, 


6l8  MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

because  they  held  that  the  Divinity,  being  invisible,  ought  to  be 
adored  without  being  seen.  They  asserted  the  Unity  of  the  God- 
head. Their  invocations  were  made  to  the  One  All-preserving 
Power;  and  they  argued  that,  as  this  power  was  not  matter,  it 
must  necessarily  be  the  Deity ;  and  the  secret  symbol  used  to 
express  his  name  was  O.  I.  W.  They  believed  that  the  earth  had 
sustained  one  general  destruction  by  water;  and  would  again 
be  destroyed  by  fire.  They  admitted  the  doctrines  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  a  future  state,  and  a  day  of  judgment,  which 
would  be  conducted  on  the  principle  of  man's  responsibility. 
They  even  retained  some  idea  of  the  redemption  of  mankind 
through  the  death  of  a  Mediator.  They  retained  a  tradition  of 
the  Deluge,  perverted  and  localized.  But,  around  these  fragments 
of  primitive  truth  they  wove  a  web  of  idolatry,  worshipped  two 
Subordinate  Deities  under  the  names  of  Hu  and  CERIDWEN,  male 
and  female  (doubtless  the  same  as  Osiris  and  Isis),  and  held  the 
doctrine  of  transmigration. 

The  early  inhabitants  of  Scandinavia  believed  in  a  God  who 
was  "the  Author  of  everything  that  existeth;  the  Eternal, 
the  Ancient,  the  Living  and  Awful  Being,  the  Searcher  into 
concealed  things,  the  Being  that  never  changeth."  Idols  and 
visible  representations  of  the  Deity  were  originally  forbidden,  and 
He  was  directed  to  be  worshipped  in  the  lonely  solitude  of 
sequestered  forests,  where  He  was  said  to  dwell,  invisible,  and  in 
perfect  silence. 

The  Druids,  like  their  Eastern  ancestors,  paid  the  most  sacred 
regard  to  the  odd  numbers,  which,  traced  backward,  ended 
in  Unity  or  Deity,  while  the  even  numbers  ended  in  nothing.  3 
was  particularly  reverenced.  19(7  +  3  +  32)  :  3°  (?X  3  +3X3)  : 
and  21  (7X3)  were  numbers  observed  in  the  erection  of  their 
temples,  constantly  appearing  in  their  dimensions,  and  the  num- 
ber and  distances  of  the  huge  stones. 

They  were  the  sole  interpreters  of  religion.  They  superintend- 
ed all  sacrifices ;  for  no  private  person  could  offer  one  without 
their  permission.  They  exercised  the  power  of  excommunica- 
tion ;  and  without  their  concurrence  war  could  not  be  declared  nor 
peace  made :  and  they  even  had  the  power  of  inflicting  the  pun- 
ishment of  death.  They  professed  to  possess  a  knowledge  of 
magic,  and  practised  augury  for  the  public  service. 

They  cultivated  many  of  the  liberal  sciences,  and  particularly 


KNIGHT  OP  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  619 

astronomy,  the  favorite  science  of  the  Orient ;  in  which  they 
attained  considerable  proficiency.  They  considered  day  as  the  off- 
spring- of  night,  and  therefore  made  their  computations  by  nights 
instead  of  days ;  and  we,  from  them,  still  use  the  words  fortnight 
and  sen'nigrt.  They  Knew  the  division  of  the  heavens  into  con- 
stellations ;  and  finally,  they  practised  the  strictest  morality, 
having  particularly  the  most  sacred  regard  for  that  peculiarly 
Masonic  virtue,  Truth. 

In  the  Icelandic  Prose  Edda  is  the  following  dialogue : 
"Who  is  the  first  or  eldest  of  the  Gods? 

"In  •  our  language  he  is  called  ALFADIR  (All-Father,  or  the 
Father  of  All)  ;  but  in  the  old  Asgard  he  had  twelve  names. 

"Where  is  this  God?  What  is  his  power?  and  what  hath  he 
done  to  display  his  glory? 

"He  liveth  from  all  ages,  he  governeth  all  realms,  and  swayeth 
all  things  both  great  and  small. 

"He  hath  formed  Heaven  and  earth,  and  the  air,  and  all  things 
thereunto  belonging. 

"He  hath  made  man  and  given  him  a  soul  which  shall  live  and 
never  perish,  though  the  body  shall  have  mouldered  away  or  have 
been  burnt  to  ashes.  And  all  that  are  righteous  shall  dwell  with 
him  in  the  place  called  Gimii  or  Vingolf ' ;  but  the  wicked  shall 
go  to  Hel  and  thence  to  Niflhel  which  is  below,  in  the  ninth 
world." 

Almost  every  heathen  nation,  so  far  as  we  have  any  knowledge 
of  the;r  mythology,  believed  in  one  Supreme  Overruling  God, 
whose  name  it  was  not  lawful  to  utter. 

"When  we  ascend,"  says  Miiller,  to  the  most  distant  heights  of 
Greek  history,  the  idea  of  God  as  the  Supreme  Being  stands  before 
us  as  a  simple  fact.  Next  to  this  adoration  of  One  God,  the  Father 
of  Heaven,  the  Father  of  men,  we  find  in  Greece  a  Worship  of 
Nature."  The  original  Zvj$  was  the  Coder  Gods,  called  by  the 
Greeks  the  Son  of  Time,  meaning  that  there  was  no  God  before 
Him,  but  He  was  Eternal.  "Zeus,"  says  the  Orphic  line,  "is  the 
Beginning,  Zeus  the  Middle ;  out  of  Zeus  all  things  have  been 
made."  And  the  Peleides  of  Dcdona  said,  "Zeus  was,  Zeus  is, 
Zeus  will  be;  O  great  Zeus!'*  Zsl>c  7]v,  Zt<)^  £0r/y,  Zi'j^  lavs- 
rar  <L  fjLZfdty  Zsi>:  and  he  was  -Zsyf,  x-Jdca-u-  psyiff-oz,  Zeus, 
Best  and  Greatest. 


62O  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

The  Parsees,  retaining  the  old  religion  taught  by  Zaradisht,  say 
in  their  catechism :  "We  believe  in  only  one  God,  and  do  not 
believe  in  any  beside  Him ;  Who  created  the  Heavens,  the  Earth, 
the  Angels.  .  .  .  Our  God  has  neither  face  nor  form,  color  nor 
shape,  nor  fixed  place.  There  is  no  other  like  Him,  nor  can  our 
mind  comprehend  Him." 

The  Tetragrammaton,  or  some  other  zvord  covered  by  it,  was 
forbidden  to  be  pronounced.  But  that  its  pronunciation  might 
not  be  lost  among  the  Levites,  the  High-Priest  uttered  it  in  the 
Tempk  once  a  year,  on  the  loth  day  of  the  Month  Tisri,  the  day 
of  the  great  feast  of  expiation.  During  this  ceremony,  the  people 
were  directed  to  make  a  great  noise,  that  the  Sacred  Word  might 
not  be  heard  by  any  who  had  not  a  right  to  it ;  for  every  other, 
said  the  Jews,  would  be  incontinently  stricken  dead. 

The  Great  Egyptian  Initiates,  before  the  time  of  the  Jews,  did 
the  same  thing  in  regard  to  the  word  Isis ;  which  they  regarded 
as  sacred  and  incommunicable. 

Origen  says :  "There  are  names  which  have  a  natural  potency. 
Such  as  those  which  the  Sages  used  among  the  Egyptians,  the 
Magi  in  Persia,  the  Brahmins  in  India.  What  is  called  Magic  is 
not  a  vain  and  chimerical  act,  as  the  Stoics  and  Epicureans  pre- 
tend. The  names  SABAOTH  and  ADONAI  were  not  made  for  cre- 
ated beings  ;  but  they  belong  to  a  mysterious  theology,  which  goes 
back  to  the  Creator.  From  Him  comes  the  virtue  of  these  names, 
when  they  are  arranged  and  pronounced  according  to  the  rules." 

The  Hindu  word  AUM  represented  the  three  Powers  combined 
in  their  Deity:  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva;  or  the  Creating,  Pre- 
serving, and  Destroying  Powers :  A,  the  first ;  U  or  0-0,  the 
second ;  and  M,  the  third.  This  word  could  not  be  pronounced, 
except  by  the  letters :  for  its  pronunciation  as  one  word  was  said 
to  make  Earth  tremble,  and  even  the  Angels  of  Heaven  to  quake 
for  fear. 

The  word  AUM,  says  the  Ramayan,  represents  "The  Being  of 
Being?,  One  Substance  in  three  forms ;  without  mode,  without 
quality,  without  passion :  Immense,  Incomprehensible,  Infinite, 
Indivisible,  Immutable,  Incorporeal,  Irresistible." 

An  old  passage  in  the  Purana  says :  "All  the  rites  ordained  In 
the  Vedas,  the  sacrifices  to  the  fire,  and  all  other  solemn  purifica- 
tions, shall  pass  away ;  but  that  which  shall  never  pass  away  is 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  621 

the  word  A.'.  0-0.'.  M:  for  it  is  the  symbol  of  the  Lord  of  all 
things." 

Herodotus  says  that  the  Ancient  Pelasgi  built  no  temples  and 
worshipped  no  idols,  and  had  a  sacred  name  of  Deity,  which  it  was 
not  permissible  to  pronounce. 

The  Clarian  Oracle,  which  was  of  unknown  antiquity,  being 
asked  which  of  the  Deities  was  named  I  Ml ,  answered  in  these 
remarkable  words :  "The  Initiated  are  bound  to  conceal  the  mys- 
terious secrets.  Learn,  then,  that  L-W  is  the  Great  God  Supreme, 
that  ruleth  over  all." 

The  Jews  consider  the  True  Name  of  God  to  be  irrecoverably 
lost  by  disuse,  and  regard  its  pronunciation  as  one  of  the  Mys- 
teries that  will  be  revealed  at  the  coming  of  their  Messiah.  And 
they  attribute  its  loss  to  the  illegality  of  applying  the  Masoretic 
points  to  so  sacred  a  Name,  by  which  a  knowledge  of  the  proper 
vowels  is  forgotten.  It  is  even  said,  in  the  Gemara  of  Abodah 
Zara,  that  God  permitted  a  celebrated  Hebrew  Scholar  to  be 
burned  by  a  Roman  Emperor,  because  he  had  been  heard  to  pro- 
nounce the  Sacred  Name  with  points. 

The  Jews  feared  that  the  Heathen  would  get  possession  of  the 
Name :  and  therefore,  in  their  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  they  wrote 
it  in  the  Samaritan  character,  instead  of  the  Hebrew  or  Chaldaic, 
that  the  adversary  might  not  make  an  improper  use  of  it :  for 
they  believed  it  capable  of  working  miracles :  and  held  that  the 
wonders  in  Egypt  were  performed  by  Moses,  in  virtue  of  this  name 
being  engraved  on  his  rod :  and  that  any  person  who  knew  the 
true  pronunciation  would  be  able  to  do  as  much  as  he  did. 

Josephus  says  it  was  unknown  until  God  communicated  it  to 
Moses  in  the  wilderness :  and  that  it  was  lost  through  the  wicked- 
ness of  man. 

The  followers  of  Mahomet  have  a  tradition  that  there  is  a  secret 
name  of  the  Deity  which  possesses  wonderful  properties  :  and  that 
the  only  method  of  becoming  acquainted  with  it,  is  by  being  ini- 
tiated into  the  Mysteries  of  the  Ism  Abla. 

H.'.O.'.M.'.was  the  first  framer  of  the  new  religion  among  the 
Persians,  and  His  Name  was  Ineffable. 

AM  UN,  among  the  Egyptians,  was  a  name  pronounceable  by 
none  save  the  Priests. 

The  old  Germans  adored  Cod  with  profound  reverence,  without 
daring  to  name  Him,  or  to  worship  Him  in  Temples. 


622  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  Druids  expressed  the  name  of  Deity  by  the  letters  O.'.  I.'. 
W.'. 

Among  all  the  nations  of  primitive  antiquity,  the  doctrine  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  was  not  a  mere  probable  hypothesis,  need- 
ing laborious  researches  and  diffuse  argumentation  to  produce 
conviction  of  its  truth.  Nor  can  we  hardly  give  it  the  name  of 
Faith;  for  it  was  a  lively  certainty,  like  the  feeling  of  one's  own 
existence  and  identity,  and  of  what  is  actually  present ;  exerting 
its  influence  on  all  sublunary  affairs,  and  the  motive  of  mightier 
deeds  and  enterprises  than  any  mere  earthly  interest  could  inspire. 

Even  the  doctrine  of  transmigration  of  souls,  universal  among 
the  Ancient  Hindus  and  Egyptians,  rested  on  a  basis  of  the  old 
primitive  religion,  and  was  connected  with  a  sentiment  purely 
religious.  It  involved  this  noble  element  of  truth :  That  since 
man  had  gone  astray,  and  wandered  far  from  God,  he  must  needs 
make  many  efforts,  and  undergo  a  long  and  painful  pilgrimage, 
before  he  could  rejoin  the  Source  of  all  Perfection :  and  the  firm 
conviction  and  positive  certainty,  that  nothing  defective,  impure, 
or  denied  with  earthy  stains,  could  enter  the  pure  region  of  per- 
fect spirits,  or  be  eternally  united  to  God ;  wherefore  the  soul  had 
to  pass  through  long  trials  and  many  purifications  before  it  could 
attain  that  blissful  end.  And  the  end  and  aim  of  all  these  systems 
of  philosophy  was  the  final  deliverance  of  the  soul  from  the  old 
calamity,  the  dreaded  fate  and  frightful  lot  of  being  compelled  to 
wander  through  the  dark  regions  of  nature  and  the  various  forms 
of  the  brute  creation,  ever  changing  its  terrestrial  shape,  and  its 
union  with  God,  which  they  held  to  be  the  lofty  destiny  of  the 
wise  and  virtuous  soul. 

Pythagoras  gave  to  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls 
that  meaning  which  the  wise  Egyptians  gave  to  it  in  their  Myster- 
ies. He  never  taught  the  doctrine  in  that  literal  sense  in  which  it 
was  understood  by  the  people.  Of  that  literal  doctrine  not  the  least 
vestige  is  to  be  found  in  such  of  his  symbols  as  remain,  nor  in  his 
precepts  collected  by  his  disciple  Lysias.  He  held  that  men  always 
remain,  in  their  essence,  such  as  they  were  created ;  and  can 
degrade  themselves  only  by  vice,  and  ennoble  themselves  only  by 
virtue. 

Hierocles,  one  of  his  most  zealous  and  celebrated  disciples, 
expressly  says  that  he  who  believes  that  the  soul  of  man,  after  his 
death,  will  enter  the  body  of  a  beast,  for  his  vices,  or  become  a 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OK    PRINCE  ADEPT.  62.3 

plant  for  his  stupidity,  is  deceived ;  and  is  absolutely  ignorant  of 
the  eternal  form  of  the  soul,  which  can  never  change ;  for,  always 
remaining  man,  it  is  said  to  become  God  or  beast,  through  virtue 
or  vice,  though  it  can  become  neither  one  nor  the  other  by  nature, 
but  solely  by  resemblance  of  its  inclinations  to  theirs. 

And  Timaeus  of  Locria,  another  disciple,  says  that  to  alarm 
men  and  prevent  them  from  committing  crimes,  they  menaced 
them  with  strange  humiliations  and  punishments;  even  declaring 
that  their  souls  would  pass  into  new  bodies, — that  of  a  coward  into 
the  body  of  a  deer;  that  of  a  ravisher  into  the  body  of  a  wolf; 
that  of  a  murderer  into  the  body  of  some  still  more  ferocious 
animal ;  and  that  of  an  impure  sensualist  into  the  body  of  a 
hog. 

So,  too,  the  doctrine  is  explained  in  the  Phaedo.  And  Lysias  says, 
that  after  the  soul,  purified  of  its  crimes,  has  left  the  body  and 
returned  to  Heaven,  it  is  no  longer  subject  to  change  or  death,  but 
enjoys  an  eternal  felicity.  According  to  the  Indians,  it  returned 
to,  and  became  a  part  of,  the  universal  soul  which  animates  every- 
thing. 

The  Hindus  held  that  Buddha  descended  on  earth  to  raise  all 
human  beings  up  to  the  perfect  state.  He  will  ultimately  suc- 
ceed, and  all,  himself  included,  be  merged  in  Unity. 

Vishnu  is  to  judge  the  world  at  the  last  day.  It  is  to  be 
consumed  by  fire :  The  Sun  and  Moon  are  to  lose  their  light ; 
the  Stars  to  fall ;  and  a  New  Heaven  and  Earth  to  be  created. 

The  legend  of  the  fall  of  the  Spirits,  obscured  and  distorted,  is 
preserved  in  the  Hindu  Mythology.  And  their  traditions  acknow- 
ledged, and  they  revered,  the  succession  of  the  first  ancestors  of 
mankind,  or  the  Holy  Patriarchs  of  the  primitive  world,  under 
the  name  of  the  Seven  Great  RISHIS,  or  Sages  of  hoary  antiquity ; 
though  they  invested  their  history  with  a  cloud  of  fictions. 

The  Egyptians  held  that  the  soul  was  immortal ;  and  that  Osiris 
was  to  judge  the  world. 

And  thus  reads  the  Persian  legend : 

"After  Ahriman  shall  have  ruled  the  world  until  the  end  of 
time,  SOSIOSCH,  the  promised  Redeemer,  will  come  and  annihilate 
the  powor  of  the  DEVS  (or  Evil  Spirits),  awaken  the  dead,  and  sit 
in  final  judgment  upon  spirits  and  men.  After  that  the  comet 
Gnrzsher  will  be  thrown  down,  and  a  general  conflagration  take 
place,  which  will  consume  the  whole  world.  The  remains  of  the 


624  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

earth  will  then  sink  down  into  Dusakh,  and  become  for  three  peri- 
ods a  place  of  punishment  for  the  wicked.  Then,  by  degrees,  all 
will  be  pardoned,  even  Ahriman  and  the  Devs,  and  admitted  to  the 
regions  of  bliss,  and  thus  there  will  be  a  new  Heaven  and  a  new 
earth." 

In  the  doctrines  of  Lamaism  also,  we  find,  obscured,  and  partly 
concealed  in  fiction,  fragments  of  the  primitive  truth.  For, 
according  to  that  faith,  "There  is  to  be  a  final  judgment  before 
ESLIK  KHAN  :  The  good  are  to  be  admitted  to  Paradise,  the  bad 
to  be  banished  to  hell,  where,  there  are  eight  regions  burning  hot 
and  eight  freezing  cold." 

In  the  Mysteries,  wherever  they  were  practised,  was  taught  that 
truth  of  the  primitive  revelation, the  existence  of  One  Great  Being, 
Infinite  and  pervading  the  Universe,  Who  was  there  worshipped 
without  superstition ;  and  His  marvellous  nature,  essence,  and 
attributes  taught  to  the  Initiates ;  while  the  vulgar  attributed  His 
works  to  Secondary  Gods,  personified,  and  isolated  from  Him  in 
fabulous  independence. 

These  truths  were  covered  from  the  common  people  as  with  a 
veil ;  and  the  Mysteries  were  carried  into  every  country,  that,  with- 
out disturbing  the  popular  beliefs,  truth,  the  arts,  and  the  sciences 
might  be  known  to  those  who  were  capable  of  understanding 
them,  and  maintaining  the  true  doctrine  incorrupt;  which  the 
people,  prone  to  superstition  and  idolatry,  have  in  no  age  been  able 
to  do ;  nor,  as  many  strange  aberrations  and  superstitions  of  the 
present  day  prove,  any  more  now  than  heretofore.  For  wre  need 
but  point  to  the  doctrines  of  so  many  sects  that  degrade  the  Cre- 
ator to  the  rank,  and  assign  to  Him  the  passions  of  humanity,  to 
prove  that  no\v,  as  always,  the  old  truths  must  be  committed  to  a 
few,  or  they  will  be  overlaid  with  fiction  and  error,  and  irretrieva- 
bly lost. 

Though  Masonry  is  identical  with  the  Ancient  Mysteries,  it  is 
so  in  this  qualified  sense ;  that  it  presents  but  an  imperfect  image 
of  their  brilliancy ;  the  ruins  only  of  their  grandeur,  and  a  sys- 
tem that  has  experienced  progressive  alterations,  the  fruits  of 
social  events  and  political  circumstances.  Upon  leaving  Egypt, 
the  Mysteries  were  modified  bj  the  habits  of  the  different  nations 
among  whom  they  were  introduced.  Though  originally  more 
moral  and  political  than  religions,  they  soon  became  the  heritage, 
as  it  were,  of  the  priests,  and  essentially  religious,  though  in  reality 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  625 

limiting  the  sacerdotal  power,  by  teaching  the  intelligent  laity  the 
folly  and  absurdity  of  the  creeds  of  the  populace.  They  were 
therefore  necessarily  changed  by  the  religious  systems  of  the  coun- 
ties into  which  they  were  transplanted.  In  Greece,  they  were  the 
Mysteries  of  Ceres ;  in  Rome,  of  Dona  Dca,  the  Good  Goddess ;  in 
Gaul,  the  School  of  Mars ;  in  Sicily,  the  Academy  of  the  Sciences ; 
among  the  Hebrews,  they  partook  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  a 
religion  which  placed  all  the  powers  of  government,  and  all  the 
knowledge,  in  the  hands  of  the  Priests  and  Levites.  The  pagodas 
of  India,  the  retreats  of  the  Magi  of  Persia  and  Chaldea,  and  the 
pyramids  of  Egypt,  were  no  longer  the  sources  at  which  men 
drank  in  knowledge.  Each  people,  a,t  all  informed,  had  its  Mys- 
teries. After  a  time  the  Temples  of  Greece  and  the  School  of 
Pythagoras  lost  their  reputation,  and  Freemasonry  took  their 
place. 

Masonry,  when  properly  expounded,  is  at  once  the  interpretation 
of  the  great  book  of  nature,  the  recital  of  physical  and  astronom- 
ical phenomena,  the  purest  philosophy,  and  the  place  of  deposit, 
where,  as  in  a  Treasury,  are  kept  in  safety  all  the  great  truths  of 
the  primitive  revelation,  that  form  the  basis  of  all  religions.  In 
the  modern  Degrees  three  things  are  to  be  recognized :  The  image 
of  primeval  times,  the  tableau  of  the  efficient  causes  of  the  Uni- 
verse, and  the  book  in  which  are  written  the  morality  of  all  peo- 
ples, and  the  code  by  which  they  must  govern  themselves  if  they 
would  be  prosperous. 

The  Kabalistic  doctrine  was  long  the  religion  of  the  Sage 
and  the  Savant ;  because,  like  Freemasonry,  it  incessantly  tends 
toward  spiritual  perfection,  and  the  fusion  of  the  creeds  and  Na- 
tionalities of  Mankind.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Kabalist,  all  men  are 
his  brothers;  and  their  relative  ignorance  is,  to  him,  but  a  reason 
for  instructing  them.  There  were  illustrious  Kabalists  among  the 
Egyptians  and  Greeks,  whose  doctrines  the  Orthodox  Church  has 
accepted ;  and  among  the  Arabs  were  many,  whose  wisdom  was 
not  slighted  by  the  Mediaeval  Church. 

The  Sages  proudly  wore  the  name  of  Kabalists.  The  Kabalah 
embodied  a  noble  philosophy,  pure,  not  mysterious,  but  symbolic. 
It  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  Unity  of  God,  the  art  of  knowing 
and  explaining  the  essence  and  operations  of  the  Supreme  Being. 
of  spiritual  powers  and  natural  forces,  and  of  determining  their 
action  by  symbolic  figures ;  by  the  arrangement  of  the  alphabet, 


626  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  combinations  of  numbers,  the  inversion  of  letters  in  writing 
and  the  concealed  meanings  which  theyclaimed  to  discover  therein. 
The  Kabalah  is  the  key  of  the  occult  sciences;  and  the  Gnostics 
were  born  of  the  Kabalists. 

The  science  of  numbers  represented  not  only  arithmetical  qual- 
ities, but  also  all  grandeur,  all  proportion.  By  it  we  necessarily 
arrive  at  the  discovery  of  the  Principle  or  First  Cause  of  things, 
called  at  the  present  day  THE  ABSOLUTE. 

Or  UNITY, — that  loftiest  term  to  which  all  philosophy  directs 
itself;  that  imperious  necessity  of  the  human  mind,  that  pivot 
round  which  it  is  compelled  to  group  the  aggregate  of  its  ideas : 
Unity,  this  source,  this  centre  of  all  systematic  order,  this  princi- 
ple of  existence,  this  central  point,  unknown  in  its  essence,  but 
manifest  in  its  effects ;  Unity,  that  sublime  centre  to  which  the 
chain  of  causes  necessarily  ascends,  was  the  august  Idea  toward 
which  all  the  ideas  of  Pythagoras  converged.  He  refused  the  title 
of  Sage,  which  means  one  who  knows:  He  invented,  and  applied 
to  himself  that  of  Philosopher,  signifying  one  who  is  fond  of  or 
studies  things  secret  and  occult.  The  astronomy  which  he  myste- 
riously taught,  was  astrology:  his  science  of  numbers  was  based 
on  Kabalistical  principles. 

The  Ancients,  and  Pythagoras  himself,  whose  real  principles 
have  not  been  always  understood,  never  meant  to  ascribe  to  num- 
bers, that  is  to  say,  to  abstract  signs,  any  special  virtue.  But  the 
Sages  of  Antiquity  concurred  in  recognizing  a  ONE  FIRST  CAUSE 
(material  or  spiritual)  of  the  existence  of  the  Universe.  Thence, 
UNITY  became  the  symbol  of  the  Supreme  Deity.  It  was  made  to 
express,  to  represent  God ;  but  without  attributing  to  the  mere 
number  ONE  any  divine  or  supernatural  virtue. 

The  Pythagorean  ideas  as  to  particular  numbers  are  partially 
expressed  in  the  following 

LECTURE  OF  THE  KABALISTS. 

Qu.'.  Why  did  you  seek  to  be  received  a  Knight  of  the  Ka- 
balah? 

Ans.' .  To  know,  by  means  of  numbers,  the  admirable  harmony 
which  there  is  between  nature  and  religion. 

Qu.' .  How  were  you  announced? 

Ans.' .  By  twelve  raps. 

Qu.' .  What  do  they  signify? 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  <>U    I'UI.Xc  I.    \|)Kl'T.  627 

Ans.'.  The  twelve  bases  of  our  temporal  and  spiritual  happiness. 

Qw.'.What  is  a  Kabalist? 

Ans.'.  A  man  who  has  learned,  by  tradition,  the  Sacerdotal  Art 
and  the  Royal  Art. 

Qu.'.  What  means  the  device,  Omnia  in  nnmcris  sita  suntf 

Ans.' .  That  everything  lies  veiled  in  numbers. 

Qu.' .  Explain  me  that. 

Ans.' .  I  will  do  so,  as  far  as  the  number  12.  Your  sagacity  will 
discern  the  rest. 

Qu.'.  What  signifies  the  unit  in  the  number  10? 

Ans.' .  GOD,  creating  and  animating  matter,  expressed  by  o, 
which,  alone,  is  of  no  value. 

Qu.' .  What  does  the  unit  mean? 

Ans.' .  In  the  moral  order,  a  Word  incarnate  in  the  bosom  of  a 
virgin — or  religion.  ...  In  the  physical,  a  spirit  embodied  in  the 
virgin  earth — or  nature. 

Qu.' .  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  two? 

Ans.' .  In  the  moral  order,  man  and  ivoman.  ...  In  the  phys- 
ical, the  active  and  the  passive. 

Qu.' .  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  3? 

Ans.' .  In  the  moral  order,  the  three  theological  virtues.  ...  In 
the  physical,  the  three  principles  of  bodies. 

Qu.' .  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  4? 

Ans.'.  The  four  cardinal  virtues.  .  .  .  The  four  elementary 
qualities. 

Qu.'.  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  5  ? 

Ans.'.  The  quintessence  of  religion.  .  .  .  The  quintessence  of 
matter. 

Qu.'.  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  6? 

Ans.'.  The  theological  cube  .  .  .  The  physical  cube. 

Qu.'.  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  7? 

Ans.' .  The  seven  sacraments  .  .  .  The  seven  planets. 

Qu.' .  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  8? 

Ans.' .  The  small  number  of  Elus  .  .  .  The  small  number  of  wise 
men. 

£);<.'. What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  9? 

Ans.'.  The  exaltation  of  religion  .  ;  .  The  exaltation  of  matter. 

Qu.'.  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  10? 

Ans.'.  The  ten  commandments  .  .  .  The  ten  precepts  of  nature. 

Qu.'.  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  TT  ? 


628  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Ans.'.  The  multiplication  of  religion  .  .  .  The  multiplication 
of  nature. 

Qu.'.  What  do  you  mean  by  the  number  12? 

Ans.'.  The  twelve  Articles  of  Faith;  the  twelve  Apostles,  foun- 
dation of  the  Holy  City,  who  preached  throughout  the  whole 
world,  for  our  happiness  and  spiritual  joy  .  .  .  The  twelve  opera- 
tions of  nature :  The  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  foundation  of  the 
Primum  Mobile,  extending  it  throughout  the  Universe  for  our 
temporal  felicity. 

[The  Rabbi  (President  of  the  Sanhedrim)  adds:  From  all  that 
you  have  said,  it  results  that  the  unit  develops  itself  in  2,  is  com- 
pleted in  three  internally,  and  so  produces  4  externally;  whence, 
through  6,  7,  8,  9,  it  arrives  at  5,  half  of  the  spherical  number 
10,  to  ascend,  passing  through  n,  to  12,  and  to  raise  itself,  by  the 
number  4  times  10,  to  the  number  6  times  12,  the  final  term  and 
summit  of  our  eternal  happiness.] 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  generative  number? 

Ans.'.  In  the  Divinity,  it  is  the  unit;  in  created  things,  the 
number  2:  Because  the  Divinity,  i,  engenders  2,  and  in  created 
things  2  engenders  I. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  most  majestic  number? 

Ans.' .  3,  because  it  denotes  the  triple  divine  essence. 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  most  mysterious  number? 

Ans.' .  4,  because  it  contains  all  the  mysteries  of  nature. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  most  occult  number? 

Ans.'.  5,  because  it  is  inclosed  in  the  centre  of  the  series. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  most  salutary  number? 

Ans.' .  6,  because  it  contains  the  source  of  our  spiritual  and  cor- 
poreal happiness. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  most  fortunate  number? 

Ans.'.  7,  because  it  leads  us  to  the  decade,  the  perfect  num- 
ber. 

Qu.'.  Which  is  the  number  most  to  be  desired? 

Ans.'.  8,  because  he  who  possesses  it,  is  of  the  number  of  the 
Elus  and  Sages. 

Qu.'.  Which  is  the  most  sublime  number? 

Ans.' .  9,  because  by  it  religion  and  nature  are  exalted. 

Qu.' '.  Which  is  the  most  perfect  number? 

Ans.' .  10,  because  it  includes  unity,  which  created  everything, 
and  zero,  symbol  of  matter  and  chaos,  whence  everything  emerged. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  629 

In  its  figures  it  comprehends  the  created  and  uncreated,  the  com- 
mencement and  the  end,  power  and  force,  life  and  annihilation. 
By  the  study  of  this  number,  we  find  the  relations  of  all  things ; 
the  power  of  the  Creator,  the  faculties  of  the  creature,  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  divine  knowledge. 

Qu.' ',  Which  is  the  most  multiplying  number? 

Ans.' .  n,  because  with  the  possession  of  two  units,  we  arrive 
at  the  multiplication  of  things. 

Qu.'.  Which  is  the  most  solid 'number? 

Ans.'.  12,  because  it  is  the  foundation  of  our  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral happiness. 

Qu.'.  Which  is  the  favorite  number  of  religion  and  nature? 

Ans.'.  4  times  10,  because  it  enables  us,  rejecting  everything 
impure,  eternally  to  enjoy  the  number  6  times  12,  term  and  sum- 
mit of  our  felicity. 

Qu.' .  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  square? 

Ans.'.  It  is  the  symbol  of  the  four  elements  contained  in  the 
triangle,  or  the  emblem  of  the  three  chemical  principles :  these 
things  united  form  absolute  unity  in  the  primal  matter. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  centre  of  the  circumference? 

Ans.'.  It  signifies  the  universal  spirit,  vivifying  centre  of  nature. 

Qu.' .  What  do  you  mean  by  the  quadrature  of  the  circle? 

Ans.'.  The  investigation  of  the  quadrature  of  the  circle  indi- 
cates the  knowledge  of  the  four  vulgar  elements,  which  are  them- 
selves composed  of  elementary  spirits  or  chief  principles ;  as  the 
circle,  though  round,  is  composed  of  lines,  which  escape  the  sight, 
and  are  seen  only  by  the  mind. 

Qu.'.  What  is  the  profoundest  meaning  of  the  figure  3? 

Ans.'.  The  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  From  the 
action  of  these  three  results  the  triangle  within  the  square ;  and 
from  the  seven  angles,  the  decade  or  perfect  number. 

Qu.'.  Which  is  the  most  confused  figure? 

Ans.'.  Zero, — the  emblem  of  chaos,  formless  mixture  of  the  ele- 
ments. 

Qtt.'.What  do  the  four  devices  of  the  Degree  signify? 

Ans.' .  That  we  are  to  hear,  see,  be  silent,  and  enjoy  our  happi- 
ness. 

The  unit  is  the  symbol  of  identity,  equality,  existence,  conserva- 
tion, and  general  harmony ;  the  Central  Fire,  the  Point  within  the 
Circle. 


630  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

Two,  or  the  duad,  is  the  symbol  of  diversity,  inequality,  division, 
separation,  and  vicissitudes. 

The  figure  I  signifies  the  living  man  [a  body  standing  upright]  ; 
man  being  the  only  living  being  possessed  of  this  faculty.  Adding 
to  it  a  head,  we  have  the  letter  P,  the  sign  of  Paternity,  Creative 
Power ;  and  with  a  further  addition,  R,  signifying  man  in  motion, 
going,  lens,  Iturus. 

The  Duad  is  the  origin  of  contrasts.  It  is  the  imperfect  condi- 
tion into  which,  according  to  the  Pythagoreans,  a  being  falls,  when 
he  detaches  himself  from  the  Monad,  or  God.  Spiritual  beings, 
emanating  from  God,  are  enveloped  in  the  duad,  and  therefore 
receive  only  illusory  impressions. 

As  formerly  the  number  ONE  designated  harmony,  order,  or  the 
Good  Principle  (the  ONE  and  ONLY  GOD,  expressed  in  Latin  by 
Solus,  whence  the  words  Sol,  Soleil,  symbol  of  this  God),  the 
number  Two  expressed  the  contrary  idea.  There  commenced  the 
fatal  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  Everything  double,  false, 
opposed  to  the  single  and  sole  reality,  was  expressed  by  the  Binary 
number.  It  expressed  also  that  state  of  contrariety  in  wrhich  nature 
exists,  where  everything  is  double ;  night  and  day,  light  and  dark- 
ness, cold  and  heat,  wet  and  dry,  health  and  sickness,  error 
and  truth,  one  and  the  other  sex,  etc.  Hence  the  Romans 
dedicated  the  second  month  in  the  year  to  Pluto,  the  God  of 
Hell,  and  the  second  day  of  that  month  to  the  manes  of  the 
dead. 

The  number  One,  with  the  Chinese,  signified  unity,  harmony, 
order,  the  Good  Principle,  or  God ;  Tivo,  disorder,  duplicity,  false- 
hood. That  people,  in  the  earliest  ages,  based  their  whole  philo- 
sophical system  on  the  two  primary  figures  or  lines,  one  straight 
and  unbroken,  and  the  other  broken  or  divided  into  two ;  doubling 
which,  by  placing  one  under  the  other,  and  trebling  by  placing 
three  under  each  other,  they  made  the  four  symbols  and  eight 
Koua;  which  referred  to  the  natural  elements,  and  the  primary 
principles  of  all  things,  and  served  symbolically  or  scientifically 
to  express  them.  Plato  terms  unity  and  duality  the  original  ele- 
ments of  nature,  and  first  principles  of  all  existence :  and  the 
oldest  sacred  book  of  the  Chinese  says :  "The  Great  First  Princi- 
ple has  produced  two  equations  and  differences,  or  primary  rules 
of  existence  ;  but  the  two  primary  rules  or  two  oppositions,  namely 
YN  and  YANG,  or  repose  and  motion,  have  produced  four  signs  or 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  63! 

symbols,  and  the  four  symbols  have  produced  the  eight  KOUA  or 
further  combinations." 

The  interpretation  of  the  Hermetic  fables  shows,  among  every 
ancient  people,  in  their  principal  gods,  first,  I,  the  Creating 
Monad,  then  3,  then  3  times  3,  3  times  9,  and  3  times  27.  This 
triple  progression  has  for  its  foundation  the  three  ages  of  Nature, 
the  Past,  the  Present,  and  the  Future ;  or  the  three  degrees  of  uni- 
versal generation.  .  .  Birth,  Life,  Death.  .  .  Beginning,  middle,  end. 

The  Monad  was  male,  because  its  action  produces  no  change  in 
itself,  but  only  out  of  itself.  It  represented  the  creative  principle. 

The  Duad,  for  a  contrary  reason,  was  female,  ever  changing  by 
addition,  subtraction,  or  multiplication.  It  represents  matter 
capable  of  form. 

The  union  of  the  Monad  and  Duad  produces  the  Triad,  signify- 
ing the  world  formed  by  the  creative  principle  out  of  matter. 
Pythagoras  represented  the  world  by  the  right-angled  triangle,  in 
which  the  squares  of  the  two  shortest  sides  are  equal,  added 
together,  to  the  square  of  the  longest  one  ;  as  the  world,  as  formed, 
is  equal  to  the  creative  cause,  and  matter  clothed  with  form. 

The  ternary  is  the  first  of  the  unequal  numbers.  The  Triad, 
mysterious  number,  which  plays  so  great  a  part  in  the  traditions 
of  Asia  and  the  philosophy  ef  Plato,  image  of  the  Supreme  Being, 
includes  in  itself  the  properties  of  the  first  two  numbers.  It 
was,  to  the  Philosophers,  the  most  excellent  and  favorite  number : 
a  mysterious  type,  revered  by  all  antiquity,  and  consecrated  in 
the  Mysteries ;  wherefore  there  are  but  three  essential  Degrees 
among  Masons ;  who  venerate,  in  the  triangle,  the  most  august 
mystery  .that  of  the  Sacred  Triad, object  of  their  homage  and  study. 

In  geometry,  a  line  cannot  represent  a  body  absolutely  perfect. 
As  little  do  two  lines  constitute  a  figure  demonstratively  perfect. 
But  three  lines  form,  by  their  junction,  the  TRIANGLE,  or  the  first 
figure  regularly  perfect ;  and  this  is  why  it  has  served  and  still 
serves  to  characterize  The  Eternal ;  Who,  infinitely  perfect  in  His 
nature,  is,  as  Universal  Creator,  the  first  Being,  and  consequently 
the  first  Perfection. 

The  Quadrangle  or  Square,  perfect  as  it  appears,  being  but  the 
second  perfection,  can  in  no  wise  represent  God;  Who  is  the  first. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  name  of  God  in  Latin  and  French 
(Deus,  Dieu),  has  for  its  initial  the  Delta  or  Greek  Triangle. 
Such  is  the  reason,  among  ancients  and  moderns,  for  the  conse- 


632  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

cration  of  the  Triangle,  whose  three  sides  are  emblems  of  the  three 
Kingdoms,  or  Nature,  or  God.  In  the  centre  is  the  Hebrew  JOD 
(initial  of  JTirp),  the  Animating  Spirit  of  Fire,  the  generative 
principle,  represented  by  the  letter  G.,  initial  of  the  name  of  Deity 
in  the  languages  of  the  North,  and  the  meaning  whereof  is 
Generation. 

The  first  side  of  the  Triangle,  offered  to  the  study  of  the 
Apprentice,  is  the  mineral  kingdom,  symbolized  by  Tub.'. 

The  second  side,  the  subject  of  the  meditations  of  the  Fellow 
Craft,  is  the  vegetable  kingdom,  symbolized  by  Schib.'.  (an  ear  of 
corn).  In  this  reign  begins  the  Generation  of  bodies;  and  this  is 
why  the  letter  G.,  in  its  radiance,  is  presented  to  the  eyes  of  the 
adept. 

The  third  side,  the  study  whereof  is  devoted  to  the  animal 
kingdom,  and  completes  the  instruction  of  the  Master,  is  symbol- 
ized by  Mach.'.  (Son  of  putrefaction). 

The  figure  3  symbolizes  the  Earth.  It  is  a  figure  of  the  ter- 
restrial bodies.  The  2,  upper  half  of  3,  symbolizes  the  vegetable 
world,  the  lower  half  being  hidden  from  our  sight. 

Three  also  referred  to  harmony,  friendship,  peace,  concord,  and 
temperance ;  and  was  so  highly  esteemed  among  the  Pythago- 
reans that  they  called  it  perfect  harmony. 

Three,  four,  ten,  and  twelve  were  sacred  numbers  among  the 
Etrurians,  as  they  were  among  the  Jews,  Egyptians,  .and  Hindus. 

The  name  of  Deity,  in  many  Nations,  consisted  of  three  letters  : 
among  theGreeks,  f.'.A. •.&.-.;  among  the  Persians,  H.'.O.'.M.'. ; 
among  the  Hindus,  AUM  ;  among  the  Scandinavians,  I.'.O.'.W.'. 
On  the  upright  Tablet  of  the  King,  discovered  at  Ximrotid,  no 
less  than  five  of  the  thirteen  names  of  the  Great  Gods  consist  of 
three  letters  each, — ANU,  SAN,  YAV,  BAR,  and  BEL. 

The  quaternary  is  the  most  perfect  number,  and  the  root  of 
other  numbers,  and  of  all  things.  The  tetrad  expresses  the  first 
mathematical  power.  Four  represents  also  the  generative  power, 
from  which  all  combinations  are  derived.  The  Initiates  considered 
it  the  emblem  of  Movement  and  the  Infinite,  representing  every- 
thing that  is  neither  corporeal  nor  sensible.  Pythagoras  communi- 
cated it  to  his  disciples  as  a  symbol  of  the  Eternal  and  Creative 
Principle,  under  the  name  of  Quaternary,  the  Ineffable  Name  of 
God,  which  signifies  Source  of  everything  that  has  received  exist- 
ence ;  and  which,  in  Hebrew,  is  composed  of  four  letters, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  633 

In  the  Quaternary  we  find  the  first  solid  figure,  the  universal 
symbol  of  immortality,  the  pyramid.  The  Gnostics  claimed  that 
the  whole  edifice  of  their  science  rested  on  a  square  whose  angles 
were  . . .  ^r3?)  Silence:  /to^or,  Profundity:  A'ooc,  Intelligence: 
and  Alrftzta,  Truth.  For  if  the  Triangle,  figured  by  the  number 
3,  forms  the  triangular  base  of  the  pyramid,  it  is  unity  which 
forms  its  point  or  summit. 

Lysias  and  Timseus  of  Locria  said  that  not  a  single  thing  could 
be  named,  which  did  not  depend  on  the  quaternary  as  its  root. 

There  is,  according  to  the  Pythagoreans,  a  connection  between 
the  gods  and  numbers,  which  constitutes  the  kind  of  Divination 
called  Arithmomancy.  The  soul  is  a  number :  it  is  moved  of 
itself :  it  contains  in  itself  the  quaternary  number. 

Matter  being  represented  by  the  number  9,  or  3  times  3,  and  the 
Immortal  Spirit  having  for  its  essential  hieroglyphic  the  quater- 
nary or  the  number  4,  the  Sages  said  that  Man,  having  gone  astray 
and  become  entangled  in  an  inextricable  labyrinth,  in  going  from 
four  to  nine,  the  only  way  which  he  could  take  to  emerge  from 
these  deceitful  paths,  these  disastrous  detours,  and  the  abyss  of  evil 
into  which  he  had  plunged,  was  to  retrace  his  steps,  and  go  from 
nine  to  four. 

The  ingenious  and  mystical  idea  which  caused  the  Triangle  to  be 
venerated,  was  applied  to  the  figure  4  (4).  It  was  said  that  it 
expressed  a  living  being,  I,  bearer  of  the  Triangle  A,  the  emblem 
of  God ;  i.  e.,  man  bearing  with  himself  a  Divine  principle. 

Four  was  a  divine  number ;  it  referred  to  the  Deity,  and  many 
Ancient  Nations  gave  God  a  name  of  four  letters ;  as  the  Hebrews 
"*"'',  the  Egyptians  AMUN,  the  Persians  SURA,  the  Greeks  6EQ2, 
and  the  Latins  DEUS.  This  was  the  Tetragrammaton  of  the 
Hebrews,  and  the  Pythagoreans  called  it  Tetractys,  and  swore 
their  most  solemn  oath  by  it.  So  too  ODIN  among  the  Scandi- 
navians, ZIIY2  among  the  Greeks,  PHTA  among  the  Egyptians. 
THOTH  among  the  Phoenicians,  and  AS-UR  and  NEBO  among  the 
Assyrians.  The  list  might  be  indefinitely  extended. 

The  number  5  was  considered  as  mysterious,  because  it  was 
compounded  of  the  Binary,  Symbol  of  the  False  and  Double,  and 
the  Ternary,  so  interesting  in  its  results.  It  thus  energetically 
expresses  the  state  of  imperfection,  of  order  and  disorder,  of  hap- 
piness and  misfortune,  of  life  and  death,  which  we  see  upon  the 
earth.  To  the  Mysterious  Societies  it  offered  the  fearful  image  of 


634  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  Bad  Principle,  bringing  trouble  into  the  inferior  order, — in  a 
word,  the  Binary  acting  in  the  Ternary. 

Under  another  aspect  it  was  the  emblem  of  marriage ;  because 
it  is  composed  of  2,  the  first  equal  number,  and  of  3,  the  first  une- 
qual number.  Wherefore  Juno,  the  Goddess  of  Marriage,  had  for 
her  hieroglyphic  the  number  5. 

Moreover,  it  has  one  of  the  properties  of  the  number  9,  that  of 
reproducing  itself,  when  multiplied  by  itself :  there  being  always 
a  5  on  the  right  hand  of  the  product ;  a  result  which  led  to  its  use 
as  a  symbol  of  material  changes. 

The  ancients  represented  the  world  by  the  number  5.  A  reason 
for  it,  given  by  Diodorus,  is,  that  it  represents  earth,  water,  air, 
fire,  and  ether  or  spirit.  Thence  the  origin  of  TTCVTC  (5)  and  I  an 
the  Universe,  as  the  whole. 

The  number  5  designated  the  universal  quintessence,  and  sym- 
bolized, by  its  form  ?,  the  vital  essence,  the  animating  spirit, 
which  flows  [serpentat]  through  all  nature.  In  fact,  this  ingeni- 
ous figure  is  the  union  of  the  two  Greek  accents  ' ' ,  placed  over 
those  vowels  which  ought  to  be  or  ought  not  to  be  aspirated.  The 
first  sign  c  bears  the  name  of  potent  spirit ;  and  signifies  the 
Superior  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  God  aspirated  (spiratns},  respired  by 
man.  The  second  sign  '  is  styled  mild  spirit,  and  represents  the 
secondary  spirit,  the  spirit  purely  human. 

The  triple  triangle,  a  figure  of  five  lines  uniting  in  five  points, 
was  among  the  Pythagoreans  an  emblem  of  Health. 

It  is  the  Pentalpha  of  Pythagoras,  or  Pentangle  of  Solomon: 
has  five  lines  and  five  angles  ;  and  is,  among  Masons,  the  outline  or 
origin  of  the  five-pointed  Star,  and  an  emblem  of  Fellowship. 

The  number  6  was,  in  the  Ancient  Mysteries,  a  striking  emblem 
of  nature ;  as  presenting  the  six  dimensions  of  all  bodies  ;  the  six 
lines  which  make  up  their  form,  viz.,  the  four  lines  of  direction, 
toward  the  North,  South,  East,  and  West ;  with  the  two  lines  of 
height  and  depth,  responding  to  the  zenith  and  nadir.  The  sages 
applied  the  senary  to  the  physical  man :  while  the  septenary  was, 
for  them,  the  symbol  of  his  immortal  spirit. 

The  hieroglyphical  senary  (the  double  equilateral  triangle)  is 
the  symbol  of  Deity. 

Six  is  also  an  emblem  of  health,  and  the  symbol  of  justice :  be- 
cause it  is  the  first  perfect  number :  that  is,  the  first  whose  aliquot 
parts  (1/2,  1/3,  1/6,  or  3,  2,  and  i),  added  together,  make  itself. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  635 

Ormuzd  created  six  good  spirits,  and  Ahriman  six  evil  ones. 
These  typify  the  six  Summer  and  the  six  Winter  months. 

No  number  has  ever  been  so  universally  in  repute  as  the  septen- 
ary. Its  celebrity  is  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  planets  being  seven  in 
number.  It  belongs  also  to  sacred  things.  The  Pythagoreans 
regarded  it  as  formed  of  the  numbers  3  and  4;  the  first  whereof 
was,  in  their  eyes,  the  image  of  the  three  material  elements,  and 
the  second  the  principle  of  everything  that  is  neither  corporeal 
nor  sensible.  It  presented  them,  from  that  point  of  view,  the  em- 
blem of  everything  that  is  perfect. 

Considered  as  composed  of  6  and  unity,  it  serves  to  designate 
the  invisible  centre  or  soul  of  everything ;  because  no  body  exists. 
of  which  six  lines  do  not  constitute  the  form,  nor  without  a  sev- 
enth interior  point,  as  the  centre  and  reality  of  the  body,  whereof 
the  external  dimensions  give  only  the  appearance. 

The  numerous  applications  of  the  septenary  confirmed  the  an- 
cient sages  in  the  use  of  this  symbol.  Moreover,  they  exalted  the 
properties  of  the  number  7,  as  having,  in  a  subordinate  manner, 
the  perfection  of  the  unit :  for  if  the  unit  is  uncreated,  if  no  num- 
ber produces  it,  the  seven  is  also  not  engendered  by  any  number 
contained  in  the  interval  between  i  and  10.  The  number  4  occu- 
pies an  arithmetical  middle-ground  between  the  unit  and  7,  inas- 
much as  it  is  as  much  over  i,  as  it  is  under  7,  the  difference  each 
way  being  3. 

The  number  7,  among  the  Egyptians,  symbolized  life ;  and  this  is 
why  the  letter  Z  of  the  Greeks  was  the  initial  of  the  verb  Zato^  I 
live  ;  and  Zeoz  (Jupiter),  Father  of  Life. 

The  number  8,  or  the  octary,  is  composed  of  the  sacred  num- 
bers 3  and  5.  Of  the  heavens,  of  the  seven  planets,  and  of  the 
sphere  of  the  fixed  stars,  or  of  the  eternal  unity  and  the  mysteri- 
ous number  7,  is  composed  the  ogdoade,  the  number  8,  the  first 
cube  of  equal  numbers,  regarded  as  sacred  in  the  arithmetical  phi- 
losophy. 

The  Gnostic  ogdoade  had  eight  stars,  which  represented  the 
eight  Cabiri  of  Samothrace,  the  eight  Egyptian  and  Phoenician 
principles,  the  eight  gods  of  Xenocrates,  the  eight  angles  of  the 
cubic  stone. 

The  number  eight  symbolizes  perfection :  and  its  figure,  8  or  oo 
indicates  the  perpetual  and  regular  course  of  the  Universe. 

It  is  the  first  cube  (2X2X2),  and  signifies  friendship,  pru- 


636  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

dence,  counsel,  and  justice.  It  was  a  symbol  of  the  primeval  law 
which  regarded  all  men  as  equal. 

The  novary,  or  triple  ternary.  If  the  number  three  was  cele- 
brated among  the  ancient  sages,  that  of  three  times  three  had  no 
less  celebrity;  because,  according  to  them,  each  of  the  three  ele- 
ments which  constitute  our  bodies  is  ternary :  the  water  contain- 
ing earth  and  fire;  the  earth  containing  igneous  and  aqueous 
particles ;  and  the  fire  being  tempered  by  globules  of  water  and 
terrestrial  corpuscles  which  serve  to  feed  it.  No  one  of  the  three 
elements  being  entirely  separated  from  the  others,  all  material  be- 
ings composed  of  these  three  elements,  whereof  each  is  triple,  may 
be  designated  by  the  figurative  number  of  three  times  three,  which 
has  become  the  symbol  of  all  formations  of  bodies.  Hence  the 
name  of  ninth  envelope,  given  to  matter.  Every  material  exten- 
sion, every  circular  line,  has  for  representative  sign  the  number 
nine,  among  the  Pythagoreans;  who  had  observed  the  property 
which  this  number  possesses,  of  reproducing  itself  incessantly  and 
entire,  in  every  multiplication ;  thus  offering  to  the  mind  a 
very  striking  emblem  of  matter  which  is  incessantly  composed 
before  our  eyes,  after  having  undergone  a  thousand  decomposi- 
tions. 

The  number  nine  was  consecrated  to  the  Spheres  and  the  Muses. 
It  is  the  sign  of  every  circumference ;  because  a  circle  of  360  de- 
grees is  equal  to  9,  that  is  to  say,  3  -\-  6  -f-  o  =  9.  Nevertheless, 
the  ancients  regarded  this  number  with  a  sort  of  terror :  they  con- 
sidered it  a  bad  presage ;  as  the  symbol  of  versatility,  of  change, 
and  the  emblem  of  the  frailty  of  human  affairs.  Wherefore  they 
avoided  all  numbers  where  nine  appears,  and  chiefly  81,  the  prod- 
uct of  9  multiplied  by  itself,  and  the  addition  whereof,  8  +  i, 
again  presents  the  number  9. 

As  the  figure  of  the  number  6  was  the  symbol  of  the  terrestrial 
globe,  animated  by  a  divine  spirit,  the  figure  of  the  number  9  sym- 
bolized the  earth,  under  the  influence  of  the  Evil  Principle ;  and 
thence  the  terror  it  inspired.  Nevertheless,  according  to  the  Kab- 
alists,  the  figure  9  symbolizes  the  generative  egg,  or  the  image  of 
a  little  globular  being,  from  whose  lower  side  seems  to  flow  its 
spirit  of  life. 

The  Ennead,  signifying  an  aggregate  of  9  things  or  persons,  is 
the  first  square  of  unequal  numbers. 

Every  one  is  aware  of  the  singular  properties  of  the  number  9, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  637 

which,  multiplied  by  itself  or  any  other  number  whatever,  gives  a 
result  whose  final  sum  is  always  9,  or  always  divisible  by  9. 

Nine,  multiplied  by  each  of  the  ordinary  numbers,  produces  an 
arithmetical  progression,  each  member  whereof,  composed  of  two 
figures,  presents  a  remarkable  fact ;  for  example : 

i. ..2. ..3. ..4. ..5. ..6. ..7. ..8. ..9. .10 
9. .18. .27. .36. .45. .54. .63. .72. .81. .90 

The  first  line  of  figures  gives  the  regular  series,  from  I  to  10. 

The  second  reproduces  this  line  doubly ;  first  ascending,  from 
the  first  figure  of  18,  and  then  returning  from  the  second  figure 
of  81. 

It  follows,  from  the  curious  fact,  that  the  half  of  the  numbers 
which  compose  this  progression  represents,  in  inverse  order,  the 
figures  of  the  second  half : 

9... 18.. 27.  .36.  .45  =  135  =  9.. am*  i  +  3  +  5  =  45  =  9 
90. .81 . .72. .63. .54  =  360  =  9. 


99    99    99    99    99      495  =  18  =  9. 
So  92=8i . .  .812=6561  =  18=9. .  .9X2—18. . .  i82=324=9. 
9X3=27-  ..272=729— 18=9.     9X4=36  .  ..362=1296=18=9. 

And  so  with  every  multiple  of  9 — say  45,  54,  63,  72,  etc. 
Thus  9  X  8  =  72. . .  722  =  5184  =  18  =  9. 
And  further : 

18  27  36  72 

18  27  36  72 


144        =  9         189  =18=9    216  =   9  144  =    9 

18          =9         54   =9  Io8    =•  9          504   =    9 


324  =  9...  18  =  9  729  =  18  =  9  1296  =  18  =  9  5184  =  18  =  9 
108 
1 08 


864  -~  1 8 
108     =  9 

11664=  J8  =  9. 


638  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

r 

And  so  the  cubes: 

27—729X729  =18=9  i82=324=9    92=8i  8i2=.. 6561  =  18=9 
729  324  6561 


6561  =18=9    1296—18—9        6561=18=9 

1458  =18=9    648  =18=9      39366  =27=9 

5103  =9      972  =18=9      32805  =18=9 

39366   =27=9 


531441  =18=9      104976=27=9         43,046,721=27=9. 

The  number  10,  or  the  Denary,  is  the  measure  of  everything; 
and  reduces  multiplied  numbers  to  unity.  Containing  all  the 
numerical  and  harmonic  relations,  and  all  the  properties  of  the 
numbers  which  precede  it,  it  concludes  the  Abacus  or  Table  of 
Pythagoras.  To  the  Mysterious  Societies,  this  number  typified 
the  assemblage  of  all  the  wonders  of  the  Universe.  They  wrote  it 
thus  #;  that  is  to  say,  Unity  in  the  middle  of  Zero,  as  the  centre 
of  a  circle,  or  symbol  of  Deity.  They  saw  in  this  figure  every- 
thing that  should  lead  to  reflection :  the  centre,  the  ray,  and  the 
circumference,  represented  to  them  God,  Man,  and  the  Universe. 

This  number  was,  among  the  Sages,  a  sign  of  concord,  love,  and 
peace.  To  Masons  it  is  a  sign  of  union  and  good  faith ;  because 
it  is  expressed  by  joining  two  hands,  or  the  Master's  grip,  when 
the  number  of  fingers  gives  10:  and  it  was  represented  by  the 
Tetractys  of  Pythagoras. 

The  number  12,  like  the  number  7,  is  celebrated  in  the  worship 
of  nature.  The  two  most  famous  divisions  of  the  heavens,  that 
by  7,  which  is  that  of  the  planets,  and  that  by  12,  which  is  that 
of  the  Signs  of  the  Zodiac,  are  found  upon  the  religious  monu- 
ments of  all  the  peoples  of  the  Ancient  World,  even  to  the  remote 
extremes  of  the  East.  Although  Pythagoras  does  not  speak  of 
the  number  12,  it  is  none  the  less  a  sacred  number.  It  is  the 
image  of  the  Zodiac ;  and  consequently  that  of  the  Sun,  which 
rules  over  it. 

Such  are  the  ancient  ideas  in  regard  to  those  numbers  which  so 
often  appear  in  Masonry ;  and  rightly  understood,  as  the  old  Sages 
understood  them,  they  contain  many  a  pregnant  lesson. 

Before  we  enter  upon  the  final  lesson  of  Masonic  Philosophy, 
we  will  delay  a  few  moments  to  repeat  to  you  the  Christian  inter- 
pretations of  the  Blue  Degrees. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  630 

In  the  First  Degree,  they  said,  there  are  three  symbols  to  be 
applied. 

ist.  Man,  after  the  fall,  was  left  naked  and  defenceless  against 
the  just  anger  of  the  Deity.  Prone  to  evil,  the  human  race  stag- 
gered blindly  onward  into  the  thick  darkness  of  unbelief,  bound 
fast  by  the  strong  cable-tow  of  the  natural  and  sinful  will. 
Moral  corruption  was  followed  by  physical  misery.  Want  and  des- 
titution invaded  the  earth.  War  and  Famine  and  Pestilence  filled" 
up  the  measure  of  evil,  and  over  the  sharp  flints  of  misfortune 
and  wretchedness  man  toiled  with  naked  and  bleeding  feet.  This 
condition  of  blindness,  destitution,  miser)',  and  bondage,  from 
which  to  save  the  world  the  Redeemer  came,  is  symbolized  by  the 
condition  of  the  candidate,  when  he  is  brought  up  for  the  first 
time  to  the  door  of  the  Lodge. 

2d.  Notwithstanding  the  death  of  the  Redeemer,  man  can  be 
saved  only  by  faith,  repentance,  and  reformation.  To  repent,  he 
must  feel  the  sharp  sting  of  conscience  and  remorse,  like  a  sword 
piercing  his  bosom.  His  confidence  in  his  guide,  whom  he  is  told 
to  follow  and  fear  no  danger ;  his  trust  in  God,  which  he  is  caused 
to  profess ;  and  the  point  of  the  sword  that  is  pressed  against  his 
naked  left  breast  over  the  heart,  are  symbolical  of  the  faith,  repent- 
ance and  reformation  necessary  to  bring  him  to  the  light  of  a 
life  in  Christ  the  Crucified. 

3d.  Having  repented  and  reformed,  and  bound  himself  to  the 
service  of  God  by  a  firm  promise  and  obligation,  the  light  of 
Christian  hope  shines  down  into  the  darkness  of  the  heart  of  the 
humble  penitent,  and  blazes  upon  his  pathway  to  Heaven.  And 
this  is  symbolized  by  the  candidate's  being  brought  to  light,  after 
he  is  obligated,  by  the  Worshipful  Master,  who  in  that  is  a  symbol 
of  the  Redeemer,  and  so  brings  him  to  light,  with  the  help  of 
the  brethren,  as  He  taught  the  Word  with  the  aid  of  the  Apos- 
tles. 

In  the  Second  Degree  there  are  two  symbols : 

4th.  The  Christian  assumes  new  duties  toward  God  and  his 
fellows.  To\vard  God,  of  love,  gratitude,  and  veneration,  and  an 
anxious  desire  to  serve  and  glorify  Him  :  toward  his  fellows,  of 
kindness,  sympathy,  and  justice.  And  this  assumption  of  duty, 
this  entering  upon  good  works,  is  symbolized  by  the  Fellow-Craft's 
obligation ;  by  which,  bound  as  an  apprentice  to  secrecy  merely, 
and  set  in  the  Northeast  corner  of  the  Lodge,  he  descends  as 


640  MORALS  AND  DOOM  A. 

a  Fellow-Craft  into  the  body  of  the  brethren,  and  assumes  the 
active  duties  of  a  good  Mason. 

5th.  The  Christian,  reconciled  to  God,  sees  the  world  in  a  new 
light.  This  great  Universe  is  no  longer  a  mere  machine,  wound 
up  and  set  going  six  thousand  or  sixty  million  years  ago,  and  left 
to  run  on  afterward  forever,  by  virtue  of  a  law  of  mechanics  cre- 
ated at  the  beginning,  without  further  care  or  consideration  on 
the  part  of  the  Deity ;  but  it  has  now  become  to  him  a  great  ema- 
nation from  God,  the  product  of  His  thought,  not  a  mere  dead 
machine,  but  a  thing  of  life,  over  which  God  watches  continually, 
and  every  movement  of  which  is  immediately  produced  by  His 
present  action,  the  law  of  harmony  being  the  essence  of  the  Deity, 
re-enacted  every  instant.  And  this  is  symbolized  by  the  imper- 
fect instruction  given  in  the  Fellow-Craft's  Degree,  in  the  sciences, 
and  particularly  geometry,  connected  as  the  latter  is  with  God 
Himself  in  the  mind  of  a  Mason,  because  the  same  letter,  suspend- 
ed in  the  East,  represents  both ;  and  astronomy,  or  the  knowledge 
of  the  laws  of  motion  and  harmony  that  govern  the  spheres,  is  but 
a  portion  of  the  wider  science  of  geometry.  It  is  so  symbolized, 
because  it  is  here,  in  the  Second  Degree,  that  the  candidate  first 
receives  an  other  than  moral  instruction. 

There  are  also  two  symbols  in  the  Third  Degree,  which,  with 
the  3  in  the  first,  and  2  in  the  second,  make  the  7. 

6th.  The  candidate,  after  passing  through  the  first  part  of  the 
ceremony,  imagines  himself  a  Master ;  and  is  surprised  to  be  in- 
formed that  as  yet  he  is  not,  and  that  it  is  uncertain  whether  he 
ever  will  be.  He  is  told  of  a  difficult  and  dangerous  path  yet  to 
be  travelled,  and  is  advised  that  upon  that  journey  it  depends 
whether  he  will  become  a  Master.  This  is  symbolical  of  that 
which  our  Saviour  said  to  Nicodemus,  that,  notwithstanding  his 
morals  might  be  beyond  reproach,  he  could  not  enter  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  unless  he  were  born  again ;  symbolically  dying,  and 
again  entering  the  world  regenerate,  like  a  spotless  infant. 

7th.  The  murder  of  Hiram,  his  burial,  and  his  being  raised 
again  by  the  Master,  are  symbols,  both  of  the  death,  burial,  and 
resurrection  of  the  Redeemer ;  and  of  the  death  and  burial  in 
sins  of  the  natural  man,  and  his  being  raised  again  to  a  new  life, 
or  born  again,  by  the  direct  action  of  the  Redeemer ;  after  Moral- 
ity (symbolized  by  the  Entered  Apprentice's  grip),  and  Philosophy 
(symbolized  by  the  grip  of  the  Fellow-Craft),  had  failed  to  raise 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  64! 

him.  That  of  the  Lion  of  the  House  of  Juclah  is  the  strong  grip, 
never  to  be  broken,  with  which  Christ,  of  the  royal  line  of  that 
House,  has  clasped  to  Himself  the  whole  human  race,  and  embra- 
ces them  in  His  wide  arms  as  closely  and  affectionately  as  breth- 
ren embrace  each  other  on  the  five  points  of  fellowship. 

As  Entered  Apprentices  and  Fellow-Crafts,  Masons  are  taught 
to  imitate  the  laudable  example  of  those  Masons  who  labored  at 
the  building  of  King  Solomon's  Temple ;  and  to  plant  firmly  and 
deep  in  their  hearts  those  foundation-stones  of  principle,  truth, 
justice,  temperance,  fortitude,  prudence,  and  charity,  on  which  to 
erect  that  Christian  character  which  all  the  storms  of  misfortune 
and  all  the  powers  and  temptations  of  Hell  shall  not  prevail 
against ;  those  feelings  and  noble  affections  which  are  the  most 
proper  homage  that  can  be  paid  to  the  Grand  Architect  and  Great 
Father  of  the  Universe,  and  which  make  the  heart  a  living  temple 
builded  to  Him :  when  the  unruly  passions  are  made  to  submit  to 
rule  and  measurement,  and  their  excesses  are  struck  off  with  the 
gavel  of  self-restraint ;  and  when  every  action  and  every  principle 
is  accurately  corrected  and  adjusted  by  the  square  of  wisdom,  the 
level  of  humility,  and  the  plumb  of  justice. 

The  two  columns,  Jachin  and  Boaz,  are  the  symbols  of  that 
profound  faith  and  implicit  trust  in  God  and  the  Redeemer  that 
are  the  Christian's  strength ;  and  of  those  good  works  by  which 
alone  that  faith  can  be  established  and  made  operative  and  effectual 
to  salvation. 

The  three  pillars  that  support  the  Lodge  are  symbols  of  a 
Christian's  HOPE  in  a  future  state  of  happiness ;  FAITH  in  the 
promises  and  the  divine  character  and  mission  of  the  Redeemer; 
and  CHARITABLE  JUDGMENT  of  other  men. 

The  three  murderers  of  Khir-Om  symbolize  Pontius  Pilate, 
Caiaphas  the  High-Priest,  and  Judas  Iscariot :  and  the  three  blows 
give'i  him  are  the  betrayal  by  the  last,  the  refusal  of  Roman  pro- 
tection by  Pilate,  and  the  condemnation  by  the  High-Priest. 
They  also  symbolize  the  blow  on  the  ear,  the  scourging,  and  the 
crown  of  thorns.  The  twelve  fellow-crafts  sent  in  search  of  the 
body  are  the  twelve  disciples,  in  doubt  whether  to  believe  th?.t  the 
Redeemer  would  rise  from  the  dead. 

The  Master's  word, supposed  to  be  lost,  symbolizes  the  Christian 
faith  and  religion,  supposed  to  have  been  crushed  and  destroyed 
when  the  Saviour  was  crucified,  after  Iscariot  had  betrayed  Him, 


642  MORALS   AND  DOGMA, 

and  Peter  deserted  Him,  and  when  the  other  disciples  doubted 
whether  He  would  arise  from  the  dead ;  but  which  rose  from  His 
tomb  and  flowed  rapidly  over  the  civilized  world ;  and  so  that 
which  was  supposed  to  be  lost  was  found.  It  symbolizes  also  the 
Saviour  Himself ;  the  WORD  that  was  in  the  beginning — that  was 
with  God,  and  that  was  God ;  the  Word  of  life,  that  was  made 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  was  supposed  to  be  lost,  while  He 
lay  in  the  tomb,  for  three  days,  and  His  disciples  "as  yet  knew  not 
the  scripture  that  He  must  rise  again  from  the  dead,"  and  doubt- 
ed when  they  heard  of  it,  and  were  amazed  and  frightened  and 
still  doubted  when  He  appeared  among  them. 

The  bush  of  acacia  placed  at  the  head  of  the  grave  of  Khir-Om 
is  an  emblem  of  resurrection  and  immortality. 

Such  are  the  explanations  of  our  Christian  brethren ;  entitled, 
like  those  of  all  other  Masons,  to  a  respectful  consideration. 

CLOSING  INSTRUCTION. 

There  is  no  pretence  to  infallibility  in  Masonry.  It  is  not  for 
us  to  dictate  to  any  man  what  he  shall  believe.  We  have  hitherto, 
in  the  instruction  of  the  several  Degrees,  confined  ourselves  to 
laying  before  you  the  great  thoughts  that  have  found  expression 
in  the  different  ages  of  the  world,  leaving  you  to  decide  for  your- 
self as  to  the  orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy  of  each,  and  what  propor- 
tion of  truth,  if  any,  each  contained.  We  shall  pursue  no  other 
course  in  this  closing  Philosophical  instruction ;  in  which  we 
propose  to  deal  with  the  highest  questions  that  have  ever  exercised 
the  human  mind, — with  the  existence  and  the  nature  of  a  God, 
with  the  existence  and  the  nature  of  the  human  soul,  and  with  the 
relations  of  the  divine  and  human  spirit  with  the  merely  material 
Universe.  There  can  be  no  questions  more  important  to  an  intel- 
ligent being,  none  that  have  for  him  a  more  direct  and  personal 
interest ;  and  to  this  last  word  of  Scottish  Masonry  we  invite  your 
serious  and  attentive  consideration.  And,  as  what  we  shall  now 
say  will  be  but  the  completion  and  rounding-off  of  what  we  have 
already  said  in  several  of  the  preceding  Degrees,  in  regard  to  the 
Old  Thought  and  the  Ancient  Philosophies,  we  hope  that  you 
have  noted  and  not  forgotten  our  previous  lessons,  without  which 
this  would  seem  imperfect  and  fragmentary. 

In  its  idea  of  rewarding  a  faithful  and  intelligent  workman  by 
conferring  upon  him  a  knowledge  of  the  True  Word,  Masonry 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  643 

has  perpetuated  a  very  great  truth,  because  it  involves  the 
proposition  that  the  idea  which  a  man  forms  of  God  is  always  the 
most  important  element  in  his  speculative  theory  of  the  Universe, 
and  in  his  particular  practical  plan  of  action  for  the  Church,  the 
State,  the  Community,  the  Family,  and  his  own  individual  life. 
It  will  ever  make  a  vast  difference  in  the  conduct  of  a  people  in 
war  or  peace,  whether  they  believe  the  Supreme  God  to  be  a  cruel 
Deity,  delighting  in  sacrifice  and  blood,  or  a  God  of  Love ;  and  an 
individual's  speculative  theory  as  to  the  mode  and  extent  of  God's 
government,  and  as  to  the  nature  and  reality  of  his  own  free-will 
and  consequent  responsibility,  will  needs  have  great  influence  in 
shaping  the  course  of  his  life  and  conversation. 

We  see  every  day  the  vast  influence  of  the  popular  idea  of  God. 
All  the  great  historical  civilizations  of  the  race  have  grown  out 
of  the  national  ideas  which  were  formed  of  God;  or  have  been 
intimately  connected  with  those  ideas.  The  popular  Theology, 
which  at  first  is  only  an  abstract  idea  in  the  heads  of  philosophers, 
by  and  by  shows  itself  in  the  laws,  and  in  the  punishments  for 
crime,  in  the  churches,  the  ceremonies  and  the  sacraments,  the 
festivals  and  the  fasts,  the  weddings,  the  baptisms  and  the 
funerals,  in  the  hospitals,  the  colleges,  the  schools,  and  all  the 
social  charities,  in  the  relations  of  husband  and  wife,  parent  and 
child,  in  the  daily  work  and  the  daily  prayer  of  every  man. 

•As  the  world  grows  in  its  development,  it  necessarily  outgrows 
its  ancient  ideas  of  God,  which  were  only  temporary  and  pro- 
visional. A  man  who  has  a  higher  conception  of  God  than  those 
about  him,  and  who  denies  that  their  conception  is  God,  is  very 
likely  to  be  called  an  Atheist  by  men  who  are  really  far  less 
believers  in  a  God  than  he.  Thus  the  Christians,  who  said  the 
Heathen  idols  were  no  Gods,  were  accounted  Atheists  by  the 
People,  and  accordingly  put  to  death ;  and  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  crucified  as  an  unbelieving  blasphemer,  by  the  Jews. 

There  is  a  mere  formal  Atheism,  which  is  a  denial  of  God  in 
terms,  but  not  in  reality.  A  man  says,  There  is  no  God :  that  is, 
no  God  that  is  self-originated,  or  that  never  originated,  but  always 
WAS  and  HAD  BEEN,  who  is  the  cause  of  existence,  who  is  the 
Mind  and  the  Providence  of  the  Universe :  and  so  the  order, 
beauty,  and  harmony  of  the  world  of  matter  and  mind  do  not 
indicate  any  plan  or  purpose  of  Deity.  But,  he  says.  NATURE.— 
meaning  by  that  the  whole  sum-total  of  existence, — that  is  power- 


644  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

ful;  active,  \visc,  and  good;  Nature  is  self-originated,  or  always 
was  and  had  been,  the  cause  of  its  own  existence,  the  mind  of 
the  Universe  and  the  Providence  of  itself.  There  is  obviously  a 
plan  and  purpose  whereby  order,  beauty,  and  harmony  are  brought 
about ;  but  all  that  is  the  plan  and  purpose  of  nature. 

In  such  cases,  the  absolute  denial  of  God  is  only  formal  and 
not  real.  The  qualities  of  God  are  admitted,  and  affirmed  to  be 
real;  and  it  is  a  mere  change  of  name  to  call  the  possessor  of 
those  qualities,  Nature,  and  not  God.  The  real  question  is, 
whether  such  Qualities  exist,  as  we  call  God ;  and  not,  by  what 
particular  name  we  shall  designate  the  Qualities.  One  man  may 
call  the  sum  total  of  these  Qualities,  Nature ;  another,  Heaven ;  a 
third,  Universe ;  a  fourth,  Matter ;  a  fifth,  Spirit ;  a  sixth,  God, 
Theos,  Zeus,  Alfadir,  Allah,  or  what  he  pleases.  All  admit  the 
existence  of  the  Being,  Power,  or  ENS,  thus  diversely  named.  The 
name  is  of  the  smallest  consequence. 

Real  Atheism  is  the  denial  of  the  existence  of  any  God,  of  the 
actuality  of  all  possible  ideas  of  God.  It  denies  that  there  is  any 
Mind,  Intelligence,  or  ENS,  that  is  the  Cause  and  Providence  of 
the  Universe,  and  of  any  Thing  or  any  Existence,  Soul,  Spirit,  or 
Being,  that  intentionally  or  intelligently  produces  the  Order, 
Beauty,  and  Harmony  thereof,  and  the  constant  and  regular 
modes  of  operation  therein.  It  must  necessarily  deny  that  there 
is  any  law,  order,  or  harmony  in  existence,  or  any  constant  mode 
of  operation  in  the  world ;  for  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  any 
human  creature  to  conceive,  however  much  he  may  pretend  to  do 
so,  of  either  of  these,  except  as  a  consequence  of  the  action  of 
Intelligence ;  which  is,  indeed,  that  otherwise  unknown  thing, 
the  existence  of  which  these  alone  prove ;  otherwise  than  as  the 
cause  of  these,  not  a  thing  at  all ;  a  mere  name  for  the  wholly 
uncognizable  cause  of  these. 

The  real  atheist  must  deny  the  existence  of  the  Qualities  of  God, 
deny  that  there  is  any  mind  of  or  in  the  Universe,  any  self-con- 
scious Providence,  any  Providence  at  all.  He  must  deny  that 
there  is  any  Being  or  Cause  of  Finite  things, that  is  self-consciously 
powerful,  wise,  just,  loving,  and  faithful  to  itself  and  its  own 
nature.  He  must  deny  that  there  is  any  plan  in  the  Universe  or 
any  part  of  it.  He  must  hold,  either  that  matter  is  eternal,  or  that 
it  originated  itself,  which  is  absurd,  or  that  it  was  originated  by 
an  Intelligence,  or  at  least  by  a  Cause ;  and  then  he  admits  a  God. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  645 

No  doubt  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of  our  faculties  to  imagine  how 
matter  originated, — how  it  began  to  be,  in  space  where  before  was 
nothing,  or  God  only.  But  it  is  equally  beyond  the  reach  of  our 
faculties  to  imagine  it  eternal  and  tmoriginated.  To  hold  it  to  be 
eternal,  without  thought  or  will ;  that  the  specific  forms  of  it, 
the  seed,  the  rock,  the  tree,  the  man,  the  solar  system,  all  came 
with  no  forethought  planning  or  producing  them,  by  "chance"  or 
"the  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms"  of  matter  that  has  no  thought 
or  will ;  and  that  they  indicate  no  mind,  no  plan,  no  purpose,  no 
providence,  is  absurd.  It  is  not  to  deny  the  existence  of  what  we 
understand  by  mind,  plan,  purpose,  Providence ;  but  to  insist 
that  these  words  shall  have  some  other  meaning  than  that  which 
the  human  race  has  ever  attached  to  them :  shall  mean  some 
unknown  thing,  for  which  the  human  race  has  no  name,  because 
it  has  of  such  a  thing  no  possible  idea.  Either  there  never  was 
any  such  thing  as  a  "plan,"  and  the  word  is  nonsense,  or  the 
Universe  exists  in  conformity  to  a  plan.  The  word  never  meant, 
and  never  can  mean,  any  other  thing  than  that  which  the  Uni- 
verse exhibits.  So  with  the  word  "purpose;"  so  with  the  word 
"Providence."  They  mean  nothing,  or  else  only  what  the  Uni- 
verse proves. 

It  was  soon  found  that  the  denial  of  a  Conscious  Power,  the 
cause  of  man  and  of  his  life,  of  a  Providence,  or  a  Mind  and 
Intelligence  arranging  man  in  reference  to  the  world,  and  the 
world  in  reference  to  man,  would  not  satisfy  the  instinctive  desires 
of  human  nature,  or  account  for  the  facts  of  material  nature.  It 
did  not  long  answer  to  r?.y,  if  it  ever  ^vas  said,  that  the  Universe 
was  drifting  in  the  void  inane,  and  neither  it,  nor  any  mind  within 
or  without  it,  knew  of  its  whence,  its  whither,  or  its  whereabouts ; 
that  man  was  drifting  in  the  Universe,  knowing  little  of  his  where- 
abouts, nothing  of  his  whence  or  whither;  that  there  was  no 
Mind,  no  Providence,  no  Power,  that  knew  any  better;  nothing 
that  guided  and  directed  man  in  his  drifting,  or  the  Universe  in 
the  weltering  waste  of  Time.  To  say  to  man  and  woman,  "your 
heroism,  your  bravery,  your  self-denial  all  comes  to  nothing :  your 
nobleness  will  do  you  no  good :  you  will  die,  and  your  nobleness 
will  do  mankind  no  service ;  for  there  is  no  plan  or  order  in  all 
these  things ;  everything  comes  and  goes  by  the  fortuitous  con- 
course of  atoms;"  did  not,  nor  ever  will,  long  satisfy  the  human 
mind. 
42 


646  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

True,  the  theory  of  Atheism  has  been  uttered.  It  has  been  said, 
"Death  is  the  end :  this  is  a  world  without  a  God :  you  are  a  body 
without  a  soul :  there  is  a  Here,  but  no  Hereafter  for  you ;  an 
Earth,  but  no  Heaven.  Die,  and  return  to  your  dust.  Man  is 
bones,  blood,  bowels,  and  brain ;  mind  is  matter :  there  is  no  soul 
in  the  brain,  nothing  but  nerves.  We  can  see  all  the  way  to  a 
little  star  in  the  nebula  of  Orion's  belt ;  so  distant  that  it  will  take 
light  a  thousand  millions  of  years  to  come  from  it  to  the  earth, 
journeying  at  the  rate  of  twelve  millions  of  miles  a  minute. 
There  is  no  Heaven  this  side  of  that :  you  see  all  the  way  through : 
there  is  not  a  speck  of  Heaven ;  and  do  you  think  there  is  any 
beyond  it ;  and  if  so,  when  would  you  reach  it  ?  There  is  no 
Providence.  Nature  is  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms ;  thought 
is  a  fortuitous  function  of  matter,  a  fortuitous  result  of  a  for- 
tuitous result,  a  chance-shot  from  the  great  wind-gun  of  the  Uni- 
verse, accidentally  loaded,  pointed  at  random,  and  fired  off  by 
chance.  Things  happen;  they  are  not  arranged.  There  is  luck, 
and  there  is  ill-luck ;  but  there  is  no  Providence.  Die  you  into 
dust!"  Does  all  this  satisfy  the  human  instinct  of  immortality, 
that  makes  us  ever  long,  with  unutterable  longing,  to  join  our- 
selves again  to  our  dear  ones  who  'have  gone  away  before  us,  and 
to  mankind,  for  eternal  life?  Does  it  satisfy  our  mighty  hunger- 
ing and  thirst  for  immortality,  our  anxious  longing  to  come 
nearer  to,  and  to  know  more  of,  the  Eternal  Cause  of  all  things  ? 

Men  never  could  be  content  to  believe  that  there  was  no  mind 
that  thought  for  man,  no  conscience  to  enact  eternal  laws,  no  heart 
to  love  those  whom  nothing  of  earth  loves  or  cares  for,  no  will  of 
the  Universe  to  marshal  the  nations  in  the  way  of  wisdom,  justice, 
ancl  love.  History  is  not, — thank  God !  we  know  it  is  not, — the 
fortuitous  concourse  of  events,  or  Nature  that  of  atoms.  We  can- 
not believe  that  there  is  no  plan  nor  purpose  in  Nature,  to  guide 
our  going  out  and  coming  in :  that  there  is  a  mighty  going,  but  it 
goes  nowhere ;  that  all  beauty,  wisdom,  affection,  justice,  morality 
in  the  world,  is  an  accident,  and  may  end  to-morrow. 

All  over  the  world  there  is  heroism  unrequited,  or  paid  with 
misery ;  vice  on  thrones,  corruption  in  high  places,  nobleness  in 
poverty  or  even  in  chains,  the  gentle  devotion  of  woman  rewarded 
by  brutal  neglect  or  more  brutal  abuse  and  violence ;  everywhere 
want,  misery,  over-work,  and  under-wages.  Add  to  these  the 
Atheist's  creed, — a  body  without  a  soul,  an  earth  without  a 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  647 

Heaven,  a  world  without  a  God ;  and  what  a  Pandemonium  would 
we  make  of  this  world ! 

The  intellect  of  the  Atheist  would  find  matter  everywhere ;  but 
no  Causing  and  Providing  Mind :  his  moral  sense  would  find  no 
Equitable  Will,  no  Beauty  of  Moral  Excellence,  no  Conscience 
enacting  justice  into  the  unchanging  law  of  right,  no  spiritual 
Order  or  spiritual  Providence,  but  only  material  Fate  and  Chance. 
His  affections  would  find  only  finite  things  to  love ;  and  to  them 
the  dead  who  were  loved  and  who  died  yesterday,  are  like  the 
rainbow  that  yesterday  evening  lived  a  moment  and  then  passed 
'away.  His  soul,  flying  through  the  vast  Inane,  and  feeling  the 
darkness  with  its  wings,  seeking  the  Soul  of  all,  which  at  once  is 
Reason,  Conscience,  and  the  Heart  of  all  that  is,  would  find  no 
God,  but  a  Universe  all  disorder ;  no  Infinite,  no  Reason,  no  Con- 
science, no  Heart,  no  Soul  of  things ;  nothing  to  reverence,  to 
esteem,  to  love,  to  worship,  to  trust  in;  but  only  an  Ugly  Force, 
alien  and  foreign  to  us,  that  strikes  down  those  we  love,  and 
makes  us  mere  worms  on  the  hot  sand  of  the  world.  No  voice 
would  speak  from  the  Earth  to  comfort  him.  It  is  a  cruel  mother, 
that  great  Earth,  that  devours  her  young, — a  Force  and  nothing 
more.  Out  of  the  sky  would  smile  no  kind  Providence,  in  all  its 
thousand  starry  eyes ;  and  in  storms  a  malignant  violence,  with 
its  lightning-sword,  would  stab  into  the  darkness,  seeking  for  men 
to  murder. 

No  man  ever  was  or  ever  can  be  content  with  that.  The  evi- 
dence of  God  has  been  ploughed  into  Nature  so  deeply,  and  so 
deeply  woven  into  the  texture  of  the  human  soul,  that  Atheism 
has  never  become  a  faith,  though  it  has  sometimes  assumed  the 
shape  of  theory.  Religion  is  natural  to  man.  Instinctively  he 
turns  to  God  and  reverences  and  relies  on  Him.  In  the  Mathe- 
matics of  the  Heavens,  written  in  gorgeous  diagrams  of  fire,  he 
sees  law,  order,  beauty,  harmony  without  end :  in  the  ethics  of  the 
little  nations  that  inhabit  the  ant-hills  he  sees  the  same;  in  all 
Nature,  animate  and  inanimate,  he  sees  the  evidences  of  a  Design, 
a  Will,  an  Intelligence,  and  a  God, — of  a  God  beneficent  and  loving 
as  well  as  wise,  and  merciful  and  indulgent  as  well  as  powerful. 

To  man,  surrounded  by  the  material  Universe,  and  conscious  of 
the  influence  that  his  material  environnv'.ts  exercised  upon  his 
fortunes  and  his  present  destiny ; — to  man,  ever  confronted  with 
the  splendors  of  the  starry  heavens,  the  regular  march  of  the 


648  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

seasons,  the  phenomena  of  sunrise  and  moonrise,  and  all  the 
evidences  of  intelligence  and  design  that  everywhere  pressed 
upon  and  overwhelmed  him,  all  imaginable  questions  as  to  the 
nature  and  cause  of  these  phenomena  constantly  recurred,  de- 
manding to  be  solved,  and  refusing  to  be  sent  away  unanswered. 
And  still,  after  the  lapse  of  ages,  press  upon  the  human  mind 
and  demand  solution,  the  same  great  questions — perhaps  still  de- 
manding it  in  vain. 

Advancing  to  the  period  when  man  had  ceased  to  look  upon  the 
separate  parts  and  individual  forces  of  the  Universe  as  gods, — 
when  he  had  come  to  look  upon  it  as  a  whole,  this  question,  among 
the  earliest,  occurred  to  him,  and  insisted  on  being  answered: 
"Is  this  material  Universe  self-existent,  or  was  it  created?  Is  it 
eternal,  or  did  it  originate  ?" 

And  then  in  succession  came  crowding  on  the  human  mind 
these  other  questions : 

"Is  this  material  Universe  a  mere  aggregate  of  fortuitous  com- 
binations of  matter,  or  is  it  the  result  and  work  of  intelligence, 
acting  upon  a  plan  ? 

"If  there  be  such  an  Intelligence,  what  and  where  is  it?  Is  the 
material  Universe  itself  an  Intelligent  being?  Is  it  like  man,  a 
body  and  a  soul  ?  Does  Nature  act  upon  itself,  or  is  there  a  Cause 
beyond  it  that  acts  upon  it  ? 

"If  there  is  a  personal  God,  separate  from  the  material  Universe, 
that  created  all  things,  Himself  uncreated,  is  He  corporeal  or  in- 
corporeal, material  or  spiritual,  the  soul  of  the  Universe  or  wholly 
apart  from  it  ?  and  if  He  be  Spirit,  what  then  is  spirit  ? 

"Was  that  Supreme  Deity  active  or  quiescent  before  the  crea- 
tion ;  and  if  quiescent  during  a  previous  eternity,  what  necessity 
of  His  nature  moved  Him  at  last  to  create  a  world;  or  was  it  a 
mere  whim  that  had  no  motive  ? 

"Was  matter  co-existent  with  Him,  or  absolutely  created  by 
him  out  of  nothing?  Did  He  create  it,  or  only  mould  and  shape 
and  fashion  a  chaos  already  existing,  co-existent  with  Himself? 

"Did  the  Deity  directly  create  matter,  or  was  creation  the  work 
of  inferior  deities,  emanations  from  Himself? 

"If  He  be  good  and  just,  whence  comes  it  that,  foreknowing 
everything,  He  has  allowed  sorrow  and  evil  to  exist ;  and  how  to 
reconcile  with  His  benevolence  and  wisdom  the  prosperity  of  vice 
and  the  misfortunes  of  virtue  in  this  world  ?" 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  649 

And  then,  as  to  man  himself,  recurred  these  other  questions,  as 
they  continue  to  recur  to  all  of  us : 

"What  is  it  in  us  that  thinks?  Is  Thought  the  mere  result  of 
material  organization ;  or  is  there  in  us  a  soul  that  thinks,  separate 
from  and  resident  in  the  body?  If  the  latter,  is  it  eternal  and 
uncreated;  and  if  not,  how  created?  Is  it  distinct  from  God,  or 
an  emanation  from  Him?  Is  it  inherently  immortal,  or  only  so 
by  destination,  because  God  has  willed  it?  Is  it  to  return  to  and 
be  merged  in  Him,  or  ever  to  exist,  separately  from  Him,  with  its 
present  identity  ? 

"If  God  has  fore-seen  and  fore-arranged  all  that  occurs,  how  has 
man  any  real  free-will,  or  the  least  control  over  circumstances? 
How  can  anything  be  done  against  the  will  of  Infinite  Omnipo- 
tence ;  and  if  all  is  done  according  to  that  will,  how  is  there  any 
wrong  or  evil,  in  what  Infinite  Wisdom  and  Infinite  Power  does 
not  choose  to  prevent  ? 

"What  is  the  foundation  of  the  moral  law  ?  Did  God  enact  it  of 
His  own  mere  pleasure ;  and  if  so,  can  He  not,  when  He  pleases, 
repeal  it?  Who  shall  assure  us  He  will  not  repeal  it,  and  make 
right  wrong,  and  virtue  vice  ?  Or  is  the  moral  law  a  necessity  of 
His  nature ;  and  if  so,  who  enacted  it ;  and  does  not  that  assert  a 
power,  like  the  old  Necessity,  superior  to  Deity?" 

And,  close-following  after  these,  came  the  great  question  of 
HEREAFTER,  of  another  Life,  of  the  soul's  Destiny;  and  the 
thousand  other  collateral  and  subordinate  questions,  as  to  matter, 
spirit,  futurity,  and  God,  that  have  produced  all  the  systems  of 
philosophy,  all  metaphysics,  and  all  theology,  since  the  world 
began. 

What  the  old  philosophic  mind  thought  upon  these  great  ques- 
tions, we  have  already,  to  some  extent,  developed.  With  the 
Emanation-doctrine  of  the  Gnostics  and  the  Orient,  we  hav2 
endeavored  to  make  you  familiar.  We  have  brought  you  face 
to  face  with  the  Kabalists,  the  Essenes,  and  Philo  the  Jew.  We 
have  shown  that,  and  how,  much  of  the  old  mythology  was 
derived  from  the  daily  and  yearly  recurring  phenomena  of  the 
heavens.  \Ve  have  exhibited  to  you  the  ancient  notions  by 
which  they  endeavored  to  explain  to  themselves  the  existence 
and  prevalence  of  evil ;  and  we  have  in  some  degree  made  known 
to  you  their  metaphysical  ideas  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Deity. 
Much  more  remains  to  be  done  than  it  is  within  our  power  to  do. 


650  MORALS  AND  DOGMA, 

We  stand  upon  the  sounding  shore  of  the  great  ocean  of  Time. 
In  front  of  us  stretches  out  the  heaving  waste  of  the  illimitable 
Past ;  and  its  waves,  as  they  roll  up  to  our  feet  along  the  spark- 
ling slope  of  the  yellow  sands,  bring  to  us,  now  and  then,  from 
the  depths  of  that  boundless  ocean,  a  shell,  a  few  specimens  of 
algae  torn  rudely  from  their  stems,  a  rounded  pebble ;  and  that  is 
all ;  of  all  the  vast  treasures  of  ancient  thought  that  lie  buried 
there,  with  the  mighty  anthem  of  the  boundless  ocean  thundering 
over  them  forever  and  forever. 

Let  us  once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  along  the  shore  of  that 
great  ocean,  gather  a  few  more  relics  of  the  Past,  and  listen  to  its 
mighty  voices,  as  they  come,  in  fragmentary  music,  in  broken  and 
interrupted  rhythm,  whispering  to  us  from  the  great  bosom  of  the 
Past. 

Rites,  creeds,  and  legends  express,  directly  or  symbolically,  some 
leading  idea,  according  to  which  the  Mysteries  of  Being  are  sup- 
posed to  be  explained  in  Deity.  The  intricacies  of  mythical 
genealogies  are  a  practical  acknowledgment  of  the  mysterious 
nature  of  the  Omnipotent  Deity;  displaying  in  their  beautiful 
but  ineffectual  imagery  the  first  efforts  of  the  mind  to  communi- 
cate with  nature :  the  flowers  which  fancy  strewed  before  the 
youthful  steps  of  Psyche,  when  she  first  set  out  in  pursuit  of  the 
immortal  object  of  her  love.  Theories  and  notions,  in  all  their 
varieties  of  truth  and  falsehood,  are  a  machinery  more  or  less 
efficacious,  directed  to  the  same  end.  Every  religion  was,  in  its 
origin,  an  embryo  philosophy,  or  an  attempt  to  interpret  the 
unknown  by  mind ;  and  it  was  only  when  philosophy,  which  is 
essentially  progress,  outgrew  its  first  acquisitions,  that  religion 
became  a  thing  apart,  cherishing  as  unalterable  dogmas  the 
notions  which  philosophy  had  abandoned.  Separated  from  phi- 
losophy, it  became  arrogant  and  fantastical,  professing  to  have 
already  attained  what  its  more  authentic  representative  was  ever 
pursuing  in  vain ;  and  discovering,  through  its  initiations  and 
Mysteries,  all  that  to  its  contracted  view  seemed  wanting  to  restore 
the  well-being  of  mankind,  the  means  of  purification  and  expia- 
tion, remedies  for  disease,  expedients  to  cure  the  disorders  of  the 
soul,  and  to  propitiate  the  gods. 

Why  should  we  attempt  to  confine  the  idea  of  the  Supreme 
Mind  within  an  arbitrary  barrier,  or  exclude  from  the  limits  of 
veracity  any  conception  of  the  Deity,  which,  if  imperfect  and 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  651 

inadequate,  may  be  only  a  little  more  so  than  our  own?  "The 
name  of  God,"  says  Hobbes,  "is  used  not  to  make  us  conceive  Him, 
for  He  is  inconceivable,  but  that  we  may  honor  Him."  "Believe  in 
God,  and  adore  Him,"  said  the  Greek  Poet,  "but  investigate  Him 
not ;  the  inquiry  is  fruitless,  seek  not  to  discover  who  God  is ;  for, 
by  the  desire  to  know,  you  offend  Him  who  chooses  to  remain 
unknown."  "When  we  attempt,"  says  Philo,  "to  investigate  the 
essence  of  the  Absolute  Being,  we  fall  into  an  abyss  of  perplexity ; 
and  the  only  benefit  to  be  derived  from  such  researches  is  the  con- 
viction of  their  absurdity." 

Yet  man,  though  ignorant  of  the  constitution  of  the  dust  on 
which  he  treads,  has  ventured,  and  still  ventures,  to  speculate  on 
the  nature  of  God,  and  to  define  dogmatically  in  creeds  the  subject 
least  within  the  compass  of  his  faculties ;  and  even  to  hate  and 
persecute  those  who  will  not  accept  his  views  as  true. 

But  though  a  knowledge  of  the  Divine  Essence  is  impossible, 
the  conceptions  formed  respecting  it  are  interesting,  as  indications 
of  intellectual  development.  The  history  of  religion  is  the  history 
of  the  human  mind ;  and  the  conception  formed  by  it  of  Deity  is 
always  in  exact  relation  to  its  moral  and  intellectual  attainments. 
The  one  is  the  index  and  the  measure  of  the  other. 

The  negative  notion  of  God,  which  consists  in  abstracting  the 
inferior  and  finite,  is,  according  to  Philo,  the  only  way  in  which 
it  is  possible  for  man  worthily  to  apprehend  the  nature  of  God. 
After  exhausting  the  varieties  of  symbolism,  we  contrast  the  Di- 
vine Greatness  with  human  littleness,  and  employ  expressions 
apparently  affirmative,  such  as  "Infinite,"  "Almighty,"  "All- 
wise,"  "Omnipotent,"  "Eternal,"  and  the  like ;  which  in  reality 
amount  only  to  denying,  in  regard  to  God,  those  limits  which  con- 
fine the  faculties  of  man ;  and  thus  we  remain  content  with  a  name 
which  is  a  mere  conventional  sign  and  confession  of  our  ignorance. 

The  Hebrew  mrP  and  the  Greek  To  ON  expressed  abstract  ex- 
istence, without  outward  manifestation  or  development.  Of  the 
same  nature  are  the  definitions,  "God  is  a  sphere  whose  centre  is 
everywhere,  and  whose  circumference  nowhere ;"  "God  is  He  who 
sees  all,  Himself  unseen  :"  and  finally,  that  of  Proclus  and  Hegel 
— "the  To  p.rj  ov — that  which  has  no  outward  and  positive  exist- 
ence." Most  of  the  so-called  ideas  or  definitions  of  the  "Abso- 
lute" are  only  a  collection  of  negations ;  from  which,  as  they  affirm 
nothing,  nothing  is  learned. 


652  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

God  was  first  recognized  in  the  heavenly  bodies  and  in  the  ele- 
ments. When  man's  consciousness  of  his  own  intellectuality  was 
matured,  and  he  became  convinced  that  the  internal  faculty  of 
thought  was  something  more  subtle  than  even  the  most  subtle 
elements,  he  transferred  that  new  conception  to  the  object  of  his 
worship,  and  deified  a  mental  principle  instead  of  a  physical  one. 
He  in  every  case  makes  God  after  his  own  image ;  for  do  what  we 
will,  the  highest  efforts  of  human  thought  can  conceive  nothing 
higher  than  the  supremacy  of  intellect ;  and  so  he  ever  comes  back 
to  some  familiar  type  of  exalted  humanity.  He  at  first  deifies  na- 
ture, and  afterward  himself. 

The  eternal  aspiration  of  the  religious  sentiment  in  man  is  to 
become  united  with  God.  In  his  earliest  development,  the  wish 
and  its  fulfillment  were  simultaneous,  through  unquestioning  be- 
lief. In  proportion  as  the  conception  of  Deity  was  exalted,  the 
notion  of  His  terrestrial  presence  or  proximity  was  abandoned ; 
and  the  difficulty  of  comprehending  the  Divine  Government,  to- 
gether with  the  glaring  superstitious  evils  arising  out  of  its  mis- 
interpretation, endangered  the  belief  in  it  altogether. 

Even  the  lights  of  Heaven,  which,  as  "bright  potentates  of  the 
sky,"  were  formerly  the  vigilant  directors  of  the  economy  of  earth, 
now  shine  dim  and  distant,  and  Uriel  no  more  descends  upon  a 
sunbeam.  But  the  real  change  has  been  in  the  progressive  ascent 
of  man's  own  faculties,  and  not  in  the  Divine  Nature ;  as  the  Stars 
are  no  more  distant  now  than  when  they  were  supposed  to  rest  on 
the  shoulders  of  Atlas.  And  yet  a  little  sense  of  disappointment 
and  humiliation  attended  the  first  awakening  of  the  soul,  when 
reason,  looking  upward  toward  the  Deity,  was  impressed  with  a 
dizzy  sense  of  having  fallen. 

But  hope  revives  in  despondency;  and  every  nation  that  ever 
advanced  beyond  the  most  elementary  conceptions,  felt  the  neces- 
sity of  an  attempt  to  fill  the  chasm,  real  or  imaginary,  separating 
man  from  God.  To  do  this  was  the  great  task  of  poetry,  philoso- 
phy, and  religion.  Hence  the  personifications  of  God's  attributes, 
developments,  and  manifestations,  as  "Powers,"  "Intelligences," 
"Angels,"  "Emanations ;"  through  which  and  the  oracular  fac- 
ulty in  himself,  man  could  place  himself  in  communion  with  God. 

The  various  ranks  and  orders  of  mythical  beings  imagined  by 
Persians,  Indians,  Egyptians,  or  Etrurians,  to  preside  over  the 
various  departments  of  nature,  had  each  his  share  in  a  scheme  to 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PR1NTCE  ADEPT.  653 

bring  man  into  closer  approximation  to  the  Deity ;  they  eventu- 
ally gave  way  only  before  an  analogous  though  less  picturesque 
symbolism ;  and  the  Deities  and  Daemons  of  Greece  and  Rome 
were  perpetuated  with  only  a  change  of  names,  when  their  offices 
were  transferred  to  Saints  and  Martyrs.  The  attempts  by  which 
reason  had  sometimes  endeavored  to  span  the  unknown  by  a  bridge 
of  metaphysics,  such  as  the  idealistic  systems  of  Zoroaster,  Pytha- 
goras, or  Plato,  were  only  a  more  refined  form  of  the  poetical  illu- 
sions which  satisfied  the  vulgar ;  and  man  still  looked  back  with 
longing  to  the  lost  golden  age,  when  his  ancestors  communed  face 
to  face  with  the  Gods ;  and  hoped  that,  by  propitiating  Heaven,  he 
might  accelerate  the  renewal  of  it  in  the  islands  of  the  Far  West, 
under  the  sceptre  of  Kronos,  or  in  a  centralization  of  political 
power  at  Jerusalem.  His  eager  hope  overcame  even  the  terrors  of 
the  grave ;  for  the  Divine  power  was  as  infinite  as  human  expecta- 
tion, and  the  Egyptian,  duly  ensepulchred  in  the  Lybian  Cata- 
combs, was  supposed  to  be  already  on  his  way  to  the  Fortunate 
Abodes  under  the  guidance  of  Hermes,  there  to  obtain  a  perfect 
association  and  reunion  with  his  God. 

Remembering  what  we  have  already  said  elsewhere  in  regard  to 
the  old  ideas  concerning  the  Deity,  and  repeating  it  as  little  as 
possible,  let  us  once  more  put  ourselves  in  communion  with  the 
Ancient  poetic  and  philosophic  mind,  and  endeavor  to  learn  of  it 
what  it  thought,  and  how  it  solved  the  great  problems  that  have 
ever  tortured  the  human  intellect. 

The  division  of  the  First  and  Supreme  Cause  into  two  parts, 
one  Active  and  the  other  Passive,  the  Universe  Agent  and  Patient, 
or  the  hermaphroditic  God-World,  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  and 
widespread  dogmas  of  philosophy  or  natural  theology.  Almost 
every  ancient  people  gave  it  a  place  in  their  worship,  their  myste- 
ries, and  their  ceremonies. 

Ocellus  Lucanus,  who  seems  to  have  lived  shortly  after  Pytha- 
goras opened  his  School  in  Italy,  five  or  six  hundred  years  before 
our  era,  and  in  the  time  of  Solon,  Thales,  and  the  other  Sages 
who  had  studied  in  the  Schools  of  Egypt,  not  only  recognizes  the 
eternity  of  the  Universe,  and  its  divine  character  as  an  unproducecl 
and  indestructible  being,  but  also  .the  distinction  of  Active  and 
Passive  causes  in  what  he  terms  the  Grand  Whole,  or  the  single 
hermaphroditic  Being  that  comprehends  all  existences,  as  well 
cause's  as  effects ;  and  which  is  a  system  regularly  ordered,  perfect 


654  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  complete,  of  all  Natures.  He  well  apprehended  the  dividing- 
line  that  separates  existence  eternally  the  same,  from  that  which 
eternally  changes;  the  nature  of  celestial  from  that  of  terrestrial 
bodies,  that  of  causes  from  that  of  effects,  that  which  is  from  that 
which  only  BECOMES, — a  distinction  that  naturally  struck  every 
thinking  man. 

We  shall  not  quote  his  language  at  full  length.  The  heavenly 
bodies,  he  thought,  are  first  and  most  noble ;  they  move  of  them- 
selves, and  ever  revolve,  without  change  of  form  or  essence.  Fire, 
water,  earth,  and  air  change  incessantly  and  continually,  not  place, 
but  form.  Then,  as  in  the  Universe  there  are  generation  and  cause 
of  generation, — as  generation  is  wrhere  there  are  change  and  dis- 
placement of  parts,  and  cause  where  there  is  stability  of  nature, 
evidently  it  belongs  to  what  is  the  cause  of  generation,  to  move 
and  to  act,  and  to  the  recipient,  to  be  made  and  moved.  In  his 
view,  everything  above  the  Moon  was  the  habitation  of  the  gods ; 
all  below,  that  of  Nature  and  discord ;  this  operates  dissolution 
of  things  made ;  that,  production  of  those  that  are  being  made. 
As  the  world  is  unproduced  and  indestructible,  as  it  had  no  begin- 
ning, and  will  have  no  end,  necessarily  the  principle  that  operates 
generation  in  another  than  itself,  and  that  which  operates  it  in 
itself,  have  co-existed. 

The  former  is  all  above  the  moon,  and  especially  the  sun :  the 
latter  is  the  sublunary  world.  Of  these  two  parts,  one  active,  the 
other  passive — one  divine  and  always  the  same,  the  other  mortal 
and  ever  changing,  all  that  we  call  the  "world"  or  "universe"  is 
composed. 

These  accorded  with  the  principles  of  the  Egyptian  philosophy, 
which  held  that  man  and  the  animals  had  always  existed  together 
with  the  world ;  that  they  were  its  effects,  eternal  like  itself.  The 
chief  divisions  of  nature  into  active  and  passive  causes,  its  system 
of  generation  and  destruction,  and  the  concurrence  of  the  two 
great  principles,  Heaven  and  earth,  uniting  to  form  all  things,  will, 
according  to  Ocellus,  always  continue  to  exist.  "Enough,"  he 
concludes,  "as  to  the  Universe,  the  generations  and  destructions 
effected  in  it,  the  mode  in  which  it  now  exists,  the  mode  in  which 
it  will  ever  exist,  by  the  eternal  qualities  of  the  two  principles,  one 
always  moving,  the  other  always  moved ;  one  always  governing, 
the  other  always  governed." 

Such  is  a  brief  summary  of  the  doctrine  of  this  philosopher, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  655 

whose  work  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  that  has  survived  to  us. 
The  subject  on  which  he  treated  occupied  in  his  time  all  men's 
minds:  the  poets  sang  of  cormogonies  and  theogonies,  and  the 
philosophers  wrote  treatises  on  the  birth  of  the  world  and  the 
elements  of  its  composition.  The  cosmogony  of  the  Hebrews, 
attributed  to  Moses ;  that  of  the  Phoenicians,  ascribed  to  Sancho- 
niathon ;  that  of  the  Greeks,  composed  by  Hesiod ;  that  of  the 
Egyptians,  the  Atlantes,  and  the  Cretans,  preserved  by  Diodorus 
Siculus  ;  the  fragments  of  the  theology  of  Orpheus,  divided  among 
different  writers ;  the  books  of  the  Persians,  or  their  Boundehesh  ; 
those  of  the  Hindus ;  the  traditions  of  the  Chinese  and  the  people 
of  Macassar;  the  cosmogonic  chants  which  Virgil  puts  in  the 
mouth  of  lopas  at  Carthage ;  and  those  of  the  old  Silenus,  the 
first  book  of  the  Metamorphoses  of  Ovid ;  all  testify  to  the  an- 
tiquity and  universality  of  these  fictions  as  to  the  origin  of  the 
world  and  its  causes. 

At  the  head  of  the  causes  of  nature,  Heaven  and  earth  were 
placed;  and  the  most  apparent  parts  of  each,  the  sun,  the  moon, 
the  fixed  stars  and  planets,  and,  above  all,  the  zodiac,  among  the 
active  causes  of  generation ;  and  among  the  passive,  the  several 
elements.  These  causes  were  not  only  classed  in  the  progressive 
order  of  their  energy,  Heaven  and  earth  heading  the  respective 
lists,  but  distinct  sexes  were  in  some  sort  assigned  to  them,  and 
characteristics  analogous  to  the  mode  in  which  they  concur  in 
universal  generation. 

The  doctrine  of  Ocellus  was  the  general  doctrine  everywhere,  it 
naturally  occurring  to  all  to  make  the  same  distinction.  The 
Egyptians  did  so,  in  selecting  those  animals  in  which  they  recog- 
nized these  emblematic  qualities,  in  order  to  symbolize  the  double 
sex  of  the  Universe.  Their  God  KNEPII,  out  of  whose  mouth 
issued  the  Orphic  egg,  whence  the  author  of  the  Clementine 
Recognitions  makes  a  hermaphroditic  figure  to  emerge,  uniting  in 
itself  the  two  principles  whereof  Heaven  and  the  earth  are  forms, 
and  which  enter  into  the  organization  of  all  beings  which  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  engender  by  their  concourse,  furnishes 
another  emblem  of  the  double  power,  active  and  passive,  which 
the  ancients  saw  in  the  Universe,  and  which  they  symbolized  by 
the  egg.  Orpheus,  who  studied  in  Egypt,  borrowed  from  the 
theologians  of  that  country  the  mysterious  forms  under  which  the 
science  of  nature  was  veiled,  and  carried  into  Greece  the  symbolic 


656  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

egg,  with  its  division  into  two  parts  or  causes  figured  by  the  her- 
maphroditic being  that  issued  from  it,  and  whereof  Heaven  and 
earth  are  composed. 

The  Brahmins  of  India  expressed  the  same  cosmogonic  idea  by  a 
statue,  representative  of  the  Universe,  uniting  in  itself  both  sexes. 
The  male  sex  offered  an  image  of  the  sun,  centre  of  the  active 
principle,  and  the  female  s~x  that  of  the  moon,  at  the  sphere 
whereof,  proceeding  downward,  the  passive  portion  of  nature 
begins.  The  Lingam,  unto  the  present  day  revered  in  the  Indian 
temples,  being  but  the  conjunction  of  the  organs  of  generation  of 
the  two  sexes,  was  an  emblem  of  the  same.  The  Hindus  have 
ever  had  the  greatest  veneration  for  this  symbol  of  ever-reproduc- 
tive nature.  The  Greeks  consecrated  the  same  symbols  of  uni- 
versal fruitfulness  in  their  Mysteries ;  and  they  were  exhibited  in 
the  sanctuaries  of  Eleusis.  They  appear  among  the  sculptured 
ornaments  of  all  the  Indian  temples.  Tertullian  accuses  the 
Valentinians  of  having  adopted  the  custom  of  venerating  them; 
a  custom,  he  says,  introduced  by  Melampus  from  Egypt  into 
Greece.  The  Egyptians  consecrated  the  Phallus  in  the  Mysteries 
of  Osiris  and  Isis,  as  we  learn  from  Plutarch  and  Diodorus  Sicu- 
lus ;  and  the  latter  assures  us  that  these  emblems  were  not  conse- 
crated by  the  Egyptians  alone,  but  by  every  people.  They  certainly 
were  so  among  the  Persians  and  Assyrians  ;  and  they  were  regarded 
everywhere  as  symbolic  of  the  generative  and  productive  powers 
of  all  animated  beings.  In  those  early  ages,  the  works  of  Nature 
and  all  her  agents  were  sacred  like  herself. 

For  the  union  of  Nature  with  herself  is  a  chaste  marriage,  of 
which  the  union  of  man  and  woman  was  a  natural  image,  and 
their  organs  were  an  expressive  emblem  of  the  double  energy 
which  manifests  itself  in  Heaven  and  Earth  uniting  together  to 
produce  all  beings.  "The  Heavens,"  says  Plutarch,  "seemed  to 
men  to  fulfill  the  functions  of  father,  and  the  Earth  of  mother. 
The  former  impregnated  the  earth  with  its  fertilizing  rains,  and 
the  earth,  receiving  them,  became  fruitful  and  brought  forth." 
Heaven,  which  covers  and  embraces  the  earth  everywhere,  is  her 
potent  spouse,  uniting  himself  to  her  to  make  her  fruitful,  without 
which  she  would  languish  in  everlasting  sterility,  buried  in  the 
shades  of  chaos  and  of  night.  Their  union  is  their  marriage ; 
their  productions  or  parts  are  their  children.  The  skies  are  our 
Father,  and  Nature  the  great  Mother  of  us  all. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  657 

This  idea  was  not  the  dogma  of  a  single  sect,  but  the  general 
opinion  of  all  the  Sages.  "Nature  was  divided,"  says  Cicero, 
"into  two  parts,  one  active,  and  the  other  that  submitted  itself  to 
this  action,  which  it  received,  and  which  modified  it.  The  former 
was  deemed  to  be  a  Force,  and  the  latter  the  material  on  which 
that  Force  exerted  itself."  Macrobius  repeated  almost  literally 
the  doctrine  of  Ocellus.  Aristotle  termed  the  earth  the  fruitful 
mother,  environed  on  all  sides  by  the  air.  Above  it  was  Heaven, 
the  dwelling-place  of  the  gods  and  the  divine  stars,  its  substance 
ether,  or  a  fire  incessantly  moving  in  circles,  divine  and  incorrupt- 
ible, and  subject  to  no  change.  Below  it,  nature,  and  the  elements, 
mutable  and  acted  on,  corruptible  and  mortal. 

Synesius  said  that  generations  were  effected  in  the  portions  of 
the  Universe  which  we  inhabit ;  while  the  cause  of  generations 
resided  in  the  portions  above  us,  whence  descend  to  us  the  germs 
of  the  effects  produced  here  below.  Proclus  and  Simplicius 
deemed  Heaven  the  Active  Cause  and  Father,  relatively  to  the 
earth.  The  former  says  that  the  World  or  the  Whole  is  a  single 
Animal ;  what  is  done  in  it,  is  done  by  it ;  the  same  World  acts, 
and  acts  upon  itself.  He  divides  it  into  "Heaven"  and  "Genera- 
tion." In  the  former,  he  says,  are  placed  and  arranged  the  conser- 
vative causes  of  generation,  superintended  by  the  Genii  and  Gods. 
The  Earth,  or  Rhea,  associated  ever  with  Saturn  in  production,  is 
mother  of  the  effects  of  which  Heaven  is  Father;  the  womb  or 
bosom  that  receives  the  fertilizing  energy  of  the  God  that  engen- 
ders ages.  The  great  work  of  generation  is  operated,  he  says,  pri- 
marily by  the  action  of  the  Sun,  and  secondarily  by  that  of  the 
Moon,  so  that  the  Sun  is  the  primitive  source  of  this  energy,  as 
father  and  chief  of  the  male  gods  that  form  his  court.  He  fol- 
lows the  action  of  the  male  and  female  principles  through  all  the 
portions  and  divisions  of  nature,  attributing  to  the  former  the 
origin  of  stability  and  identity,  to  the  latter,  that  of  diversity 
and  mobility.  Heaven  is  to  the  earth,  he  says,  as  the  male  to  the 
female.  It  is  the  movements  of  the  heavens  that,  by  their  revolu- 
tions, furnish  the  seminal  incitements  and  forces,  whose  emana- 
tions received  by  the  earth,  make  it  fruitful,  and  cause  it  to  pro- 
duce animals  and  plants  of  every  kind. 

Philo  says  that  Moses  recognized  this  doctrine  of  two  causes, 
active  and  passive ;  but  made  the  former  to  reside  in  the  Mind  or 
Intelligence  external  to  matter. 


658  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  ancient  astrologers  divided  the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac 
into  six  male  and  six  female,  and  assigned  them  to  six  male  and 
six  female  Great  Gods.  Heaven  and  Earth,  or  Ouranos  and  Ghe, 
were  among  most  ancient  nations,  the  first  and  most  ancient  Divin- 
ities. We  find  them  in  the  Phoenician  history  of  Sanchoniathon, 
and  in  the  Grecian  Genealogy  of  the  Gods  given  by  Hesiod.  Every- 
where they  marry,  and  by  their  union  produce  the  later  Gods.  "In 
the  beginning,"  says  Apollodorus,  "Ouranos  or  the  Heavens  was 
Lord  of  all  the  Universe :  he  took  to  wife  Ghe  or  the  earth,  and  had 
by  her  many  children."  They  were  the  first  Gods  of  the  Cretans, 
and  under  other  names,  of  the  Armenians,  as  we  learn  from  Bero- 
sus,  and  of  Panchaia,  an  island  South  of  Arabia,  as  we  learn  from 
Euhemerus.  Orpheus  made  the  Divinity,  or  the  "Great  Whole," 
male  and  female,  because,  he  said,  it  could  produce  nothing,  unless 
it  united  in  itself  the  productive  force  of  both  sexes.  He  called 
Heaven  PANGENETOR,  the  Father  of  all  things,  most  ancient  of 
Beings,  beginning  and  end  of  all,  containing  in  Himself  the  incor- 
ruptible and  unwearying  force  of  Necessity. 

The  same  idea  obtained  in  the  rude  North  of  Europe.  The 
Scythians  made  the  earth  to  be  the  wife  of  Jupiter;  and  the 
Germans  adored  her  under  the  name  of  HERTA.  The  Celts  wor- 
shipped the  Heavens  and  the  Earth,  and  said  that  without  the 
former  th.=  latter  would  be  sterile,  and  that  their  marriage  produced 
all  things.  The  Scandinavians  acknowledged  BOR  or  the  Hea- 
vens, and  gave  FURTUR,  his  son.  the  Earth  as  his  wife.  Olaus 
Rudbeck  adds,  that  their  ancestors  were  persuaded  that  Heaven 
intermarried  with  the  Earth,  and  thus  uniting  his  forces  with 
hers,  produced  animals  and  plants.  This  marriage  of  Heaven  and 
Earth  produced  the  AZES,  Genii  famous  in  the  theology  of  the 
North.  In  the  theology  of  the  Phrygians  and  Lydians,  the  ASH 
were  born  of  the  marriage  of  the  Supreme  God  with  the  Earth, 
and  Firmicus  informs  us  that  the  Phrygians  attributed  to  the 
Earth  supremacy  over  the  other  elements,  and  considered  her  the 
Great  Mother  of  all  things. 

Virgil  sings  the  impregnation  of  the  joyous  earth,  by  the  Ether, 
its  spouse,  that  descends  upon  its  bosom,  fertilizing  it  with  rains. 
Columella  sings  the  loves  of  Nature  and  her  marriage  with  Heaven 
annually  consummated  at  the  sweet  Spring-time.  He  describes 
the  Spirit  of  Life,  the  soul  that  animates  the  world,  fired  with  the 
passion  of  Love,  uniting  with  Nature  and  itself,  itself  a  part  of 


KNIGHT  OF'  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  659 

Nature,  and  filling  its  own  bosom  with  new  production*..  This 
union  of  the  Universe  with  itself,  this  mutual  action  of  two  sexes, 
he  terms  "the  great  Secrets  of  Nature,"  "the  Mysteries  of  the 
Union  of  Heaven  with  Earth,  imaged  in  the  Sacred  Mysteries  of 
Atys  and  Bacchus." 

Varro  tells  us  that  the  great  Divinities  adored  at  Samothrace 
were  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth,  considered  as  First  Causes  or 
Primal  Gods,  and  as  male  and  female  agents,  one  bearing  to  the 
other  the  relations  that  the  Soul  and  Principle  of  Movement  bear 
to  the  body  or  the  matter  that  receives  them.  These  were  the  gods 
revered  in  the  Mysteries  of  that  Island,  as  they  were  in  the  orgies 
of  Phoenicia. 

Everywhere  the  sacred  body  of  Nature  was  covered  with  the 
veil  of  allegory,  which  concealed  it  from  the  profane,  and  allowed 
it  to  be  seen  only  by  the  sage  who  thought  it  worthy  to  be  the 
object  of  his  study  and  investigation.  She  showed  herself  to  those 
only  who  loved  her  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  and  she  abandoned  the 
indifferent  and  careless  to  error  and  to  ignorance.  "The  Sages 
of  Greece,"  says  Pausanias,  "never  wrote  otherwise  than  in  an 
enigmatical  manner,  never  naturally  and  directly."  "Nature," 
says  Sallust  the  Philosopher,  "should  be  sung  only  in  a  language 
that  imitates  the  secrecy  of  her  processes  and  operations.  She  is 
herself  an  enigma.  We  see  only  bodies  in  movement ;  the  forces 
and  springs  that  move  them  are  hidden  from  us."  The  poets 
inspired  by  the  Divinity,  the  wisest  philosophers,  all  the  theolo- 
gians, the  chiefs  of  the  initiations  and  Mysteries,  even  the  gods 
uttering  their  oracles,  have  borrowed  the  figurative  language  of 
allegory.  "The  Egyptians,"  says  Proclus,  "preferred  that  mode 
of  teaching,  and  spoke  of  the  great  secrets  of  Nature,  only  in 
mythological  enigmas."  The  Gymnosophists  of  India  and 
the  Druids  of  Gaul  lent  to  science  the  same  enigmatic  lan- 
guage, and  in  the  same  style  wrote  the  Hierophants  of  Phoe- 
nicia. 

The  division  of  things  into  the  active  and  the  passive  cause 
leads  to  that  of  the  two  Principles  of  Light  and  Darkness,  con- 
nected with  and  corresponding  with  it.  For  Light  comes  from  the 
ethereal  substance  that  composes  the  active  cause,  and  darkness 
from  earth  or  the  gross  matter  which  composes  the  passive  cause. 
In  Hesiod,  the  Earth,  by  its  union  with  Tartarus,  engenders  Ty- 
phon,  Chief  of  the  Powers  or  Genii  of  Darkness.  But  it  unites  itself 


66O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

with  the  Ether  or  Ouranos,  when  it  engenders  the  Gods  of-  Olym- 
pus, or  the  Stars,  children  of  Starry  Ouranos. 

Light  was  the  first  Divinity  worshipped  by  men.  To  it  they  owed 
the  brilliant  spectacle  of  Nature.  It  seems  an  emanation  from  the 
Creator  of  all  things,  making  known  to  our  senses  the  Universe 
which  darkness  hides  from  our  eyes,  and,  as  it  were,  giving  it 
existence.  Darkness,  as  it  were,  reduces  all  nature  again  to  noth- 
ingness, and  almost  entirely  annihilates  man. 

Naturally,  therefore,  two  substances  of  opposite  natures  were 
imagined,  to  each  of  which  the  world  was  in  turn  subjected,  one 
contributing  to  its  felicity  and  the  other  to  its  misfortune.  Light 
multiplied  its  enjoyments ;  Darkness  despoiled  it  of  them ;  the 
former  was  its  friend,  the  latter  its  enemy.  To  one  all  good  was 
attributed ;  to  the  other  all  evil ;  and  thus  the  words  "Light"  and 
"Good"  became  synonymous,  and  the  words  "Darkness"  and 
"Evil."  It  seeming  that  Good  and  Evil  could  not  flow  from  one 
and  the  same  source,  any  more  than  could  Light  and  Darkness, 
men  naturally  imagined  two  Causes  or  Principles,  of  different 
.  natures  and  opposite  in  their  effects,  one  of  which  shed  Light  and 
Good,  and  the  other  Darkness  and  Evil,  on  the  Universe. 

This  distinction  of  the  two  Principles  was  admitted  in  all  the 
Theologies,  and  formed  one  of  the  principal  bases  of  all  religions. 
It  entered  as  a  primary  element  into  the  sacred  fables,  the  cosmog- 
onies and  the  Mysteries  of  antiquity.  "We  are  not  to  suppose," 
says  Plutarch,  "that  the  Principles  of  the  Universe  are  inanimate 
bodies,  as  Democritus  and  Epicurus  thought ;  nor  that  a  matter 
devoid  of  qualities  is  organized  and  arranged  by  a  single  Reason 
or  Providence,  Sovereign  over  all  things,  as  the  Stoics  held ;  for  it 
is  not  possible  that  a  single  Being,  good  or  evil,  is  the  cause  of  all, 
inasmuch  as  God  can  in  nowise  be  the  cause  of  any  evil.  The 
harmony  of  the  L'niverse  is  a  combination  of  contraries,  like  the 
strings  of  a  lyre,  or  that  of  a  bow,  which  alternately  is  stretched 
and  relaxed."  "The  good,"  says  Euripides,  "is  never  separated 
from  the  Evil.  The  two  must  mingle,  that  all  may  go  well."  And 
this  opinion  as  to  the  two  principles,  continues  Plutarch,  "is  that 
of  all  antiquity.  From  the  Theologians  and  Legislators  it  passed 
to  the  Poets  and  Philosophers.  Its  author  is  unknown ;  but  the 
opinion  itself  is  established  by  the  traditions  of  the  whole  human 
race,  and  consecrated  in  the  mysteries  and  sacrifices  both  of  the 
Greeks  and  Barbarians,  wherein  was  recognized  the  dogma  of 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  66l 

opposing  principles  in  nature,  which,  by  their  contrariety,  produce 
the  mixture  of  good  and  evil.  We  must  admit  two  contrary  causes, 
two  opposing  powers,  which  lead,  one  to  the  right  and  the  other 
to  the  left,  and  thus  control  our  life,  as  they  do  the  sublunary 
world,  which  is  therefore  subject  to  so  many  changes  and  irregu- 
larities of  every  kind.  For  if  there  can  be  no  effect  without  a 
cause,  and  if  the  Good  cannot  be  the  cause  of  the  Evil,  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  there  should  be  a  cause  for  the  Evil,  as  there 
is  one  for  the  Good."  This  doctrine,  he  adds,  has  been  generally 
received  among  most  nations,  and  especially  by  those  who  have 
had  the  greatest  reputation  for  wisdom.  All  have  admitted  two 
gods,  with  different  occupations,  one  making  the  good  and  the 
other  the  evil  found  in  nature.  The  former  has  been  styled  "God," 
the  latter  "Demon."  The  Persians,  or  Zoroaster,  named  the  former 
Ormuzd  and  the  latter  Ahriman ;  of  whom  they  said  one  was  of 
the  nature  of  Light,  the  other  of  that  of  Darkness.  The  Egyp- 
tians called  the  former  Osiris,  and  the  latter  Typhon,  his  eternal 
enemy. 

The  Hebrews,  at  least  after  their  return  from  the  Persian  cap- 
tivity, had  their  good  Deity,  and  the  Devil,  a  bad  and  malicious 
Spirit,  ever  opposing  God,  and  Chief  of  the  Angels  of  Darkness, 
as  God  was  of  those  of  Light.  The  word  "Satan"  means,  in  He- 
brew, simply,  "The  Adversary." 

The  Chaldeans,  Plutarch  says,  had  their  good  and  evil  stars. 
The  Greeks  had  their  Jupiter  and  Pluto,  and  their  Giants  and 
Titans,  to  whom  were  assigned  the  attributes  of  the  Serpent  with 
which  Pluto  or  Serapis  was  encircled,  and  the  shape  whereof  was 
assumed  by  Typhon,  Ahriman,  and  the  Satan  of  the  Hebrews 
Every  people  had  something  equivalent  to  this. 

The  People  of  Pegu  believe  in  two  Principles,  one  author  of 
Good  and  the  other  of  Evil,  and  strive  to  propitiate  the  latter, 
while  they  think  it  needless  to  worship  the  former,  as  he  is  inca- 
pable of  doing  evil.  The  people  of  Java,  of  the  Moluccas,  of  the 
Gold  Coast,  the  Hottentots,  the  people  of  Teneriffe  and  Madagas- 
car, and  the  Savage  Tribes  of  America,  all  worship  and  strive  to 
avert  the  anger  and  propitiate  the  good-will  of  the  Evil  Spirit. 

But  among  the  Greeks,  Egyptians,  Chaldeans,  Persians,  and 
Assyrians,  the  doctrine  of  the  two  Principles  formed  a  complete 
and  regularly  arranged  theological  system.  -It  was  the  basis  of  the 
religion  of  the  Magi  and  of  Egypt.  The  author  of  an  ancient 

43 


662  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

work,  attributed  to  Origen,  says  that  Pythagoras  learned  from 
Zarastha,  a  Magus  at  Babylon  (the  same,  perhaps,  as  Zerdusht  or 
Zoroaster),  that  there  are  two  principles  of  all  things,  whereof  one 
is  the  father  and  the  other  the  nwther;  the  former,  Light,  and 
the  latter,  Darkness.  Pythagoras  thought  that  the  Dependencies 
on  Light  were  warmth,  dryness,  lightness,  swiftness ;  and  those  on 
Darkness,  cold,  wet,  weight,  and  slowness ;  and  that  the  world 
derived  its  existence  from  these  two  principles,  as  from  the  male 
and  the  female.  According  to  Porphyry,  he  conceived  two  oppos- 
ing powers,  one  good,  which  he  termed  Unity,  the  Light,  Right, 
the  Equal,  the  Stable,  the  Straight ;  the  other  evil,  which  he 
termed  Binary,  Darkness,  the  Left,  the  Unequal,  the  Unstable,  the 
Crooked.  These  ideas  he  received  from  the  Orientals,  for  he 
dwelt  twelve  years  at  Babylon,  studying  with  the  Magi.  Varro 
says  he  recognized  two  Principles  of  all  things, — the  Finite  and 
the  Infinite,  Good  and  Evil,  Life  and  Death,  Day  and  Night. 
White  he  thought  was  of  the  nature  of  the  Good  Principle,  and 
Black  of  that  of  the  Evil ;  that  Light  and  Darkness,  Heat  and 
Cold,  the  Dry  and  the  Wet,  mingled  in  equal  proportions ;  that 
Summer  was  the  triumph  of  heat,  and  Winter  of  cold ;  that  their 
equal  combination  produced  Spring  and  Autumn,  the  former  pro- 
ducing verdure  and  favorable  to  health,  and  the  latter,  deteriorat- 
ing everything,  giving  birth  to  maladies.  He  applied  the  same 
idea  to  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun ;  and,  like  the  Magi,  held 
that  God  or  Ormuzd  in  the  body  resembled  light,  and  in  the  soul, 
truth. 

Aristotle,  like  Plato,  admitted  a  principle  of  Evil,  resident  in 
matter  and  in  its  eternal  imperfection. 

The  Persians  said  that  Ormuzd,  born  of  the  pure  Light,  and 
Ahriman,  born  of  darkness,  were  ever  at  war.  Ormuzd  produced 
six  Gods,  Beneficence,  Truth,  Good  Order,  Wisdom,  Riches,  and 
Virtuous  Joy.  These  were  so  many  emanations  from  the  Good 
Principle,  so  many  blessings  bestowed  by  it  on  men.  Ahriman,  in 
his  turn,  produced  six  Devs,  opponents  of  the  six  emanations 
from  Ormuzd.  Then  Ormuzd  made  himself  three  times  as  great 
as  before,  ascended  as  far  above  the  sun  as  the  sun  is  above  the 
earth,  and  adorned  the  heavens  with  stars,  of  which  he  made 
Sirius  the  sentinel  or  advance-guard :  that  he  then  created  twenty- 
four  other  Deities,  and  placed  them  in  an  egg,  where  Ahrima/ 
also  placed  twenty-four  others,  created  by  him,  who  broke  the  egg. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   I'RIXCE  ADEPT.  663 

and  so  intermingled  Good  and  Evil.  Theopompus  adds  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  Magi,  for  two  terms  of  three  thousand  years,  each 
of  the  two  Principles  is  to  be  by  turns  victor  and  the  other  van- 
quished ;  then  for  three  thousand  more  for  each  they  are  to  con- 
tend with  each  other,  each  destroying  reciprocally  the  works  of  the 
other;  after  which  Ahriman  is  to  perish,  and  men,  wearing  trans- 
parent bodies,  to  enjoy  unutterable  happiness. 

The  twelve  great  Deities  of  the  Persians,  the  six  Amshaspands 
and  six  Devs,  marshalled,  the  formef  under  the  banner  of  Light, 
and  the  latter  under  that  of  Darkness,  are  the  twelve  Zodiacal 
Signs  or  Months ;  the  six  supreme  signs,  or  those  of  Light,  or  of 
Spring  and  Summer,  commencing  with  Aries,  and  the  six  inferior, 
of  Darkness,  or  of  Autumn  and  Winter,  commencing  with  Libra. 
Limited  Time,  as  contradistinguished  from  Time  without  limits, 
or  Eternity,  is  Time  created  and  measured  by  the  celestial  revolu- 
tions. It  is  comprehended  in  a  period  divided  into  twelve  parts, 
each  subdivided  into  a  thousand  parts,  which  the  Persians  termed 
years.  Thus  the  circle  annually  traversed  by  the  Sun  was  divided 
into  12,000  parts,  or  each  sign  into  3,000:  and  thus,  each  year,  the 
Principle  of  Light  and  Good  triumphed  for  3,000  years,  that  of 
Evil  and  Darkness  for  3,000,  and  they  mutually  destroyed  each 
other's  labors  for  6,000,  or  3,000  for  each :  so  that  the  Zodiac  was 
equally  divided  between  them.  And  accordingly  Ocellus  Lucanus, 
the  Disciple  of  Pythagoras,  held  that  the  principal  cause  of  all 
sublunary  effects  resided  in  the  Zodiac,  and  that  from  it  flowed 
the  good  or  bad  influences  of  the  planets  that  revolved  therein. 

The  twenty-four  good  and  twenty-four  evil  Deities,  enclosed  in 
the  Egg,  are  the  forty-eight  constellations  of  the  ancient  sphere, 
equally  divided  between  the  realms  of  Light  and  Darkness,  on  the 
concavity  of  the  celestial  sphere  which  was  apportioned  among 
them  ;  and  which,  enclosing  the  world  and  planets,  was  the  mys- 
tic and  sacred  egg  of  the  Magi,  the  Indians,  and  the  Egyptians. — 
the  egg  that  issued  from  the  mouth  of  the  God  Kneph,  that  fig- 
ured as  the  Orphic  Egg  in  the  Mysteries  of  Greece,  that  issued 
from  the  God  Chumong  of  the  Goresians.  and  from  the  Egyptian 
Osiris  and  the  God  Phanes  of  the  Modern  Orphics,  Principle  of 
Light, — the  egg  crushed  by  the  Sacred  Bull  of  the  Japanese,  and 
from  which  the  world  emerged  ;  that  placed  by  the  Greeks  at  the 
feet  of  Bacchus  the  bull-horned  God,  and  from  which  Aristophanes 
makes  Love  emerge,  who  with  Night  organizes  Chaos. 


664  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Thus  the  Balance,  the  Scorpion,  the  Serpent  of  Ophiucus,  and 
the  Dragon  of  the  Hesperides  became  malevolent  Signs  and  Evil 
Genii ;  and  entire  nature  was  divided  between  the  two  principles, 
and  between  the  agents  or  partial  causes  subordinate  to  them. 
Hence  Michael  and  his  Archangels,  and  Satan  and  his  fallen  com- 
peers. Hence  the  wars  of  Jupiter  and  the  Giants,  in  which  the 
Gods  of  Olympus  fought  on  the  side  of  the  Light-God,  against 
the  dark  progeny  of  earth  and  Chaos ;  a  war  which  Proclus  re- 
garded as  symbolizing  the  resistance  opposed  by  dark  and  chaotic 
matter  to  the  active  and  beneficent  force  which  gives  it  organiza- 
tion ;  an  idea  which  in  part  appears  in  the  old  theory  of  two  Prin- 
ciples, one  innate  in  the  active  and  luminous  substance  of  Heaven, 
and  the  other  in  the  inert  and  dark  substance  of  matter  that  resists 
the  order  and  the  good  that  Heaven  communicates  to  it. 

Osiris  conquers  Typhon,  and  Ormuzd,  Ahriman,  when,  at  the 
Vernal  Equinox,  the  creative  action  of  Heaven  and  its  demiourgic 
energy  is  most  strongly  manifested.  Then  the  principle  of  Light 
and  Good  overcomes  that  of  Darkness  and  Evil,  and  the  world 
rejoices,  redeemed  from  cold  and  wintry  darkness  by  the  beneficent 
Sign  into  which  the  Sun  then  enters  triumphant  and  rejoicing, 
after  his  resurrection. 

From  the  doctrine  of  the  two  Principles,  Active  and  Passive, 
grew  that  of  the  Universe,  animated  by  a  Principle  of  Eternal 
Life,  and  by  a  Universal  Soul,  from  which  every  isolated  and  tem- 
porary being  received  at  its  birth  an  emanation,  which,  at  the 
death  of  such  being,  returned  to  its  source.  The  life  of  matter 
as  much  belonged  to  nature  as  did  matter  itself;  and  as  life  is 
manifested  by  movement,  the  sources  of  life  must  needs  seem  to  be 
placed  in  those  luminous  and  eternal  bodies,  and  above  all  in  the 
Heaven  in  which  they  revolve,  and  which  whirls  them  along  with 
itself  in  that  rapid  course  that  is  swifter  than  all  other  movement. 
And  fire  and  heat  have  so  great  an  analogy  with  life,  that  cold, 
like  absence  of  movement,  seemed  the  distinctive  characteristic  of 
death.  Accordingly,  the  vital  fire  that  blazes  in  the  Sun  and  pro- 
duces the  heat  that  vivifies  everything,  was  regarded  as  the  princi- 
ple of  organization  and  life  of  all  sublunary  beings. 

According  to  this  doctrine,  the  Universe  is  not  to  be  regarded, 
in  its  creative  and  eternal  action,  merely  as  an  immense  machine, 
moved  by  powerful  springs  and  forced  into  a  continual  movement, 
which,  emanating  from  the  circumference,  extends  to  the  centre, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  665 

*cts  and  re-acts  in  every  possible  direction,  and  re-produces  in 
succession  all  the  varied  forms  which  matter  receives.  So  to  re- 
gard it  would  be  to  recognize  a  cold  and  purely  mechanical  action, 
the  energy  of  which  could  never  produce  life. 

On  the  contrary,  it  was  thought,  the  Universe  should  be  deemed 
an  immense  Being.always  living,always  moved  and  always  moving 
in  an  eternal  activity  inherent  in  itself,  and  which,  subordinate  to 
no  foreign  cause,  is  communicated  to  all  its  parts,  connects  them 
together,  and  makes  of  the  world  of  things  a  complete  and  perfect 
whole.  The  order  and  harmony  which  reign  therein  seem  to  be- 
long to  and  be  a  part  of  it,  and  the  design  of  the  various  plans 
of  construction  of  organized  beings  would  seem  to  be  graven  in  its 
Supreme  Intelligence,  source  of  all  the  other  Intelligences  which 
it  communicates  together  with  life  to  man.  Nothing  existing  out 
of  it,  it  must  be  regarded  as  the  principle  and  term  of  all  things. 

Chaeremon  had  no  reason  for  saying  that  the  Ancient  Egyptians, 
inventors  of  the  sacred  fables,  and  adorers  of  the  Sun  and  the 
other  luminaries,  saw  in  the  Universe  only  a  machine,  without 
life  and  without  intelligence,  either  in  its  whole  or  in  its  parts ; 
and  that  their  cosmogony  was  a  pure  Epicureanism,  which  re- 
quired only  matter  and  movement  to  organize  its  world  and  govern 
it.  Such  an  opinion  would  necessarily  exclude  all  religious  wor- 
ship. Wherever  we  suppose  a  worship,  there  we  must  suppose 
intelligent  Deities  who  receive  it,  and  are  sensible  to  the  homage 
of  their  adorers ;  and  no  other  people  were  so  religious  as  the 
Egyptians. 

On  the  contrary,  with  them  the  immense,  immutable,  and  Eter- 
nsl  Being,  termed  "God"'  or  "the  Universe,"  had  eminently,  and 
in  all  their  plenitude,  that  life  and  intelligence  which  sublunary 
beings,  each  an  infinitely  small  and  temporary  portion  of  itself, 
possess  in  «i  far  inferior  degree  and  infinitely  less  quantity.  It 
was  to  them,  in  some  sort,  like  the  Ocean,  whence  the  springs, 
brooks,  and  rivers  have  risen  by  evaporation,  and  to  the  bosom 
whereof  they  return  by  a  longer  or  shorter  course,  and  after  a 
longer  or  shorter  separator*  from  the  immense  mass  of  its  waters. 
The  machine  of  the  Univer:e  was,  in  their  view,  like  that  of  man, 
moved  by  a  Principle  of  Life  *vhich  kept  it  in  eternal  activity, 
and  circulated  in  all  its  parts.  The  Universe  was  a  living  and 
animated  being,  like  man  and  the  other  animals ;  or  rather  they 
were  so  only  because  the  Universe  was  essentially  so,  and  for  a  few 
moments  communicated  to  each  an  infinitely  minute  portion  of 


666  MORALS  AMD  DOGMA. 

its  eternal  life,  breathed  by  it  into  the  inert  and  gross  matter  of 
sublunary  bodies.  That  withdrawn,  man  or  the  animal  died ;  and 
the  Universe  alone,  living  and  circulating  around  the  wrecks  of 
their  bodies,  by  its  eternal  movement,  organized  and  animated 
new  bodies,  returning  to  them  the  eternal  fire  and  subtle  sub- 
stance which  vivifies  itself,  and  which,  incorporated  in  its  immense 
mass,  was  its  universal  soul. 

These  were  the  ancient  ideas  as  to  this  Great  GOD,  Father  of  all 
the  gods,  or  of  the  World ;  of  this  BEING,  Principle  of  all  things. 
and  of  which  nothing  other  than  itself  is  Principle, — the  Universal 
cause  that  was  termed  God.  Soul  of  the  Universe,  eternal  like  it, 
immense  like  it,  supremely  active  and  potent  in  its  varied  opera- 
tions, penetrating  all  parts  of  this  vast  body,  impressing  a  regular 
and  symmetrical  movement  on  the  spheres,  making  the  elements 
instinct  with  activity  and  order,  mingling  with  everything,  organ- 
izing everything,  vivifying  and  preserving  everything, — this  was 
the  UNIVERSE-GOD  which  the  ancients  adored  as  Supreme  Cause 
and  God  of  Gods. 

Anchises,  in  the  y£neid,  taught  ^Eneas  this  doctrine  of  Pythag- 
oras, learned  by  him  from  his  Masters,  the  Egyptians,  in  regard 
to  the  Soul  and  Intelligence  of  the  Universe,  from  which  our  souls 
and  intelligences,  as  well  as  our  life  and  that  of  the  animals,  ema- 
nate. Heaven,  Earth,  the  Sea,  the  Moon  and  the  Stars,  he  said, 
are  moved  by  a  principle  of  internal  life  which  perpetuates  their 
existence ;  a  great  intelligent  soul,  that  penetrates  every  part  of 
the  vast  body  of  the  Universe,  and,  mingling  with  everything,  agi- 
tates it  by  an  eternal  movement.  It  is  the  source  of  life  in  all 
living  things.  The  force  which  animates  all,  emanates  from  the 
eternal  fire  that  burns  in  Heaven.  In  the  Georgics,  Virgil  repeats 
the  same  doctrine ;  and  that,  at  the  death  of  every  animal,  the  life 
that  animated  it,  part  of  the  universal  life,  returns  to  its  Principle 
and  to  the  source  of  life  that  circulates  in  the  sphere  of  the  Stars. 

Servius  makes  God  the  active  Cause  that  organizes  the  elements 
into  bodies,  the  vivifying  breath  or  spirit,  that,  spreading  through 
matter  or  the  elements,  produces  and  engenders  all  things.  The 
elements  compose  the  substance  of  our  bodies :  God  composes  the 
souls  that  vivify  these  bodies.  From  it  come  the  instincts  of  ani- 
mals, from  it  their  life,  he  says :  and  when  they  die,  that  life  re- 
turns to  and  re-enters  into  the  Universal  Soul,  and  their  bodies 
into  Universal  Matter. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  667 

Timaeus  of  Locria  and  Plato  his  Commentator  wrote  of  the 
Soul  of  the  World,  developing  the  doctrine  of  Pythagoras,  who 
thought,  says  Cicero,  that  God  is  the  Universal  Soul,  resident 
everywhere  in  nature,  and  of  which  our  Souls  are  but  emanations. 
"God  is  one,"  says  Pythagoras,  as  cited  by  Justin  Martyr:  "He 
is  not,  as  some  think,  without  the  world,  but  within  it,  and  entire 
in  its  entirety.  He  sees  all  that  becomes,  forms  all  immortal  beings, 
is  the  author  of  their  powers  and  performances,  the  origin  of  all 
things,  the  Light  of  Heaven,  the  Father,  the  Intelligence,  the  Soul 
of  all  beings,  the  Mover  of  all  spheres." 

God,  in  the  view  of  Pythagoras,  was  ONE,  a  single  substance, 
whose  continuous  parts  extend  through  all  the  Universe,  without 
separation,  difference,  or  inequality,  like  the  soul  in  the  human 
body.  He  denied  the  doctrine  of  the  spiritualists,  who  had  severed 
the  Divinity  from  the  Universe,  making  Him  exist  apart  from  the 
Universe,  which  thus  became  no  more  than  a  material  work,  on 
which  acted  the  Abstract  Cause,  a  God,  isolated  from  it.  The 
Ancient  Theology  did  not  so  separate  God  from  the  Universe. 
This  Eusebius  attests,  in  saying  that  but  a  small  number  of  wise 
men,  like  Moses,  had  sought  for  God  or  the  Cause  of  all,  outside 
of  that  ALL  ;  while  the  Philosophers  of  Egypt  and  Phoenicia,  real 
authors  of  all  the  old  Cosmogonies,  had  placed  the  Supreme  Cause 
in  the  Universe  itself,  and  in  its  parts,  so  that,  in  their  view,  the 
world  and  all  its  parts  are  in  God. 

The  World  or  Universe  was  thus  compared  to  man  :  the  Princi- 
ple of  Life  that  moves  it,  to  that  which  moves  man ;  the  Soul  of 
the  World  to  that  of  man.  Therefore  Pythagoras  called  man 
a  microcosm,  or  little  world,  as  possessing  in  miniature  all  the 
qualities  found  on  a  great  scale  in  the  Universe  ;  by  his  reason  and 
intelligence  partaking  of  the  Divine  Nature :  and  by  his  faculty 
of  changing  aliments  into  other  substances,  of  growing,  and  re- 
producing himself,  partaking  of  elementary  Nature.  Thus  he 
made  the  Universe  a  great  intelligent  P>eing,  like  man — an 
immense  Deity,  having  in  itself,  what  man  has  in  himself,  move- 
ment, life,  and  intelligence,  and  besides,  a  perpetuity  of  existence, 
which  man  has  not;  and,  as  having  in'itsclf  perpetuity  of  move- 
ment and  life,  therefore  the  Supreme  Cause  of  all. 

Everywhere  extended,  this  Universal  Soul  does  not.  in  the  view 
of  Pythagoras,  act  everywhere  equally  nor  in  the  same  manner. 
The  highest  portion  of  the  Universe,  being  as  it  were  its  head, 


668  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

seemed  to  him  its  principal  seat,  and  there  was  the  guiding  power 
of  the  rest  of  the  world.  In  the  seven  concentric  spheres  is  resi- 
dent an  eternal  order,  fruit  of  the  intelligence,  the  Universal  Soul 
that  moves,  by  a  constant  and  regular  progression,  the  immortal 
bodies  that  form  the  harmonious  system  of  the  heavens. 

Manilius  says  :  "I  sing  the  invisible  and  potent  Soul  of  Nature ; 
that  Divine  Substance  which,  everywhere  inherent  in  Heaven, 
Earth,  and  the  Waters  of  the  Ocean,  forms  the  bond  that  holds 
together  and  makes  one  all  the  parts  of  the  vast  body  of  the  Uni- 
verse. It,  balancing  all  Forces,  and  harmoniously  arranging  the 
varied  relations  of  the  many  members  of  the  world,  maintains  in 
it  the  life  and  regular  movement  that  agitate  it,  as  a  result  of  the 
action  of  the  living  breath  or  single  spirit  that  dwells  in  all  its 
parts,  circulates  in  all  the  channels  of  universal  nature,  flashes 
with  rapidity  to  all  its  points,  and  gives  to  animated  bodies  the 
configurations  appropriate  to  the  organization  of  each  ....  This 
eternal  Law,  this  Divine  Force,  that  maintains  the  harmony  of 
the  world,  makes  use  of  the  Celestial  Signs  to  organize  and  guide 
the  animated  creatures  that  breathe  upon  the  earth ;  and  gives  to 
each  of  them  the  character  and  habits  most  appropriate.  By  the 
action  of  this  Force  Heaven  rules  the  condition  of  the  Earth  and 
of  its  fields  cultivated  by  the  husbandman :  it  gives  us  or  takes 
from  us  vegetation  and  harvests :  it  makes  the  great  ocean  over- 
pass its  limits  at  the  flow,  and  retire  within  them  again  at  the 
ebbing,  of  the  tide." 

Thus  it  is  no  longer  by  means  of  a  poetic  fiction  only  that  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  become  animated  and  personified,  and  are 
deemed  living  existences,  from  which  other  existences  proceed. 
For  now  they  live,  with  their  own  life,  a  life  eternal  like  their 
bodies,  each  gifted  with  a  life  and  perhaps  a  soul,  like  those  of 
man,  a  portion  of  the  universal  life  and  universal  soul ;  and  the 
other  bodies  that  they  form,  and  which  they  contain  in  their 
bosoms,  live  only  through  them  and  with  their  life,  as  the  embryo 
lives  in  the  bosom  of  its  mother,  in  consequence  and  by  means  of 
the  life  communicated  to  it,  and  which  the  mother  ever  maintains 
by  the  active  power  of  her  own  life.  Such  is  the  universal  life  of 
the  world,  reproduced  in  all  the  beings  which  its  superior  portion 
creates  in  its  inferior  portion,  that  is  as  it  were  the  matrix  of  the 
world,  or  of  the  beings  that  the  heavens  engender  in  its  bosom. 

"The  soul  of  the  world,"  says  Macrobius,  "is  nature  itself"  [as 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  669 

the  soul  of  man  is  man  himself],  "always  acting  through  the 
celestial  spheres  which  it  moves,  and  which  but  follow  the  irre- 
sistible impulse  it  impresses  on  them.  The  heavens,  the  sun, 
great  seat  of  generative  power,  the  signs,  the  stars,  and  the  planets 
act  only  with  the  activity  of  the  soul  of  the  Universe.  From  that 
soul,  through  them,  come  all  the  variations  and  changes  of  sub- 
lunary nature,  of  which  the  heavens  and  celestial  bodies  are  but 
the  secondary  causes.  The  zodiac,  with  its  signs,  is  an  existence, 
immortal  and  divine,  organized  by  the  universal  soul,  and  produc- 
ing, or  gathering  in  itself,  all  the  varied  emanations  of  the  different 
powers  that  make  up  the  nature  of  the  Divinity." 

This  doctrine,  that  gave  to  the  heavens  and  the  spheres  living 
souls,  each  a  portion  of  the  universal  soul,  was  of  extreme  anti- 
quity. It  was  held  by  the  old  Sabseans.  It  was  taught  by  Timaeus, 
Plato,  Speusippus,  lamblichus,  Macrobius,  Marcus  Aurelius,  and 
Pythagoras.  When  once  men  had  assigned  a  soul  to  the  Universe, 
containing  in  itself  the  plenitude  of  the  animal  life  of  particular 
beings,  and  even  of  the  stars,  they  soon  supposed  that  soul  to  be 
essentially  intelligent,  and  the  source  of  intelligence  of  all  intelli- 
gent beings.  Then  the  Universe  became  to  them  not  only  animated 
but  intelligent,  and  of  that  intelligence  the  different  parts  of  nature 
partook.  Each  soul  was  the  vehicle,  and,  as  it  were,  the  envelope 
of  the  intelligence  that  attached  itself  to  it,  and  could  repose 
tnvhere  else.  Without  a  soul  there  could  be  no  intelligence ;  and 
n*  there  was  a  universal  soul,  source  of  all  souls,  the  universal  soul 
was  gifted  with  a  universal  intelligence,  source  of  all  particular 
intelligences.  So  the  soul  of  the  world  contained  in  itself  the 
intelligence  of  the  world.  All  the  agents  of  nature  into  which 
the  universal  soul  entered,  received  also  a  portion  of  its  intelligence, 
and  the  Universe,  in  its  totality  and  in  its  parts,  was  filled  with 
intelligences,  that  might  be  regarded  as  so  many  emanations  from 
the  sovereign  and  universal  intelligence.  Wherever  the  divine 
soul  acted  as  a  cause,  there  also  was  intelligence  ;  and  thus  Heaven, 
the  stars,  the  elements,  and  all  parts  of  the  Universe,  became  the 
seats  of  so  many  divine  intelligences.  Every  minutest  portion  of 
the  great  soul  became  a  partial  intelligence,  and  the  more  it  was 
disengaged  from  gross  matter,  the  more  active  and  intelligent  it 
was.  And  all  the  old  adorers  of  nature,  the  theologians,  astrolo- 
gers, and  poets,  and  the  most  distinguished  philosophers,  supposed 
that  the  stars  were  so  many  animated  and  intelligent  beings,  or 


6/O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

eternal  bodies,  active  causes  of  effects  here  below,  whom  a  princi- 
ple of  life  animated,  and  whom  an  intelligence  directed,  which 
was  but  an  emanation  from,  and  a  portion  of,  the  universal  life  and 
intelligence  of  the  world. 

The  Universe  itself  was  regarded  as  a  supremely  intelligent  be- 
ing. Such  was  the  doctrine  of  Tirr.aeus  of  Locria.  The  soul  of  man 
was  part  of  the  intelligent  soul  of  the  Universe,  and  therefore  it- 
self intelligent.  His  opinion  was  that  of  many  other  philosophers. 
Cleanthes,  a  disciple  of  ZENO,  regarded  the  Universe  as  God,  or  as 
the  unproduced  and  universal  cause  of  all  effects  produced.  He 
ascribed  a  soul  and  intelligence  to  universal  nature,  and  to  this 
intelligent  soul,  in  his  view,  divinity  belonged.  From  it  the  intel- 
ligence of  man  was  an  emanation,  and  shared  its  divinity.  Chry- 
sippus,  the  most  subtle  of  the  Stoics,  placed  in  the  universal 
reason  that  forms  the  soul  and  intelligence  of  nature,  that  divine 
force  or  essence  of  the  Divinity  which  he  assigned  to  the  world 
moved  by  the  universal  soul  that  pervades  its  every  part. 

An  interlocutor  in  Cicero's  work,  De  Natura  Deorum,  formally 
argues  that  the  Universe  is  necessarily  intelligent  and  wise,  be- 
cause man,  an  infinitely  small  portion  of  it,  is  so.  Cicero  makes  the 
same  argument  in  his  oration  for  Milo.  The  physicists  came  to 
the  same  conclusion  as  the  philosophers.  They  supposed  that 
movement  essentially  belonged  to  the  soul,  and  the  direction  of 
regular  and  ordered  movements  to  the  intelligence.  And,  as  both 
movement  and  order  exist  in  the  Universe,  therefore,  they  held, 
there  must  be  in  it  a  soul  and  an  intelligence  that  rule  it,  and  are 
not  to  be  distinguished  from  itself ;  because  the  idea  of  the  Uni- 
verse is  but  the  aggregate  of  all  the  particular  ideas  of  all  things 
that  exist. 

The  argument  was,  that  the  Heavens,  and  the  Stars  which 
make  part  of  them,  are  animated,  because  they  possess  a  portion  of 
the  Universal  Soul :  they  are  intelligent  beings,  because  that  Uni- 
versal Soul,  part  whereof  they  possess,  is  supremely  intelligent; 
and  they  share  Divinity  with  Universal  Nature,  because  Divinity 
resides  in  the  Universal  Soul  and  Intelligence  which  move  and 
rule  the  world,  and  of  each  of  which  they  hold  a  share.  By  this 
process  of  logic,  the  interlocutor  in  Cicero  assigned  Divinity  to 
the  Stars,  as  anknated  beings  gifted  with  sensibility  and  intelli- 
gence, and  composed  of  the  noblest  and  purest  portions  of  the 
ethereal  substance,  unmixed  with  matter  of  an  alien  nature,  and 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  67! 

essentially  containing  light  and  heat.  Hence  he  concluded  them 
to  be  so  many  gods,  of  an  intelligence  superior  to  that  of  other 
existences,  corresponding  to  the  lofty  height  in  which  they  moved 
with  such  perfect  regularity  and  admirable  harmony,  with  a  move- 
ment spontaneous  and  free.  Hence  he  made  them  "Gods,"  active, 
eternal,  and  intelligent  "Causes"  ;  and  peopled  the  realm  of  Heaven 
with  a  host  of  Eternal  Intelligences,  celestial  Genii  or  Angels, 
sharing  the  universal  Divinity,  and  associated  with  it  in  the 
administration  of  the  Universe,  and  the  dominion  exercised  over 
sublunary  nature  and  man. 

We  make  the  motive-force  of  the  planets  to  be  a  mechanical 
law,  which  we  explain  by  the  combination  of  two  forces,  the  cen- 
tripetal and  centrifugal,  whose  origin  we  cannot  demonstrate,  but 
whose  force  we  can  calculate.  The  ancients  regarded  them  as 
moved  by  an  intelligent  force  that  had  its  origin  in  the  first  and 
universal  Intelligence.  Is  it  so  certain,  after  all,  that  we  are  any 
nearer  the  truth  than  they  were ;  or  that  we  know  what  our  "cen- 
tripetal and  centrifugal  forces"  mean;  for  what  is  a  force?  With 
us,  the  entire  Deity  acts  upon  and  moves  each  planet,  as  He  does 
the  sap  that  circulates  in  the  little  blade  of  grass,  and  in  the  par- 
ticles of  blood  in  the  tiny  veins  of  the  invisible  rotifer.  With  the 
Ancients,  the  Deity  of  each  Star  was  but  a  portion  of  the  Uni- 
versal God,  the  Soul  of  Nature.  Each  Star  and  Planet,  with  them, 
was  moved  of  itself,  and  directed  by  its  own  special  intelligence. 
And  this  opinion  of  Achilles  Tatius,  Diodorus,  Chrysippus,  Aris- 
totle, Plato,  Heraclides  of  Pontus,  Theophrastus,  Simplicius,  Ma- 
crobius,  and  Proclus,  that  in  each  Star  there  is  an  immortal  Soul 
and  Intelligence, — part  of  the  Universal  Soul  and  Intelligence  of 
the  Whole, — this  opinion  of  Orpheus,  Plotinus,  and  the  Stoics,  was 
in  reality,  that  of  many  Christian  philosophers.  For  Origen  held 
the  same  opinion ;  and  Augustin  held  that  every  visible  thing  in 
the  world  was  superintended  by  an  Angelic  Power :  and  Cosma, 
the  Monk  believed  that  every  Star  was  under  the  guidance  of  an 
Angel ;  and  the  author  of  the  Octateuch,  written  in  the  time  of 
the  Emperor  Justin,  says  that  they  are  moved  by  the  impulse 
communicated  to  them  by  Angels  stationed  above  the  firmament. 
Whether  the  stars  were  animated,  beings,  was  a  question  that 
Christian  antiquity  did  not  decide.  Many  of  the  Christian  doc- 
tors believed  they  were.  Saint  Augustin  hesitates.  Saint  Jerome 
doubts,  if  Solomon  did  not  assign  souls  to  the  Stars.  Saint 


672  MORALS  AND  DOGMA, 

Ambrose  does  not  doubt  they  hare  souls ;  and  Pamphilus  says  that 
many  of  the  Church  believe  they  are  reasonable  beings,  while 
many  think  otherwise,  but  that  neither  one  nor  the  other  opinion 
is  heretical. 

Thus  the  Ancient  Thought,  earnest  and  sincere,  wrought  out 
the  idea  of  a  Soul  inherent  in  the  Universe  and  in  its  several 
parts.  The  next  step  was  to  separate  that  Soul  from  the  Uni- 
verse, and  give  to  it  an  external  and  independent  existence  and 
personality ;  still  omnipresent,  in  every  inch  of  space  and  in  every 
particle  of  matter,  and  yet  not  a  part  of  Nature,  but  its  Cause  and 
its  Creator.  This  is  the  middle  ground  between  the  two  doctrines, 
of  Pantheism  (or  that  all  is  God,  and  God  is  in  all  and  is  all),  on 
the  one  side,  and  Atheism  (or  that  all  is  nature,  and  there  is  no 
other  God),  on  the  other;  which  doctrines,  after  all,  when  reduced 
to  their  simplest  terms,  seem  to  be  the  same. 

We  complacently  congratulate  ourselves  on  our  recognition  of  a 
personal  God,  as  being  the  conception  most  suited  to  human  sym- 
pathies, and  exempt  from  the  mystifications  of  Pantheism.  But 
the  Divinity  remains  still  a  mystery,  notwithstanding  all  the  de- 
vices which  symbolism,  either  from  the  organic  or  inorganic  crea- 
tion, can  supply ;  and  personification  is  itself  a  symbol,  liable  to 
misapprehension  as  much  as,  if  not  more  so  than,  any  other,  since 
it  is  apt  to  degenerate  into  a  mere  reflection  of  our  own  infirmi- 
ties ;  and  hence  any  affirmative  idea  or  conception  that  we  can,  in 
our  own  minds,  picture  of  the  Deity,  must  needs  be  infinitely  in- 
adequate. 

The  spirit  of  the  Vedas  (or  sacred  Indian  Books,  of  great  an- 
tiquity), as  understood  by  their  earliest  as  well  as  most  recent 
expositors,  is  decidedly  a  pantheistic  monotheism — one  God,  and 
He  all  in  all ;  the  many  divinities,  numerous  as  the  prayers  ad- 
dressed to  them,  being  resolvable  into  the  titles  and  attributes  of 
a  few,  and  ultimately  into  THE  ONE.  The  machinery  of  personifi- 
cation was  understood  to  have  been  unconsciously  assumed  as  a 
mere  expedient  to  supply  the  deficiencies  of  language ;  and  the 
Mimansa  justly  considered  itself  as  only  interpreting  the  true 
meaning  of  the  Mantras,  when  it  proclaimed  that,  in  the  begin- 
ning, "Nothing  was  but  Mind,  the  Creative  Thought  of  Him 
which  existed  alone  from  the  beginning,  and  breathed  without 
affiation."  The  idea  suggested  in  the  Mantras  is  dogmatically 
asserted  and  developed  in  the  Upanischadas.  The  Vedanta  phi- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  673 

losophy,  assuming  the  mystery  of  the  "ONE  IN  MANY"  as  the  fun- 
damental article  of  faith,  maintained  not  only  the  Divine  Unity, 
but  the  identity  of  matter  and  spirit.  The  unity  which  it  advo- 
cates is  that  of  mind.  Mind  is  the  Universal  Element,  the  One 
God,  the  Great  Soul,  Mahaatma.  He  is  the  material  as  well  as 
efficient  cause,  and  the  world  5s  a  texture  of  which  he  is  both  the 
web  and  the  weaver.  He  is  the  Macrocosmos,  the  universal 
organism  called  Pooroosha,  of  which  Fire,  Air,  and  Sun  are  only 
the  chief  members.  His  head  is  light,  his  eyes  the  sun  and  moon, 
his  breath  the  wind,  his  voice  the  opened  Vedas.  All  proceeds 
from  Brahm,  like  the  web  from  the  spider  and  the  grass  from  the 
earth. 

Yet  it  is  only  the  impossibility  of  expressing  in  language  the 
origination  of  matter  from  spirit,  which  gives  to  Hindu  philoso- 
phy the  appearance  of  materialism.  Formless  Himself,  the  Deity 
is  present  in  all  forms.  His  glory  is  displayed  in  the  Universe  as 
the  image  of  the  sun  in  water,  which  is,  yet  is  not,  the  luminary 
itself.  All  maternal  agency  and  appearance,  the  subjective  world, 
are  to  a  great  extent  phantasms,  the  notional  representations  of 
ignorance.  They  occupy,  however,  a  middle  ground  between 
reality  and  non-reality ;  they  are  unreal,  because  nothing  exists 
but  Brahm ;  yet  in  some  degree  real,  inasmuch  as  they  constitute 
an  outward  manifestation  of  him.  They  are  a  self-induced  hypos- 
tasis  of  the  Deity,  under  which  He  presents  to  Himself  the  whole 
of  animate  and  inanimate  Nature,  the  actuality  of  the  moment, 
the  diversified  appearances  which  successively  invest  the  one  Pan- 
theistic Spirit. 

The  great  aim  of  reason  is  to  generalize ;  to  discover  unity  in 
multiplicity,  order  in  apparent  confusion ;  to  separate  from  the 
accidental  and  the  transitory,  the  stable  and  universal.  In  the 
contemplation  of  Nature,  and  the  vague,  but  almost  intuitive  per- 
ception of  a  general  uniformity  of  plan  among  endless  varieties  of 
operation  and  form,  arise  those  solemn  and  reverential  feelings, 
which,  if  accompanied  by  intellectual  activity,  may  eventually 
ripen  into  philosophy. 

Consciousness  of  self  and  of  personal  identity  is  co-existent  with 
our  existence.  We  cannot  conceive  of  mental  existence  withouc 
it.  It  is  not  the  work  of  reflection  nor  of  logic,  nor  the  result  of 
observation,  experiment,  and  experience.  It  is  a  gift  from  God, 
like  instinct;  and  that  consciousness  of  a  thinking  soul  which  is 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

really  tlie  person  that  we  are,  and  other  than  our  body,  is  the  best 
and  most  solid  proof  of  the  soul's  existence.  We  have  the  same 
consciousness  of  a  Power  on  which  we  are  dependent ;  which  we 
can  define  and  form  an  idea  or  picture  of,  as  little  as  we  can  of  the 
soul,  and  yet  which  we  feel,  and  therefore  know,  exists.  True  and 
correct  ideas  of  that  Power,  of  the  Absolute  Existence  from  which 
all  proceeds,  we  cannot  trace ;  if  by  true  and  correct  we  mean  ad- 
equate ideas ;  for  of  such  we  are  not,  with  our  limited  faculties, 
capable.  And  ideas  of  His  nature,  so  far  correct  as  we  are  capa- 
ble of  entertaining,  can  only  be  attained  either  by  direct  inspira- 
tion or  by  the  investigations  of  philosophy. 

The  idea  of  the  universal  preceded  the  recognition  of  any  sys- 
tem for  its  explanation.  It  was  felt  rather  than  understood ;  and 
it  was  long  before  the  grand  conception  on  which  all  philosophy 
rests  received  through  deliberate  investigation  that  analytical  de- 
velopment which  might  properly  entitle  it  to  the  name.  The  sen- 
timent, when  first  observed  by  the  self-conscious  mind,  was,  say.« 
Plato,  "a  Divine  gift,  communicated  to  mankind  by  some  Prome 
theus,  or  by  those  ancients  who  lived  nearer  to  the  gods  than  oui 
degenerate  selves."  The  mind  deduced  from  its  first  experiences 
the  notion  of  a  general  Cause  or  Antecedent,  to  which  it  shortly 
gave  a  name  and  personified  it.  This  was  the  statement  of  a  the- 
orem, obscure  in  proportion  to  its  generality.  It  explained  all 
things  but  itself.  It  was  a  true  cause,  but  an  incomprehensible 
one.  Ages  had  to  pass  before  the  nature  of  the  theorem  could  be 
rightly  appreciated,  and  before  men,  acknowledging  the  First 
Cause  to  be  an  object  of  faith  rather  than  science,  were  contented 
to  confine  their  researches  to  those  nearer  relations  of  existence 
and  succession,  which  are  really  within  the  reach  of  their  faculties. 
At  first,  and  for  a  long  time,  the  intellect  deserted  the  real  for  a 
hastily-formed  ideal  world,  and  the  imagination  usurped  the  place 
of  reason,  in  attempting  to  put  a  construction  on  the  most  gen- 
eral and  inadequate  of  conceptions,  by  transmuting  its  symbols 
into  realities,  and  by  substantializing  it  under  a  thousand  arbitrary 
forms. 

In  poetry,  the  idea  of  Divine  unity  became,  as  in  Nature,  ob- 
scured by  a  multifarious  symbolism ;  and  the  notionalities  of 
transcendental  philosophy  reposed  on  views  of  nature  scarcely 
more  profound  than  those  of  the  earliest  symbolists.  Yet  the  idea 
of  unity  was  rather  obscured  than  extinguished ;  and  Xenophanes 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  675 

appeared  as  an  enemy  of  Homer,  only  because  he  more  emphatic- 
ally insisted  on  the  monotheistic  element,  which,  in  poetry,  has 
been  comparatively  overlooked.  The  first  philosophy  reasserted 
the  unity  which  poetry  had  lost ;  but  being  unequal  to  investigate 
its  nature,  it  again  resigned  it  to  the  world  of  approximate  sensa- 
tions, and  became  bewildered  in  materialism,  considering  the  con- 
ceptional  whole  or  First  Element  as  some  refinement  of  matter, 
unchangeable  in  its  essence,  though  subject  to  mutations  of  qual- 
ity and  form  in  an  eternal  succession  of  seeming  decay  and  regen- 
eration ;  comparing  it  to  water,  air,  or  fire,  as  each  endeavored  to 
refine  on  the  doctrine  of  his  predecessor,  or  was  influenced  by  a 
different  class  of  theological  traditions. 

In  the  philosophical  systems,  the  Divine  Activity,  divided  by  the 
poets  and  by  popular  belief  among  a  race  of  personifications,  in 
whom  the  idea  of  descent  replaced  that  of  cause,  or  of  pantheistic 
evolution,  was  restored,  without  subdivision  or  reservation,  to 
nature  as  a  whole ;  at  first  as  a  mechanical  force  or  life;  afterward 
as  an  all-pervading  sonl  or  inherent  thought;  and  lastly  as  an 
external  directing  Intelligence. 

The  Ionian  revival  of  pantheism  was  materialistic.  The  Moving 
Force  was  inseparable  from  a  material  element,  a  subtle  yet 
visible  ingredient.  Under  the  form  of  air  or  fire,  the  principle  of 
life  was  associated  with  the  most  obvious  material  machinery  of 
nature.  Everything,  it  was  said,  is  alive  and  full  of  gods.  The 
wonders  of  the  volcano,  the  magnet,  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide, 
were  vital  indications,  the  breathing  or  moving  of  the  Great 
World-Animal.  The  imperceptible  ether  of  Anaximenes  had  no 
positive  quality  beyond  the  atmospheric  air  with  which  it  was 
easily  confused :  and  even  the  "Infinite"  of  Anaximander,  though 
free  of  the  conditions  of  quality  or  quantity,  was  only  an  ideal 
chaos,  relieved  of  its  coarseness  by  negations.  It  was  the  illimit- 
able storehouse  or  Pleroma,  out  of  which  is  evolved  the  endless 
circle  of  phenomenal  change.  A  moving  Force  was  recognized  in, 
but  not  clearly  distinguished  from,  the  material.  Space,  Time, 
Figure,  and  Number,  and  other  common  forms  or  properties,  which 
exist  only  as  attributes,  were  treated  as  substances,  or  at  least  as 
making  a  substantial  connection  between  the  objects  to  which 
they  belong:  and  all  the  conditions  of  material  existence  were 
supposed  to  have  been  evolved  out  of  the  Pythagorean  Monad. 

The    Eleatic    philosophers    treated    conceptions    not    only    as 


676  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

entities,  but  as  the  only  entities,  alone  possessing  the  stability  and 
certainty  and  reality  vainly  sought  among  phenomena.  The  only 
reality  was  Thought.  "All  real  existence,"  they  said,  "is  mental 
existence;  non-existence,  being  inconceivable,  is  therefore  impossi- 
ble ;  existence  fills  up  the  whole  range  of  thought,  and  is  insepa- 
rable from  its  exercise;  thought  and  its  object  are  one." 

Xenophanes  used  ambiguous  language,  applicable  to  the  mate- 
rial as  well  as  to  the  mental,  and  exclusively  appropriate  to  neither. 
In  other  words,  he  availed  himself  of  material  imagery  to  illustrate 
an  indefinite  meaning.  In  announcing  the  universal  being,  he 
appealed  to  the  heavens  as  the  visible  manifestation,  calling  it 
spherical,  a  term  borrowed  from  the  material  world.  He  said  that 
God  was  neither  moved  nor  unmoved,  limited  nor  unlimited.  He 
did  not  even  attempt  to  express  clearly  what  cannot  be  conceived 
clearly ;  admitting,  says  Simplicius,  that  such  speculations  were 
above  physics.  Parmenides  employed  similar  expedients,  com- 
paring his  metaphysical  Deity  to  a  sphere,  or  to  heat,  an  aggregate 
or  a  continuity,  and  so  involuntarily  withdrawing  its  nominal 
attributes. 

The  Atomic  school,  dividing  the  All  into  Matter  and  Force, 
deemed  matter  unchangeable  in  its  ultimate  constitution,  though 
infinitely  variable  in  its  resultant  forms.  They  made  all  variety 
proceed  from  the  varied  combinations  of  atoms ;  but  they  required 
no  mover  nor  director  of  the  atoms  external  to  themselves  ;  no  uni- 
versal Reason  ;  but  a  Mechanical  Eternal  Necessity,  like  that  of 
the  Poets.  Still  it  is  doubtful  whether  there  ever  was  a  time 
when  reason  could  be  said  to  be  entirely  asleep,  a  stranger  to  its 
own  existence,  notwithstanding  this  apparent  materialism.  The 
earliest  contemplation  of  the  external  world,  which  brings  it  into 
an  imagined  association  with  ourselves,  assigns,  either  to  its  whole 
or  its  parts,  the  sensation  and  volition  which  belong  to  our  own 
souls. 

Anaxagoras  admitted  the  existence  of  ultimate  elementary 
particles,  as  Empedocles  did,  from  the  combinations  whereof  all 
material  phenomena  resulted.  But  he  asserted  the  Moving  Force 
to  be  Mind ;  and  yet,  though  he  clearly  saw  the  impossibility  of 
advancing  by  illustration  or  definition  beyond  a  reasonable  faith, 
or  a  simple  negation  of  materiality,  yet  he  could  not  wholly  desist 
from  the  endeavor  to  illustrate  the  nature  of  this  non-matter  or 
mind,  by  symbols  drawn  from  those  physical  considerations  which 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  6/7 

decided  him  in  placing  it  in  a  separate  category.  \Yhether  as  hu- 
man reason,  or  as  the  regulating  Principle  in  nature,  he  held  it  dif- 
ferent from  all  other  things  in  character  and  effect,  and  that  there- 
fore it  must  necessarily  differ  in  its  essential  'constitution.  It  was 
neither  Matter,  nor  a  Force  conjoined  with  matter,  or  homoge- 
neous with  it,  but  independent  and  generically  distinct,  especially 
in  this,  that,  being  the  source  of  all  motion,  separation,  and  cogni- 
tion, it  is  something  entirely  unique,  pure,  and  unmixed ;  and  so, 
being  unhindered  by  any  interfering  influence  limiting  its  inde- 
pendence of  individual  action,  it  has  Supreme  Empire  over  all 
things,  over  the  vortex  of  worlds  as  well  as  over  all  that  live  in 
them.  It  is  most  penetrating  and  powerful,  mixing  with  other 
things,  though  no  other  thing  mixes  with  it;  exercises  universal 
control  and  cognition,  and  includes  the  Necessity  of  the  Poets,  as 
well  as  the  independent  power  of  thought  which  we  exercise 
within  ourselves.  In  short,  it  is  the  self-conscious  power  of 
thought  extended  to  the  Universe,  and  exalted  into  the  Supreme 
External  Mind  which  sees,  knows,  and  directs  all  things. 

Thus  Pantheism  and  Materialism  were  both  avoided ;  and  mat- 
ter, though  as  infinitely  varied  as  the  senses  represent  it,  was  held 
in  a  bond  of  unity  transferred  to  a  ruling  power  apart  from  it. 
That  Power  could  not  be  Prime  Mover,  if  it  were  itself  moved ; 
nor  All-Governing,  if  not  apart  from  the  things  it  governs.  If 
the  arranging  Principle  were  inherent  in  matter,  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  account  for  the  existence  of  a  chaos :  if  some- 
thing external,  then  the  old  Ionian  doctrine  of  a  "beginning" 
became  more  easily  conceivable,  as  being  the  epoch  at  which  the 
Arranging  Intelligence  commenced  its  operations. 

But  this  grand  idea  of  an  all-governing  independent  mind  in- 
volved difficulties  which  proved  insuperable ;  because  it  gave  to 
matter,  in  the  form  of  chaos,  an  independent  and  eternal  self-ex- 
istence, and  so  introduced  a  dualism  of  mind  and  matter.  In  the 
Mind  or  Intelligence,  Anaxagoras  included  not  only  life  and  mo- 
tion, but  the  moral  principles  of  the  noble  and  good  ;  and  proba- 
bly used  the  term  on  account  of  the  popular  misapplication  of  the 
word  "God,"  and  as  being  less  liable  to  misconstruction,  and 
more  specifically  'marking  his  idea.  His  "Intelligence"  principle 
remained  practically  liable  to  many  of  the  same  defects  as  the 
"Necessity"  of  the  poets.  It  was  the  presentiment  of  a  great 
idea,  which  it  was  for  the  time  impossible  to  explain  or  follow  out. 

44 


678  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

It  was  not  yet  intelligible,  nor  was  even  the  road  opened  through 
which  it  might  be  approached. 

Mind  cannot  advance  in  metaphysics  beyond  self-deification. 
In  attempting  to  go  further,  it  only  enacts  the  apotheosis  of  its 
o\vn  subtle  conceptions,  and  so  sinks  below  the  simpler  ground 
already  taken.  The  realities  which  Plato  could  not  recognize  in 
phenomena,  he  discovered  within  his  own  mind,  and  as  unhesitat- 
ingly as  the  old  Theosophists  installed  its  creations  among  the 
gods.  He,  like  most  philosophers  after  Anaxagoras,  made  the 
Supreme  Being  to  be  Intelligence ;  but  in  other  respects  left  His 
nature  undefined,  or  rather  indefinite  through  the  variety  of  defi- 
nitions, a  conception  vaguely  floating  between  Theism  and  Pan- 
theism. Though  deprecating  the  demoralizing  tendencies  of 
poetry,  he  was  too  wise  to  attempt  to  replace  them  by  other  rep- 
resentations of  a  positive  kind.  He  justly  says,  that  spiritual 
things  can  be  made  intelligible  only  through  figures ;  and  the 
forms  of  allegorical  expression  which,  in  a  rude  age,  had  been 
adopted  unconsciously,  were  designedly  chosen  by  the  philosopher 
as  the  most  appropriate  vehicles  for  theological  ideas. 

As  the  devices  of  symbolism  were  gradually  stripped  away,  in 
order,  if  possible,  to  reach  the  fundamental  conception,  the  reli- 
gious feeling  habitually  connected  with  it  seemed  to  evaporate 
under  the  process.  And  yet  the  advocates  of  Monotheism,  Xeno- 
phanes  and  Heraclitus,  declaimed  only  against  the  making  of 
gods  in  human  form.  They  did  not  attempt  to  strip  nature  of  its 
divinity,  but  rather  to  recall  religious  contemplation  from  an  ex- 
ploded symbolism  to  a  purer  one.  They  continued  the  veneration 
which,  in  the  background  of  poetry,  has  been  maintained  for  Sun 
and  Stars,  the  Fire  or  Ether.  Socrates  prostrated  himself  before 
the  rising  luminary ;  and  the  eternal  spheres,  which  seem  to  have 
shared  the  religious  homage  of  Xenophanes,  retained  a  secondary 
and  qualified  Divinity  in  the  Schools  of  the  Peripatetics  and 
Stoics. 

The  unseen  being  or  beings  revealed  only  to  the  Intellect  be- 
came the  theme  of  philosophy ;  and  their  more  ancient  symbols, 
if  not  openly  discredited,  were  passed  over  with  evasive  generality, 
as  beings  respecting  whose  problematical  existence  we  must  be 
"content  with  what  has  been  reported  by  those  ancients,  who,  as- 
suming to  be  their  descendants,  must  therefore  be  supposed  to 
have  been  well  acquainted  with  their  own  ancestors  and  family 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRIXCE  ADEPT.  679 

connections."  And  the  Theism  of  Anaxagoras  was  still  more  de- 
cidedly subversive,  not  only  of  Mythology,  but  of  the  whole  reli- 
gion of  outward  nature ;  it  being  an  appeal  trom  the  world  with- 
out, to  the  consciousness  of  spiritual  dignity  within  man. 

In  the  doctrines  of  Aristotle,  the  world  moves  on  uninterrupt- 
edly, always  changing,  yet  ever  the  same,  like  Time,  the  Eternal 
Now,  knowing  neither  repose  nor  death.  There  is  a  principle 
which  makes  good  the  failure  of  identity,  by  multiplying  resem- 
blances; the  destruction  of  the  individual  by  an  eternal  renewal 
of  the  form  in  which  matter  is  manifested.  This  regular  eternal 
movement  implies  an  Eternal  Mover ;  not  an  inert  Eternity,  such 
as  the  Platonic  Eidos,  but  one  always  acting,  His  essence  being  to 
act,  for  otherwise  he  might  never  have  acted,  and  the  existence  of 
the  world  would  be  an  accident ;  for  what  should  have,  in  that 
case,  decided  Him  to  act,  after  long  inactivity?  Nor  can  He  be 
partly  >n  act  and  partly  potential,  that  is,  quiescent  and  undeter- 
mined to  act  or  not  to  act,  for  even  in  that  case  motion  would  not 
be  eternal,  but  contingent  and  precarious.  He  is  therefore  wholly 
in  act,  a  pure,  untiring  activity,  and  for  the  same  reasons  wholly 
immaterial.  Thus  Aristotle  avoided  the  idea  that  God  was  inact- 
ive and  self-contemplative  for  an  eternity,  and  then  for  some  un- 
known reason,  or  by  some  unknown  motive,  commenced  to  act 
outwardly  and  produce ;  but  he  incurred  the  opposite  hazard,  of 
making  the  result  of  His  action,  matter  and  the  Universe,  be  co- 
existent with  Himself ;  or,  in  other  words,  of  denying  that  there 
was  any  time  when  His  outward  action  commenced. 

The  First  Cause,  he  said,  unmoved,  moves  all.  Act  was  first,  and 
the  Universe  has  existed  forever;  one  persistent  cause  directing 
its  continuity.  The  unity  of  the  First  Mover  follows  from  His 
immateriality.  If  He  \vere  not  Himself  unmoved,  the  series  of 
motions  and  causes  of  motion  would  be  infinite.  Unmoved,  there- 
fore, and  unchangeable  Himself,  all  movement,  even  that  in  space, 
is  caused  by  Him :  He  is  necessary :  He  cannot  be  otherwise  than 
as  He  is ;  and  it  is  only  through  the  necessity  of  His  being  that 
we  can  account  for  those  necessary  eternal  relations  which  make  a 
science  of  Being  possible.  Thus  Aristotle  leaned  to  a  seemingly 
personal  God ;  not  a  Being  of  parts  and  passions,  like  the  God  of 
the  Hebrews,  or  that  of  the  mass  even  of  educated  men  in  our  own 
day,  but  a  Substantial  Head  of  all  the  categories  of  being,  an 
Individuality  of  Intelligence,  the  dogma  of  Anaxagoras  revived 


680  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

out  of  a  more  elaborate  and  profound  analysis  of  Nature ;  some- 
thing like  that  living  unambiguous  Principle  which  the  old  poets. 
in  advance  of  the  materialistic  cosmogonists  from  Night  and 
Chaos,  had  discovered  in  Ouranos  or  Zeus.  Soon,  however,  the 
vision  of  personality  is  withdrawn,  and  we  reach  that  culminating 
point  of  thought  where  the  real  blends  with  the  ideal ;  where 
moral  action  and  objective  thought  (that  is,  thought  exercised  as 
to  anything  outside  of  itself),  as  well  as  the  material  body,  are 
excluded ;  and  where  the  divine  action  in  the  world  retains  its 
veil  of  impenetrable  mystery,  and  to  the  utmost  ingenuity  of 
research  presents  but  a  contradiction.  At  this  extreme,  the 
series  of  efficient  causes  resolves  itself  into  the  Final  Cause. 
That  which  moves,  itself  iwmoved,  can  only  be  the  immobility  of 
Thought  or  Form.  God  is  both  formal,  efficient,  and  final  cause ; 
the  One  Form  comprising  all  forms,  the  one  good  including  all 
good,  the  goal  of  the  longing  of  the  University,  moving  the  world 
as  the  object  of  love  or  rational  desire  moves  the  individual.  lie 
is  the  internal  or  self-realized  Final  Cause,  having  no  end  beyond 
Himself.  He  is  no  moral  agent ;  for  if  He  were.  He  would  be  but 
an  instrument  for  producing  something  still  higher  and  greater. 
One  sort  of  act  only,  activity  of  mind  or  thought,  can  be  assigned 
to  Him  who  is  at  once  all  act  yet  all  repose.  What  we  call  our 
highest  pleasure,  which  distinguishes  wakefulness  and  sensation, 
and  which  gives  a  reflected  charm  to  hope  and  memory,  is  with 
Him  perpetual.  His  existence  is  unbroken  enjoyment  of  that  which 
is  most  excellent  but  only  temporary  with  us.  The  divine  quality 
of  active  and  yet  tranquil  self-contemplation  characterizing  intelli- 
gence, is  pre-eminently  possessed  by  the  divine  mind  ;  His  thought, 
which  is  His  existence,  being,  unlike  ours,  unconditional  and  whol- 
ly act.  If  He  can  receive  any  gratification  or  enjoyment  from  that 
which  exists  beyond  Himself,  He  can  also  be  displeased  and  pained 
with  it,  and  then  He  would  be  an  imperfect  being.  To  suppose 
pleasure  experienced  by  Him  from  anything  outward,  supposes  an 
insufficient  prior  enjoyment  and  happiness,  and  a  sort  of  depen- 
dency. Man's  Good  is  beyond  himself;  not  so  God's.  The  eternal 
act  which  produces  the  world's  life  is  the  eternal  desire  of  good. 
The  object  of  the  Absolute  Thought  is  the  Absolute  Good.  Nature 
is  all  movement,  and  Thought  all  repose.  In  contemplating  that 
absolute  good,  the  Finality  can  contemplate  only  itself  ;and  thusi 
all  material  interference  being  excluded,  the  distinction  of  subject 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  68l 

and  object  vanishes  in  complete  identification,  and  the  Divine 
Thought  is  "the  thinking  of  thought."  The  energy  of  mind  is  life, 
and  God  is  that  energy  in  its  purity  and  perfection.  He  is  therefore 
life  itself,  eternal  and  perfect ;  and  this  sums  up  all  that  is  meant 
by  the  term  "God."  And  yet,  after  all  this  transcendentalism, 
the  very  essence  of  thought  consists  in  its  mobility  and  power 
of  transference  from  object  to  object;  and  we  can  conceive  of  no 
thought,  without  an  object  beyond  itself,  about  which  to  think, 
or  of  any  activity  in  mere  self-contemplation,  without  outward 
act,  movement,  or  manifestation. 

Plato  endeavors  to  show  how  the  Divine  Principle  of  Good 
becomes  realized  in  Nature :  Aristotle's  system  is  a  vast  analogical 
induction  to  prove  how  all  Nature  tends  toward  a  final  good. 
Plato  considered  Soul  as  a  principle  of  movement,  and  made  his 
Deity  realize,  that  is,  turn  into  realities,  his  ideas  as  a  free,  intel- 
ligent Force.  Aristotle,  for  whom  Soul  is  the  motionless  centre 
from  which  motion  radiates,  and  to  which  it  converges,  conceives 
a  correspondingly  unmoved  God.  The  Deity  of  Plato  creates, 
superintends,  and  rejoices  in  the  universal  joy  of,  His  creatures. 
That  of  Aristotle  is  the  perfection  of  man's  intellectual  activity 
extended  to  the  Universe.  When  he  makes  the  Deity  to  be  an  eter- 
nal act  of  self-contemplation,  the  world  is  not  excluded  from  His 
cognizance,  for  He  contemplates  it  within  Himself.  Apart  from 
and  beyond  the  world,  He  yet  mysteriously  intermingles  with  it. 
He  is  universal  as  well  as  individual ;  His  agency  is  necessary  and 
general,  yet  also  makes  the  real  and  the  good  of  the  particular. 

When  Plato  had  given  to  the  unformed  world  the  animal  life 
of  the  lonians,  and  added  to  that  the  Anaxagorean  Intelligence, 
overruling  the  wild  principle  of  Necessity ;  and  when  to  Intelli- 
gence was  added  Beneficence  ;  and  the  dread  Wardours,  Force  and 
Strength,  were  made  subordinate  to  Mildness  and  Goodness,  it 
seemed  as  if  a  further  advance  were  impossible,  and  that  the  Deity 
could  not  be  more  than  The  Wise  and  The  Good. 

But  the  contemplation  of  the  Good  implies  that  of  its  opposite, 
Evil.  When  God  is  held  to  be  "The  Good,"  it  is  not  because 
Evil  is  unknown,  but  because  it  is  designedly  excluded  from  His 
attributes.  But  if  Evil  be  a  separate  and  independent  existence, 
how  would  it  fare  with  His  prerogative  of  Unity  and  Supremacy? 
To  meet  this  dilemma,  it  remained  only  to  fall  back  on  something 
more  or  less  akin  to  the  vagueness  of  antiquity ;  to  make  a  virtual 


682  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

confession  of  ignorance,  to  deny  the  ultimate  reality  of  evil,  like 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  or,  with  Speusippus,  the  eternity  of  its  anti- 
thetical existence,  to  surmise  that  it  is  only  one  of  those  notions 
which  are  indeed  provisionally  indispensable  in  a  condition  of 
finite  knowledge,  but  of  which  so  many  have  been  already  discredi- 
ted by  the  advance  of  philosophy ;  to  revert,  in  short,  to  the  original 
conception  of  "The  Absolute,"  or  of  a  single  Being,  in  whom  all 
mysteries  are  explained,  and  before  whom  the  disturbing  principle 
is  reduced  to  a  mere  turbid  spot  on  the  ocean  of  Eternity,  which 
to  the  eye  of  faith  may  be  said  no  longer  to  exist. 

But  the  absolute  is  nearly  allied  to  the  non-existent.  Matter 
and  evil  obtruded  themselves  too  constantly  and  convincingly  to 
be  confuted  or  cancelled  by  subtleties  of  Logic.  It  is  in  vain  to 
attempt  to  merge  the  world  in  God,  while  the  world  of  experience 
exhibits  contrariety,  imperfection,  and  mutability,  instead  of  the 
immutability  of  its  source.  Philosophy  was  but  another  name 
for  uncertainty ;  and  after  the  mind  had  successively  deified  Nature 
and  its  own  conceptions,  without  any  practical  result  but  toilsome 
occupation  ;  when  the  reality  it  sought,  without  or  within,  seemed 
ever  to  elude  its  grasp,  the  intellect,  baffled  in  its  higher  flights, 
sought  advantage  and  repose  in  aiming  at  truth  of  a  lower  but 
more  applicable  kind. 

The  Deity  of  Plato  is  a  Being  proportioned  to  human  sympa- 
thies ;  the  Father  of  the  World,  as  well  as  its  Creator ;  the  author 
of  good  only,  not  of  evil.  "Envy,"  he  says,  "is  far  removed 
from  celestial  beings,  and  man,  if  willing,  and  braced  for  the  effort, 
is  permitted  to  aspire  to  a  communion  with  the  solemn  troops  and 
sweet  societies  of  Heaven.  God  is  the  Idea  or  Essence  of  Goodness, 
the  Good  itself  [ro  afa&ov];  in  goodness,  He  created  the 
World,  and  gave  to  it  the  greatest  perfection  of  which  it  was 
susceptible ;  making  it,  as  far  as  possible,  an  image  of  Himself. 
The  sublime  type  of  all  excellence  is  an  object  not  only  of  ven- 
eration but  love."  The  Sages  of  old  had  already  intimated  in 
enigmas  that  God  is  the  Author  of  Good ;  that  like  the  Sun  in 
Heaven,  or  ^sculapius  on  earth,  He  is  "Healer,"  "Saviour,"  and 
"Redeemer,"  the  destroyer  and  averter  of  Evil,  ever  healing  the  mis- 
chiefs inflicted  by  Here,  the  wanton  or  irrational  power  of  nature. 
Plato  only  asserts  with  more  distinctness  the  dogma  of  antiquity 
when  lie  recognizes  LOVE  as  the  highest  and  most  beneficent  of 
gods,  who  gives  to  nature  the  invigorating  energy  restored  by  the 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRIXCF.  ADEPT.  683 

art  of  medicine  to  the  body ;  since  Love  is  emphatically  the  phy- 
sician of  the  Universe,  the  ^sculapius  to  whom  Socrates  wished 
to  sacrifice  in  the  hour  of  his  death. 

A  figurative  idea,  adopted  from  familiar  imagery,  gave  that  en- 
dearing aspect  to  the  divine  connection  with  the  Universe  which 
had  commanded  the  earliest  assent  of  the  sentiments,  until,  rising 
in  refinement  with  the  progress  of  mental  cultivation,  it  ultimately 
established  itself  as  firmly  in  the  deliberate  approbation  of  the 
understanding,  as  it  had  ever  responded  to  the  sympathies.  Even 
the  rude  Scythians,  Bithynians,  and  Scandinavians,  called  God 
their  "Father" ;  all  nations  traced  their  ancestry  more  or  less 
directly  to  Heaven.  The  Hyperborean  Olen,  one  of  the  oldest 
symbols  of  the  religious  antiquity  of  Greece,  made  Love  the  First- 
born of  Nature.  Who  will  venture  to  pronounce  at  what  time 
God  was  first  worthily  and  truly  honored,  or  when  man  first 
began  to  feel  aright  the  mute  eloquence  of  nature  ?  In  the  obscure 
physics  of  the  mystical  Theologers  who  preceded  Greek  philoso- 
phy, Love  was  the  Great  First  Cause  and  Parent  of  the  Universe. 
"Zeus,"  says  Proclus,  "when  entering  upon  the  work  of  creation, 
changed  Himself  into  the  form  of  Love :  and  He  brought  forward 
Aphrodite,  the  principle  of  Unity  and  Universal  Harmony,  to 
display  her  light  to  all.  In  the  depths  of  His  mysterious  being, 
He  contains  the  principle  of  love  within  Himself ;  in  Him  creative 
wisdom  and  blessed  love  are  united." 

"From  the  first 

Of  Days  on  these  his  love  divine  be  fixed, 
His  admiration  ;  till  in  time  complete 
What  he  admired  and  loved,  his  vital  smile 
Unfolded  into  being." 

The  speculators  of  the  venerable  East,  who  had  conceived  the 
idea  of  an  Eternal  Being  superior  to  all  affection  and  change,  in 
his  own  sufficiency  enjoying  a  plenitude  of  serene  and  independ- 
ent bliss,  were  led  to  inquire  into  the  apparently  inconsistent 
fact  of  the  creation  of  the  world.  Why,  they  asked,  did  He,  who 
required  nothing  external  to  Himself  to  complete  His  already- 
existing  Perfection,  come  forth  out  of  His  unrevealed  and  perfect 
existence,  and  become  incorporated  in  the  vicissitudes  of  nature? 
The  solution  of  the  difficulty  was  Love.  The  Great  Being  beheld 
the  beauty  of  His  own  conception,  which  dwelt  with  Him  alone 
from  the  beginning,  Maia,  or  Nature's  loveliness,  at  once  the  germ 


684  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  passion  and  the  source  of  worlds.  Love  became  the  universal 
parent,  when  the  Deity,  before  remote  and  inscrutable,  became 
ideally  separated  into  the  loving  and  the  beloved. 

And  here  again  recurs  the  ancient  difficulty ;  that,  at  whatever 
early  period  this  creation  occurred,  an  eternity  had  previously 
elapsed,  during  vhich  God,  dwelling  alone  in  His  unimpeached 
unity,  had  no  object  for  His  love ;  and  that  the  very  word  im- 
plies to  us  an  existing  object  toward  which  the  love  is  directed ;  so 
that  we  cannot  conceive  of  love  in  the  absence  of  any  object  to  be 
loved ;  and  therefore  we  again  return  to  this  point,  that  if  love  is 
of  God's  essence,  and  He  is  unchangeable,  the  same  necessity  of 
His  nature,  supposed  to  have  caused  creation,  must  ever  have 
made  His  existence  without  an  object  to  love  impossible :  and  so 
that  the  Universe  must  have  been  co-existent  with  Himself. 

The  questions  how  and  why  evil  exists  in  the  Universe :  how  its 
existence  is  to  be  reconciled  with  the  admitted  wisdom  and  good- 
ness and  omnipotence  of  God ;  and  how  far  man  is  a  free  agent,  or 
controlled  by  an  inexorable  necessity  or  destiny,  have  two  sides. 
On  one,  they  are  questions  as  to  the  qualities  and  attributes  of 
God ;  for  we  must  infer  His  moral  nature  from  His  mode  of  gov- 
erning the  Universe,  and  they  ever  enter  into  any  consideration  of 
His  intellectual  nature :  and  on  the  other,  they  directly  concern 
the  moral  responsibility,  and  therefore  the  destiny,  of  man.  All- 
important,  therefore,  in  both  points  of  view,  they  have  been  much 
discussed  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  and  have  no  doubt  urged  men, 
more  than  all  other  questions  have,  to  endeavor  to  fathom  the 
profound  mysteries  of  the  Nature  and  the  mode  of  Existence  and 
action  of  an  incomprehensible  God. 

And,  with  these,  still  another  question  also  presents  itself: 
whether  the  Deity  governs  the  Universe  by  fixed  and  unalterable 
laws,  or  by  special  Providences  and  interferences,  so  that  He  may 
be  induced  to  change  His  course  and  the  results  of  human  or 
material  action,  by  prayer  and  supplication. 

God  alone  is  all-powerful :  but  the  human  soul  has  in  all  ages 
asserted  its  claim  to  be  considered  as  part  of  the  Divine.  "The 
purity  of  the  spirit,"  says  Van  Helmont,  "is  shown  through  energy 
and  efficaciousness  of  will.  God,  by  the  agency  of  an  infinite  will, 
created  the  Universe,  and  the  same  sort  of  power  in  an  inferior 
degree,  limited  more  or  less  by  external  hindrances,  exists  in  all 
spiritual  beings."  The  higher  we  ascend  in  antiquity,  the  more 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  685 

does  prayer  take  the  form  of  incantation ;  and  that  form  it  still  in 
a  great  degree  retains,  since  the.  rites  of  public  worship  are  gen- 
erally considered  not  merely  as  an  expression  of  trust  or  reverence, 
as  real  spiritual  acts,  the  effect  of  which  is  looked  for  only  within 
the  mind  of  the  worshipper,  but  as  acts  from  which  some  direct 
outward  result  is  anticipated,  the  attainment  of  some  desired 
object,  of  health  or  wealth,  of  supernatural  gifts  for  body  or 
soul,  of  exemption  from  danger,  or  vengeance  upon  enemies. 
Prayer  was  able  to  change  the  purposes  of  Heaven,  and  to  make 
the  Devs  tremble  under  the  abyss.  It  exercised  a  compulsory 
influence  over  the  gods.  It  promoted  the  magnetic  sympathy  of 
spirit  with  spirit ;  and  the  Hindu  and  Persian  liturgies,  addressed 
not  only  to  the  Deity  Himself,  but  to  His  diversified  manifesta- 
tions, were  considered  wholesome  and  necessary  iterations  of  the 
living  or  creative  Word  which  at  first  effectuated  the  divine  will, 
and  which  from  instant  to  instant  supports  the  universal  frame 
by  its  eternal  repetition. 

In  the  narrative  of  the  Fall,  we  have  the  Hebrew  mode  of  ex- 
plaining the  great  moral  mystery,  the  origin  of  evil  and  the  appa- 
rent estrangement  from  Heaven ;  and  a  similar  idea,  variously 
modified,  obtained  in  all  the  ancient  creeds.  Everywhere,  man 
had  at  the  beginning  been  innocent  and  happy,  and  had  lapsed, 
by  temptation  and  his  own  weakness,  from  his  first  estate.  Thus 
was  accounted  for  the  presumed  connection  of  increase  of  knowl- 
edge with  increase  of  misery,  and,  in  particular,  the  great  penalty 
of  death  was  reconciled  with  Divine  justice.  Subordinate  to  these 
greater  points  were  the  questions,  Why  is  the  earth  covered  with 
thorns  and  weeds  ?  whence  the  origin  of  clothing,  of  sexual  shame 
and  passion?  whence  the  infliction  of  labor,  and  how  to  justify 
the  degraded  condition  of  woman  in  the  East,  or  account  for  the 
loathing  so  generally  felt  toward  the  Serpent  Tribe  ? 

The  hypothesis  of  a  fall,  required  under  some  of  its  modifica- 
tions in  all  systems,  to  account  for  the  apparent  imperfection  in 
the  work  of  a  Perfect  Being,  was,  in  Eastern  philosophy,  the  un- 
avoidable accompaniment  and  condition  of  limited  or  individual 
existence ;  since  the  Soul,  considered  as  a  fragment  of  the  Uni- 
versal Mind,  might  be  said  to  have  lapsed  from  its  pre-eminence 
when  parted  from  its  source,  and  ceasing  to  form  part  of  integral 
perfection.  The  theory  of  its  reunion  was  correspondent  to  the 
assumed  cause  of  its  degradation.  To  reach  its  prior  condition, 


686  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

its  individuality  must  cease ;  it  must  be  emancipated  by  re-absorp- 
tion into  the  Infinite,  the  consummation  of  all  things  in  God,  to 
be  promoted  by  human  effort  in  spiritual  meditation  or  self-morti- 
fication, and  completed  in  the  magical  transformation  of  death. 

And  as  man  had  fallen,  so  it  was  held  that  the  Angels  of  Evil 
had,  from  their  first  estate,  to  which,  like  men,  they  were,  in  God's 
good  time,  to  be  restored,  and  the  reign  of  evil  was  then  to  cease 
forever.  To  this  great  result  all  the  Ancient  Theologies  point; 
and  thus  they  all  endeavored  to  reconcile  the  existence  of  Sin 
and  Evil  with  the  perfect  and  undeniable  wisdom  and  beneficence 
of  God. 

With  man's  exercise  of  thought  are  inseparably  connected  free- 
dom and  responsibility.  Man  assumes  his  proper  rank  as  a  moral 
agent,  when  with  a  sense  of  the  limitations  of  his  nature  arise  the 
consciousness  of  freedom,  and  of  the  obligations  accompanying  its 
exercise,  the  sense  of  duty  and  of  the  capacity  to  perform  it.  To 
suppose  that  man  ever  imagined  himself  not  to  be  a  free  agent 
until  he  had  argued  himself  into  that  belief,  would  be  to  suppose 
that  he  was  in  that  below  the  brutes ;  for  he,  like  them,  is  con- 
scious of  his  freedom  to  act.  Experience  alone  teaches  him  that 
this  freedom  of  action  is  limited  and  controlled ;  and  when  what 
is  outward  to  him  restrains  and  limits  this  freedom  of  action,  he 
instinctively  rebels  against  it  as  a  wrong.  The  rule  of  duty  and 
the  materials  of  experience  are  derived  from  an  acquaintance  with 

the  conditions  of  the  external  world,  in  which  the  faculties  are 

• 

exerted ;  and  thus  the  problem  of  man  involves  those  of  Nature 
and  God.  Our  freedom,  we  learn  by  experience,  is  determined  by 
an  agency  external  to  us ;  our  happiness  is  intimately  dependent 
on  the  relations  of  the  outward  World,  and  on  the  moral  character 
of  its  Ruler. 

Then  at  once  arises  this  problem  :  The  God  of  Nature  must  be 
One,  and  His  character  cannot  be  suspected  to  be  other  than  good. 
Whence,  then,  came  the  evil,  the  consciousness  of  which  must  in- 
variably have  preceded  or  accompanied  man's  moral  development? 
On  this  subject  human  opinion  has  ebbed  and  flowed  between 
two  contradictory  extremes,  one  of  which  seems  inconsistent  with 
God's  Omnipotence,  and  the  other  with  His  beneficence.  If  God. 
it  was  said,  is  perfectly  wise  and  good,  evil  must  arise  from  some 
independent  and  hostile  principle:  if,  on  the  other  hand,  all  agen- 
cies are  subordinate  to  One,  it  is  difficult,  if  evil  does  indeed  exist, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  687 

if  there  is  any  such  thing  as  Evil,  to  avoid  the  impiety  of  making 
God  the  Author  of  it. 

The  recognition  of  a  moral  and  physical  dualism  in  nature  was 
adverse  to  the  doctrine  of  Divine  Unity.  Many  of  the  Ancients 
thought  it  absurd  to  imagine  one  Supreme  Being,  like  Homer's 
Jove,  distributing  good  and  evil  out  of  two  urns.  They  therefore 
substituted,  as  we  have  seen,  the  doctrine  of  two  distinct  and 
eternal  principles ;  some  making  the  cause  of  evil  to  be  the  in- 
herent imperfection  of  matter  and  the  flesh,  without  explaining 
how  God  was  not  the  cause  of  that ;  while  others  personified  the 
required  agency,  and  fancifully  invented  an  Evil  Principle,  the 
question  of  whose  origin  indeed  involved  all  the  difficulty  of  the 
original  problem,  but  whose  existence,  if  once  taken  for  granted, 
was  sufficient  as  a  popular  solution  of  the  mystery;  the  difficulty 
being  supposed  no  longer  to  exist  when  pushed  a  step  further  off, 
as  the  difficulty  of  conceiving  the  world  upheld  by  an  elephant 
was  supposed  to  be  got  rid  of  when  it  was  said  that  the  elephant 
was  supported  by  a  tortoise. 

The  simpler,  and  probably  the  older,  notion,  treated  the  one  only 
God  as  the  Author  of  all  things.  "I  form  the  light,"  says  Jeho- 
vah, "and  create  darkness ;  I  cause  prosperity  and  create  evil ;  I, 
the  Lord,  do  all  these  things."  "All  mankind,"  says  Maximus 
Tyrius,  "are  agreed  that  there  exists  one  only  Universal  King 
and  Father,  and  that  the  many  gods  are  His  Children."  There  is 
nothing  improbable  in  the  supposition  that  the  primitive  idea  was 
that  there  was  but  one  God.  A  vague  sense  of  Nature's  Unity, 
blended  with  a  dim  perception  of  an  all-pervading  Spiritual  Es- 
sence, has  been  remarked  among  the  earliest  manifestations  of  the 
Human  Mind.  Everywhere  it  was  the  dim  remembrance,  uncer- 
tain and  indefinite,  of  the  original  truth  taught  by  God  to  the 
first  men. 

The  Deity  of  the  Old  Testatment  is  everywhere  represented  as 
the  direct  author  of  Evil,  commissioning  evil  and  lying  spirits  to 
men,  hardening  the  heart  of  Pharaoh,  and  visiting  the  iniquity  of 
the  individual  sinner  on  the  whole  people.  The  rude  conception 
of  sternness  predominating  over  mercy  in  the  Deity,  can  alone 
account  for  the  human  sacrifices,  purposed,  if  not  executed,  by 
Abraham  and  Jephthah.  It  has  not  been  uncommon,  in  any  age 
or  country  of  the  world,  for  men  to  recognize  the  existence  of  one 
God,  without  forming  any  becoming  e.>timate  of  His  dignity.  The 


688  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

causes  of  both  good  and  ill  are  referred  to  a  mysterious  centre,  to 
which  each  assigns  such  attributes  as  correspond  with  his  own 
intellect  and  advance  in  civilization.  Hence  the  assignment  to 
the  Deity  of  the  feelings  of  envy  and  jealousy.  Hence  the  provo- 
cation given  by  the  healing  skill  of  ^Esculapius  and  the  humane 
theft  of  fire  by  Prometheus.  The  very  spirit  of  Nature,  personi- 
fied in  Orpheus,  Tantalus,  or  Phineus  was  supposed  to  have  been 
killed,  confined,  or  blinded,  for  having  too  freely  divulged  the 
Divine  Mysteries  to  mankind.  This  Divine  Envy  still  exists  in  a 
modified  form,  and  varies  according  to  circumstances.  In  Hesiod 
it  appears  in  the  lowest  type  of  human  malignity.  In  the  God  of 
Moses,  it  is  jealousy  of  the  infringement  of  the  autocratic  power, 
the  check  to  political  treason ;  and  even  the  penalties  denounced 
for  worshipping  other  gods  often  seem  dictated  rather  by  a  jealous 
regard  for  His  own  greatness  in  Deity,  than  by  the  immorality 
and  degraded  nature  of  the  worship  itself.  In  Heredotus  and 
other  writers  it  assumes  a  more  philosophical  shape,  as  a  strict 
adherence  to  a  moral  equilibrium  in  the  government  of  the  world, 
in  the  punishment  of  pride,  arrogance,  and  insolent  pretension. 

God  acts  providentially  in  Nature  by  regular  and  universal  laws, 
by  constant  modes  of  operation ;  and  so  takes  care  of  material 
things  without  violating  their  constitution,  acting  always  accord- 
ing to  the  nature  of  the  things  which  He  has  made.  It  is  a  fact 
of  observation  that,  in  the  material  and  unconscious  world,  He 
works  by  its  materiality  and  unconsciousness,  not  against  them ; 
in  the  animal  world,  by  its  animality  and  partial  consciousness, 
not  against  them.  So  in  the  providential  government  of  the 
world,  He  acts  by  regular  and  universal  laws,  and  constant  modes 
of  operation ;  and  so  takes  care  of  human  things  without  violating 
their  constitution,  acting  always  according  to  the  human  nature 
of  man,  not  against  it,  working  in  the  human  world  by  means  of 
man's  consciousness  and  partial  freedom,  not  against  them. 

God -acts  by  general  laws  for  general  purposes.  The  attraction 
of  gravitation  is  a  good  thing,  for  it  keeps  the  world  together ; 
and  if  the  tower  of  Siloam,  thereby  falling  to  the  ground,  slays 
eighteen  men  of  Jerusalem,  that  number  is  too  small  to  think  of, 
considering  the  myriad  millions  who  are  upheld  by  the  same  law. 
It  could  not  well  be  repealed  for  their  sake,  and  to  hold  up  that 
tower ;  nor  could  it  remain  in  force,  and  the  tower  stand. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  Perfect  Will  without  confounding 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  689 

it  with  something  like  mechanism ;  since  language  has  no  name 
for  that  combination  of  the  Inexorable  with  the  Moral,  which  the 
old  poets  personified  separately  in  Ananke  or  Eimarmene  and 
Zeus.  How  combine  understandingly  the  Perfect  Freedom  of  the 
Supreme  and  All-Sovereign  Will  of  God  with  the  inflexible  neces- 
sity, as  part  of  His  Essence,  that  He  should  and  must  continue  to 
be,  in  all  His  great  attributes,  of  justice  and  mercy  for  example, 
what  He  is  now  and  always  has  been,  and  with  the  impossibility 
of  His  changing  His  nature  and  becoming  unjust,  merciless,  cruel, 
fickle,  or  of  His  repealing  the  great  moral  laws  which  make  crime 
wrong  and  the  practice  of  virtue  right? 

For  all  that  we  familiarly  know  of  Free-Will  is  that  capricious 
exercise  of  it  which  we  experience  in  ourselves  and  other  men ; 
and  therefore  the  notion  of  Supreme  Will,  still  guided  by  Infalli- 
ble Law,  even  if  that  law  be  self-imposed,  is  always  in  danger  of 
being  either  stripped  of  the  essential  quality  of  Freedom,  or 
degraded  under  the  ill-name  of  Necessity  to  something  of  even 
less  moral  and  intellectual  dignity  than  the  fluctuating  course 
of  human  operations. 

It  is  not  until  we  elevate  the  idea  of  law  above  that  of  partiality 
or  tyranny,  that  we  discover  that  the  self-imposed  limitations  of 
the  Supreme  Cause,  constituting  an  array  of  certain  alternatives, 
regulating  moral  choice,  are  the  very  sources  and  safeguards  of 
human  freedom ;  and  the  doubt  recurs,  whether  we  do  not  set  a 
law  above  God  Himself;  or  whether  laws  self-imposed  may  not  be 
self-repealed :  and  if  not,  what  power  prevents  it. 

The  Zeus  of  Homer, like  that  of  Hesiod,is  an  array  of  antitheses, 
combining  strength  with  weakness,  wisdom  with  folly,  universal 
parentage  with  narrow  family  limitation,  omnipotent  control  over 
events  with  submission  to  a  superior  destiny; — DESTIXV,  a  name 
by  means  of  which  the  theological  problem  was  cast  back  into  the 
original  obscurity  out  of  which  the  powers  of  the  human  mind 
have  proved  themselves  as  incapable  of  rescuing  it,  as  the  efforts 
of  a  fly  caught  in  a  spider's  web  to  do  more  than  increase  its 
entanglement. 

The  oldest  notion  of  Deity  was  rather  indefinite  than  repulsive. 
The  positive  degradation  was  of  later  growth.  The  God  of  nature 
reflects  the  changeful  character  of  the  seasons,  varying  from  dark 
to  bright.  Alternately  angry  and  serene,  and  lavishing  abundance 
which  she  again  withdraws,  nature  seems  inexplicably  capricious, 


690  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  though  capable  of  responding  to  the  highest  requirements  of 
the  moral  sentiment  through  a  general  comprehension  of  her  mys- 
teries, more  liable  by  a  partial  or  hasty  view  to  become  darkened 
into  a  Siva,  a  Saturn,  or  a  Mexitli,  a  patron  of  fierce  orgies  or 
blood-stained  altars.  All  the  older  poetical  personifications  ex- 
hibit traces  of  this  ambiguity.  They  are  neither  wholly  immoral 
nor  purely  beneficent. 

No  people  have  ever  deliberately  made  their  Deity  a  malevolent 
or  guilty  Being.  The  simple  piety  which  ascribed  the  origin  of 
all  things  to  God,  took  all  in  good  part,  trusting  and  hoping  all 
things.  The  Supreme  Ruler  was  at  first  looked  up  to  with  un- 
questioning reverence.  No  startling  discords  or  contradictions 
had  yet  raised  a  doubt  as  to  His  beneficence,  or  made  men  dissatis- 
fied with  His  government.  Fear  might  cause  anxiety,  but  could 
not  banish  hope,  still  less  inspire  aversion.  It  was  only  later, 
when  abstract  notions  began  to  assume  the  semblance  of  realities, 
and  when  new  or  more  distinct  ideas  suggested  new  words  for 
their  expression,  that  it  became  necessary  to  fix  a  definite  barrier 
between  Evil  and  Good. 

To  account  for  moral  evil,  it  became  necessary  to  devise  some 
new  expedient  suited  both  to  the  piety  and  self-complacency  of 
the  inventor,  such  as  the  perversity  of  woman,  or  an  agent  distinct 
from  God,  a  Typhon  or  Ahriman,  obtained  either  by  dividing  the 
Gods  into  two  classes,  or  by  dethroning  the  Ancient  Divinity, 
and  changing  him  into  a  Dev  or  Daemon.  Through  a  similar 
want,  the  Orientals  devised  the  inherent  corruption  of  the  fleshy 
and  material ;  the  Hebrew  transferred  to  Satan  everything  illegal 
and  immoral ;  and  the  Greek  reflection,  occasionally  adopting  the 
older  and  truer  view,  retorted  upon  man  the  obloquy  cast  on  these 
creatures  of  his  imagination,  and  showed  how  he  has  to  thank 
himself  alone  for  his  calamities,  while  his  good  things  are  the 
voluntary  gifts,  not  the  plunder  of  Heaven.  Homer  had  already 
made  Zeus  exclaim,  in  the  Assembly  of  Olymnus,  "Grievous  it  is 
to  hear  these  mortals  accuse  the  Gods;  they  pretend  that  evils 
come  from  us ;  but  they  themselves  occasion  them  gratuitously 
by  their  own  wanton  folly."  "It  is  the  fault  of  man,"  said  Solon, 
in  reference  to  the  social  evils  of  his  day,  "not  of  God,  that  de- 
struction comes ;"  and  Euripides,  after  a  formal  discussion  of  the 
origin  of  evil,  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  men  act  wrongly,  not 
from  want  of  natural  good  sense  and  feeling,  but  because  know- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OK    I'KINCI-:  ADEPT.  69! 

ing  what  is  good,  they  yet  for  various  reasons  neglect  to  prac- 
tise it. 

And  at  last  reaching  the  highest  truth,  Pindar,  Hesiod,  JEschy- 
lus,  vEsop,  and  Horace  said,  "All  virtue  is  a  struggle ;  life  is  not  a 
scene  of  repose,  but  of  energetic  action.  Suffering  is  but  another 
name  for  the  teaching  of  experience,  appointed  by  Zeus  himself, 
the  giver  of  all  understanding,  to  be  the  parent  of  instruction,  the 
schoolmaster  of  life.  He  indeed  put  an  end  to  the  golden  age ; 
he  gave  venom  to  serpents  and  predacity  to  wolves ;  he  shook  the 
honey  from  the  leaf,  and  stopped  the  flow  of  wine  in  the  rivulets ; 
he  concealed  the  element  of  fire,  and  made  the  means  of  life  scanty 
and  precarious.  But  in  all  this  his  object  was  beneficent ;  it  was 
not  to  destroy  life,  but  to  improve  it.  It  was  a  blessing  to  man, 
not  a  curse,  to  be  sentenced  to  earn  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his 
brow ;  for  nothing  great  or  excellent  is  attainable  without  exer- 
tion ;  safe  and  easy  virtues  are  prized  neither  by  gods  nor  men ; 
and  the  parsimoniousness  of  nature  is  justified  by  its  powerful 
effect  in  rousing  the  dormant  faculties,  and  forcing  on  mankind 
the  invention  of  useful  arts  by  means  of  meditation  and  thought." 

Ancient  religious  reformers  pronounced  the  worship  of  "idols" 
to  be  the  root  of  all  evil ;  and  there  have  been  many  iconoclasts  in 
different  ages  of  the  world.  The  maxim  still  holds  good ;  for  the 
worship  of  idols,  that  is,  of  fanciful  conceits,  if  not  the  source  of 
all  evil,  is  still  the  cause  of  much ;  and  it  prevails  as  extensively 
now  as  it  ever  did.  Men  are  ever  engaged  in  worshipping  the 
picturesque  fancies  of  their  own  imaginations. 

Human  wisdom  must  always  be  limited  and  incorrect ;  and 
even  right  opinion  is  only  a  something  intermediate  between 
ignorance  and  knowledge.  The  normal  condition  of  man  is  that 
of  progress.  Philosophy  is  a  kind  of  journey,  ever  learning,  yet 
never  arriving  at  the  ideal  perfection  of  truth.  A  Mason  should, 
like  the  wise  Socrates,  assume  the  modest  title  of  a  "lover  of 
wisdom" ;  for  he  must  ever  long  after  something  more  excellent 
than  he  possesses,  something  still  beyond  his  reach,  which  he 
desires  to  make  eternally  his  own. 

Thus  the  philosophic  sentiment  came  to  be  associated  with  the 
poetical  and  the  religious,  under  the  comprehensive  name  of  Love. 
Before  the  birth  of  Philosophy,  Love  had  received  but  scanty  and 
inadequate  homage.  This  mightiest  and  most  ancient  of  gods. 
coeval  with  the  existence  of  religion  and  of  the  world,  had  been 


692  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

indeed  unconsciously  felt,  but  had  neither  been  worthily  honored 
nor  directly  celebrated  in  hymn  or  psean.  In  the  old  days  of 
ignorance  it  could  scarcely  have  been  recognized.  In  order  that 
it  might  exercise  its  proper  influence  over  religion  and  philoso- 
phy, it  was  necessary  that  the  God  of  Nature  should  cease  to  be 
a  God  of  terrors,a  personification  of  mere  Power  or  arbitrary  Will, 
a  pure  and  stern  Intelligence,  an  inflictor  of  evil,  and  an  unrelent- 
ing Judge.  The  philosophy  of  Plato,  in  which  this  charge  became 
forever  established,  was  emphatically  a  mediation  of  Love.  With 
him,  the  inspiration  of  Love  first  kindled  the  light  of  arts  and 
imparted  them  to  mankind ;  and  not  only  the  arts  of  mere  exist- 
ence, but  the  heavenly  art  of  wisdom,  which  supports  the  Universe. 
It  inspires  high  and  generous  deeds  and  noble  self-devotion. 
Without  it,  neither  State  nor  individual  could  do  anything  beauti- 
ful or  great.  Love  is  our  best  pilot,  confederate,  supporter,  and 
saviour;  the  ornament  and  governor  of  all  things  human  and 
divine ;  and  he  with  divine  harmony  forever  soothes  the  minds  of 
men  and  gods. 

Man  is  capable  of  a  higher  Love,  which,  marrying  mind  with 
mind  and  with  the  Universe,  brings  forth  all  that  is  noblest  in  his 
faculties,  and  lifts  him  beyond  himself.  This  higher  love  is 
neither  mortal  nor  immortal,  but  a  power  intermediate  between 
the  human  and  the  Divine,  filling  up  the  mighty  interval,  arid 
binding  the  Universe  together.  He  is  chief  of  those  celestial  emis- 
saries who  carry  to  the  gods  the  prayers  of  men,  and  .bring  down  to 
men  the  gifts  of  the  gods.  "He  is  forever  poor,  and  far  from  being 
beautiful  as  mankind  imagine,  for  he  is  squalid  and  withered ;  he 
3ies  low  along  the  ground,  is  homeless  and  unsandalled ;  sleeping 
without  covering  before  the  doors  and  in  the  unsheltered  streets, and 
possessing  so  far  his  mother's  nature  as  being  ever  the  companion 
of  want.  Yet,  sharing  also  that  of  his  father,  he  is  forever  schem- 
ing to  obtain  things  good  and  beautiful ;  he  is  fearless,  vehement, 
and  strong ;  always  devising  some  new  contrivance :  strictly 
cautious  and  full  of  inventive  resource ;  a  philosopher  through 
his  whole  existence,  a  powerful  enchanter,  and  a  subtle  sophist." 

The  ideal  consummation  of  Platonic  science  is  the  arrival  at  the 
contemplation  of  that  of  which  earth  exhibits  no  express  image  or 
adequate  similitude,  the  Supreme  Prototype  of  all  beauty,  pure  and 
uncontaminatecl  with  human  intermixture  of  flesh  or  color,  the 
Divine  Original  itself.  To  one  so  qualified  is  given  the  preroga- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  693 

tive  of  bringing  forth  not  mere  images  and  shadows  of  virtue,  but 
virtue  itself,  as  havfng  been  conversant  not  with  shadows,  but 
with  the  truth ;  and  having  so  brought  forth  and  nurtured  a 
progeny  of  virtue,  he  becomes  the  friend  of  God,  and,  so  far  as 
such  a  privilege  can  belong  to  any  human  being,  immortal. 

Socrates  believed,  like  Heraclitus,  in  a  Universal  Reason  perva- 
ding all  things  and  all  minds,  and  consequently  revealing  itself  in 
ideas.  He  therefore  sought  truth  in  general  opinion,  and  per- 
ceived in  the  communication  of  mind  with  mind  one  of  the 
greatest  prerogatives  of  wisdom  and  the  most  powerful  means  of 
advancement.  He  believed  true  wisdom  to  be  an  attainable  idea, 
and  that  the  moral  convictions  of  the  mind,  those  eternal  instincts 
of  temperance,  conscientiousness,  and  justice,  implanted  in  it  by 
the  gods,  could  not  deceive,  if  rightly  interpreted. 

This  metaphysical  direction  given  to  philosophy  ended  in 
visionary  extravagance.  Having  assumed  truth  to  be  discover- 
able in  thought,  it  proceeded  to  treat  thoughts  as  truths.  It  thus 
became  an  idolatry  of  notions,  which  it  considered  either  as 
phantoms  exhaled  from  objects,  or  as  portions  of  the  divine  pre- 
existent  thought ;  thus  creating  a  mythology  of  its  own,  and 
escaping  from  one  thraldom  only  to  enslave  itself  afresh.  Theories 
and  notions  indiscriminately  formed  and  defended  are  the  false 
gods  or  "idols"  of  philosophy.  For  the  word  idolon  means  image, 
and  a  false  ;/n;zc/-picture  of  God  is  as  much  an  idol  as  a  false 
wooden  image  of  Him.  Fearlessly  launching  into  the  problem  of 
universal  being,  the  first  philosophy  attempted  to  supply  a  com- 
pendious and  decisive  solution  of  every  doubt.  To  do  this,  it  was 
obliged  to  make  the  most  sweeping  assumptions ;  and  as  poetry 
had  already  filled  the  vast  void  between  the  human  and  the  divine, 
by  personifying  its  Deity  as  man,  so  philosophy  bowed  down  before 
the  supposed  reflection  of  the  divine  image  in  the  mind  of  the 
inquirer,  who,  in  worshipping  his  own  notions,  had  unconsciously 
deified  himself.  Nature  thus  was  enslaved  to  common  notions,  and 
notions  very  often  to  words. 

By  the  clashing  of  incompatible  opinions,  philosophy  was  grad- 
ually reduced  to  the  ignominious  confession  of  utter  incapacity, 
and  found  its  check  or  intellectual  fall  in  skepticism.  Xenophanes 
and  Heraclitus  mournfully  acknowledged  the  unsatisfactory  result 
of  all  the  struggles  of  philosophy,  in  the  admission  of  a  univer- 
sality of  doubt;  and  the  memorable  effort  of  Socrates  to  rallv 

45 


694  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  discomfited  champions  of  truth,  ended  in  a  similar  confes- 
sion. 

The  worship  of  abstractions  continued  the  error  which  person- 
ified Evil  or  deified  Fortune ;  and  when  mystical  philosophy 
resigned  its  place  to  mystical  religion,  it  changed  not  its  nature, 
but  only  its  name.  The  great  task  remained  unperformed,  of 
reducing  the  outward  world  and  its  principles  to  the  dominion  of 
the  intellect,  and  of  reconciling  the  conception  of  the  supreme 
unalterable  power  asserted  by  reason,  with  the  requisitions  of  hu- 
man sympathies. 

A  general  idea  of  purpose  and  regularity  in  nature  had  been 
suggested  by  common  appearances  to  the  earliest  reflection.  The 
ancients  perceived  a  natural  order,  a  divine  legislation,  from  which 
human  institutions  were  supposed  to  be  derived,  laws  emblazoned 
in  Heaven,  and  thence  revealed  to  earth.  But  the  divine  law  was 
little  more  than  an  analogical  inference  from  human  law,  taken  in 
the  vulgar  sense  of  arbitrary  will  or  partial  covenant.  It  was  sur- 
mised rather  than  discovered,  and  remained  unmoral  because  un- 
intelligible. It  mattered  little,  under  the  circumstances,  whether 
the  Universe  were  said  to  be  governed  by  chance  or  by  reason, 
since  the  latter,  if  misunderstood,  was  virtually  one  with  the 
former.  "Better  far,"  said  Epicurus,  "acquiesce  in  the  fables  of 
tradition,  than  acknowledge  the  oppressive  necessity  of  the  physi- 
cists" ;  and  Menander  speaks  of  God,  Chance,  and  Intelligence  as 
undistinguishable.  Law  unacknowledged  goes  under  the  name 
of  Chance:  perceived,  but  not  understood,  it  becomes  Necessity. 
The  wisdom  of  the  Stoic  was  a  dogged  submission  to  the  arbitrary 
behests  of  one ;  that  of  the  Epicurean  an  advantage  snatched  by 
more  or  less  dexterous  management  from  the  equal  tyranny  of  the 
other. 

Ignorance  sees  nothing  necessary,  and  is  self  abandoned  to  a 
power  tyrannical  because  defined  by  no  rule,  and  paradoxical  be- 
cause permitting  evil,  while  itself  assumed  to  be  unlimited,  all- 
powerful,  and  perfectly  good.  A  little  knowledge,  presuming  the 
identification  of  the  Supreme  Cause  with  the  inevitable  certainty 
of  perfect  reason,  but  omitting  the  analysis  or  interpretation  of  it, 
leaves  the  mind  chain-bound  in  the  ascetic  fatalism  of  the  Stoic. 
Free-will,  coupled  with  the  universal  rule  of  Chance :  or  Fatalism 
and  Necessity,  coupled  with  Omniscience  and  fixed  and  unalt«ra- 
ble  Law,— these  ?re  «-V  alternatives,  between  which  the  hu^sr 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  695 

mind  has  eternally  vacillated.  The  Supernaturalists,  contemplat- 
ing a  Being  acting  through  impulse,  though  with  superhuman 
wisdom,  and  considering  the  best  courtier  to  be  the  most  favored 
subject,  combines  contradictory  expedients,  inconsistently  mixing 
the  assertion  of  free  action  with  the  enervating  service  of  petition ; 
while  he  admits,  in  the  words  of  a  learned  archbishop,  that  "if 
the  production  of  the  things  we  ask  for  depend  on  antecedent, 
natural,  and  necessary  causes,  our  desires  will  be  answered  no  less 
by  the  omission  than  the  offering  of  prayers,  which,  therefore,  are 
a  vain  thing." 

The  last  stage  is  that  in  which  the  religion  of  action  is  made 
legitimate  through  comprehension  of  its  proper  objects  and  con- 
ditions. Man  becomes  morally  free  only  when  both  notions,  that 
of  Chance  and  that  of  incomprehensible  Necessity,  are  displaced 
by  that  of  Law.  Law,  as  applied  to  the  Universe,  means  that  uni- 
versal, providential  pre-arrangement,  whose  conditions  can  be  dis- 
cerned and  discretionally  acted  on  by  human  intelligence.  The 
sense  of  freedom  arises  when  the  individual  independence  develops 
itself  according  to  its  own  laws,  without  external  collision  or  hin- 
drance ;  that  of  constraint,  where  it  is  thwarted  or  confined  by 
other  Natures,  or  where,  by  combination  of  external  forces,  the 
individual  force  is  compelled  into  a  new  direction.  Moral  choice 
would  not  exist  safely,  or  even  at  all,  unless  it  were  bounded  by 
conditions  determining  its  preferences.  Duty  supposes  a  rule  both 
intelligible  and  certain,  since  an  uncertain  rule  would  be  unintel- 
ligible, and  if  unintelligible,  there  could  be  no  responsibility.  No 
law  that  is  unknown  can  be  obligatory ;  and  that  Roman  Emperor 
was  justly  execrated,  who  pretended  to  promulgate  his  penal  laws, 
by  putting  them  up  at  such  a  height  that  nOne  could  read  them. 

Man  commands  results,  only  by  selecting  among  the  contingent 
the  pre-ordained  results  most  suited  to  his  purposes.  In  regard  to 
absolute  or  divine  morality,  meaning  the  final  cause  or  purpose  of 
those  comprehensive  laws  which  often  seem  harsh  to  the  individ- 
ual, because  inflexibly  just  and  impartial  to  the  universal,  specula- 
tion must  take  refuge  in  faith ;  the  immediate  and  obvious  purpose 
often  bearing-  so  small  a  proportion  to  a  wider  and  unknown  one, 
as  to  be  relatively  absorbed  or  lost.  The  rain  that,  unseasonable 
to  me,  ruins  my  hopes  of  an  abundant  crop,  does  so  because  it 
could  not  otherwise  have  blessed  nnd  prospered  the  crops  of  another 
kitv4  of  a  whole  neighboring  district  of  country.  The  obvious 


696  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

purpose  of  a  sudden  storm  of  snow,  or  an  unexpected  change  of 
wind,  exposed  to  which  I  lose  my  life,  bears  small  proportion  to 
the  great  results  which  are  to  flow  from  that  storm  or  wind  over 
a  whole  continent.  So  always,  of  the  good  and  ill  which  at  first 
seemed  irreconcilable  and  capriciously  distributed,  the  one  holds 
its  ground,  the  other  diminishes  by  being  explained.  In  a  world 
of  a  multitude  of  individuals,  a  world  of  action  and  exertion,  a 
world  affording,  by  the  conflict  of  interests  and  the  clashing  of 
passions,  any  scope  for  the  exercise  of  the  manly  and  generous 
virtues,  'even  Omnipotence  cannot  make  it,  that  the  comfort  and 
convenience  of  one  man  alone  shall  always  be  consulted. 

Thus  the  educated  mind  soon  begins  to  appreciate  the  moral 
superiority  of  a  system  of  law  over  one  of  capricious  interference ; 
and  as  the  jumble  of  means  and  ends  is  brought  into  more  intel- 
ligible perspective,  partial  or  seeming  good  is  cheerfully  resigned 
for  the  disinterested  and  universal.  Self-restraint  is  found  not  to 
imply  self-sacrifice.  The  true  meaning  of  what  appeared  to  be 
Necessity  is  found  to  be,  not  arbitrary  Power,  but  Strength  and 
Force  enlisted  in  the  service  of  Intelligence.  God  having  made 
us  men,  and  placed  us  in  a  world  of  change  and  eternal  renova- 
tion, with  ample  capacity  and  abundant  means  for  rational  enjoy- 
ment, we  learn  that  it  is  folly  to  repine  because  we  are  not  angels, 
inhabiting  a  world  in  which  change  and  the  clashing  of  interests 
and  the  conflicts  of  passion  are  unknown. 

The  mystery  of  the  world  remains,  but  is  sufficiently  cleared 
up  to  inspire  confidence.  We  are  constrained  to  admit  that  if 
every  man  would  but  do  the  best  in  his  power  to  do,  and  that 
which  he  knows  he  ought  to  do,  we  should  need  no  better  world 
than  this.  Alan,  surrounded  by  necessity,  is  free,  not  in  a  dogged 
determination  of  isolated  will,  because,  though  inevitably  comply- 
ing with  nature's  laws,  he  is  able,  proportionately  to  his  knowl- 
edge, to  modify,  in  regard  to  himself,  the  conditions  of  their  action, 
and  so  to  preserve  an  average  uniformity  between  their  forces  and 
his  own. 

Such  are  some  of  the  conflicting  opinions  of  antiquity ;  and  we 
have  to  some  extent  presented  to  you  a  picture  of  the  Ancient 
Thought.  Faithful,  as  far  as  it  goes,  it  exhibits  to  us  Man's  In- 
tellect ever  struggling  to  pass  beyond  the  narrow  bounds  of  the 
circle  in  which  its  limited  powers  and  its  short  vision  confine  it; 
and  ever  we  find  it  travelling  round  the  circle,  like  one  lost  in  a 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  097 

wood,  to  meet  the  same  unavoidable  and  insoluble  difficulties. 
Science  with  her  many  instruments,  Astronomy,  particularly,  with 
her  telescope,  Physics  with  the  microscope,  and  Chemistry  with  its 
analyses  and  combinations,  have  greatly  enlarged  our  ideas  of  the 
Deity,  by  discovering  to  us  the  vast  extent  of  the  Universe  in  both 
directions,  its  star-systems  and  its  invisible  swarms  of  minutest 
animal  life ;  by  acquainting  us  with  the  new  and  wonderful  Force 
or  Substance  we  call  Electricity,  apparently  a  link  between  Mat- 
ter and  Spirit:  and  still  the  Deity  only  becomes  more  incompre- 
hensible to  us  than  ever,  and  we  find  that  in  our  speculations  we 
but  reproduce  over  and  over  again  the  Ancient  Thought. 

Where,  then,  amid  all  these  conflicting  opinions,  is  the  True 
Word  of  a  Mason  ? 

My  Brother,  most  of  the  questions  which  have  thus  tortured 
men's  minds,  it  is  not  within  the  reach  and  grasp  of  the  Human 
Intellect  to  understand ;  but  without  understanding,  as  we  have 
explained  to  you  heretofore,  we  may  and  must  believe. 

The  True  Word  of  a  Mason  is  to  be  found  in  the  concealed  and 
profound  meaning  of  the  Ineffable  Name  of  Deity,  communicated 
by  God  to  Moses ;  and  which  meaning  was  long  lost  by  the  very 
precautions  taken  to  conceal  it.  The  true  pronunciation  of  that 
name  was  in  truth  a  secret,  in  which,  however,  was  involved  the 
far  more  profound  secret  of  its  meaning.  In  that  meaning  is 
included  all  the  truth  that  can  be  known  by  us,  in  regard  to  the 
nature  of  God. 

Long  known  as  AL,  AL  SCHADAI,  ALOHAYIM,  and  ADONAI  :  as 
the  Chief  or  Commander  of  the  Heavenly  Armies ;  as  the  .iggre- 
gate  of  the  Forces  [ALOHAYIM]  of  Nature;  as  the  Mighty,  the 
Victorious,  the  Rival  of  Bal  and  Osiris;  as  the  Soul  of  Nature, 
Nature  itself,  a  God  that  was  but  Man  personified,  a  God  with  hu- 
man passions,  the  God  of  the  Heathen  with  but  a  mere  change  of 
name,  He  assumes,  in  His  communications  to  Moses,  the  name 
JTirP  [Inuii],  and  says  to  Him,  JTTIK  "itftf  rvntf  [Aura  ASHR 
AHIH],  I  AM  WHAT  I  AM.  Let  us  examine  the  esoteric  or  inner 
meaning  of  this  Ineffable  Name. 

nTI  [HIH]  is  the  imperfect  tense  of  the  verb  TO  BE,  of  which 
nTV  [IHIH]  is  the  present ;  TIN  [AHI — ky  being  the  personal  pro- 
noun "I"  affixed]  the  first  person,  by  apocope;  andT*  [IHI]  the 
third.  The  verb  has  the  following  forms:  .  .  .  Preterite.  3d  per- 
son, masculine  singular,  HM[  HIH],  did  exist,  was:  3d  person  com. 


698  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

plural,  1M  [HIU]  .  .  Present,  3d  pers.  masc.  sing.  JTJT  [mm], 
onceX'ij-p  [IHUA],  by  apocope TiM,  \T[AHI,  mi]  .  .  Infinitive, ~M, 
V~  [HIH,  HIU]  .  .  Imperative,  2d  pers.  masc.  sing.  rN-  [HIH],  fem. 
•",;-,  [HUI]  .  .  .Participle,  masc.  sing,  nin  [HUH],  ENS — EXISTING 
.  .  EXISTENCE. 

This  verb  is  never  used,  as  the  mere  logical  copula  or  connecting 
word,  is,  was,  etc.,  is  used  with  the  Greeks,  Latins,  and  ourselves. 
It  always  implies  existence,  actuality.  The  present  form  also  in- 
cludes the  future  sense,  .  .  shall  or  may  be  or  exist.  And  mn  and 
N'H  [HUH  and  HUA]  Chaldaic  forms  of  the  imperfect  tense  of  the 
verb,  are  the  same  as  the  Hebrew  mn  and  HM  [HUH  and  HIH],  and 
mean  z^os,  existed,  became. 

NowNinandfrOnfHuA  and  Hi  A]  are  the  Personal  Pronoun 
[Masculine  and  Feminine],  HE,  SHE.  Thus  in  Gen.  iv.  20  we  have 
the  phrase,  rPn  81H  [HuA  HIH],  HE  WAS  :  and  in  Lev.  xxi.  9,  riS 
KTI  rP2S  [ATH  ABIH  HIA],  HER  Father.  This  feminine  pronoun, 
however,  is  often  written  Sin  [HUA],  and  JOn  [HiA]  occurs  only 
eleven  times  in  the  Pentateuch.  Sometimes  the  feminine  form 
means  IT  ;  but  that  pronoun  is  generally  in  the  masculine  form. 

When  either  \  1, !"!,  or N  [Yod,  Vav,  He,  or  Aleph]  terminates  a 
word,  and  has  no  vowel  either  immediately  preceding  or  following 
it,  it  is  often  rejected;  as  in*1!!  [Gi],  for  fc^3  [GiA],  a  valley. 

So  KTI-NirifHuA-HiA],  He-She,  could  properly  be  written  Tl-'n 
[Hu-Hi]  ;  or  by  transposition  of  the  letters,  common  with  the 
Talmudists,m-iTl[lH-UH],  which  is  the  Tetragrammaton  or  Inef- 
fable Name. 

In  Gen.  I.  27,  it  is  said.  "So  the  ALHIM  created  man  in  His 
image :  in  the  image  of  ALHIM  created  He  him :  MALE  and  FE- 
MALE created  He  them." 

Sometimes  the  word  was  thus  expressed ;  triangularly : 

n 

PI      1 

n     •»     n 
n     i     n     •» 

And  we  learn  that  this  designation  of  the  Ineffable  Name  was, 
among  the  Hebrews,  a  symbol  of  Creation.  The  mysterious  union 
of  God  with  His  creatures  was  in  the  lettei  n,  which  they  consid- 
ered to  be  the  Agent  of  Almighty  Power ;  and  to  enable  the  pos- 
sessor of  the  Name  to  work  miracles. 

The  Personal  Pronoun  Kin  [Hu^].  HE,  is  often  used  by  itself,  to 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  699 

express  the  Deity.  Lee  says  that  in  such  cases,  IIIUH,  IH,  or 
ALHIM,  or  some  other  name  of  God,  is  understood;  but  there  is 
no  necessity  for  that.  It  means  in  such  cases  the  Male,  Genera- 
tive, or  Creative  Principle  or  Power. 

It  was  a  common  practice  with  the  Talmudists  to  conceal  secret 
meanings  and  sounds  of  words  by  transposing  the  letters. 

The  reversal  of  the  letters  of  words  was,  indeed,  anciently  com- 
mon everywhere.  Thus  from  Neitha,  the  name  of  an  Egyptian 
Goddess,  the  Greeks,  writing  backward,  formed  Athene,  the  name 
of  Minerva.  In  Arabic  we  have  Nahid,  a  name  of  the  planet 
Venus,  which,  reversed,  gives  Dilian,  Greek,  in  Persian,  Nihad, 
Nature;  which  Sir  William  Jones  writes  also  Nahid.  Strabo 
informs  us  that  the  Armenian  name  of  Venus  was  Anaitis. 

Tien,  Heaven, in  Chinese, reversed,  is  Ncit,  or  Neith,  worshipped 
at  Sais  in  Egypt.  Reverse  Neitha,  drop  the  i,  and  add  an  e,  and 
we  have,  as  before  said,  Atfane.  Mitra  was  the  name  of  Venus 
among  the  ancient  Persians.  Herodotus,  who  tells  us  this,  also 
informs  us  that  her  name,  among  the  Scythians,  was  Artim  pasa. 
Artim  is  Mitra,  reversed.  So,  by  reversing  it,  the  Greeks  formed 
Artemis,  Diana. 

One  of  the  meanings  of  Rama,  in  Sanscrit,  is  Kama,  the  Deity 
of  Love.  Reverse  this,  and  we  have  Amar,  and  by  changing  a  into 
o,  Amor,  the  Latin  word  for  Love.  Probably,  as  the  verb  is  Amare, 
the  oldest  reading  was  Amar  and  not  Amor.  So  Dipaka,  in  San- 
scrit, one  of  the  meanings  whereof  is  love,  is  often  written  Dipuc. 
Reverse  this,  and  we  have,  adding  o,  the  Latin  word  Cupido. 

In  Arabic,  the  radical  letters  rhm,  pronounced  rahm,  signify  the 
trunk,  compassion,  mercy;  this  reversed,  we  have  mhr,  in  Persic, 
love  and  the  Sun.  In  Hebrew  we  have  Lab,  the  heart;  and  in 
Chaldee,  Bat,  the  heart;  the  radical  letters  of  both  being  b  and  /. 

The  Persic  word  for  head  is  Sar.  Reversed,  this  becomes  Ras 
in  Arabic  and  Hebrew,  Raish  in  Chaldee,  Rash  in  Samaritan,  and 
Ryas  in  Ethiopic ;  all  meaning  head,  chief,  etc.  In  Arabic  we 
have  Kid,  in  the  sense  of  rule,  regulation,  article  of  agreement, 
obligation ;  which,  reversed,  becomes,  adding  e,  the  Greek  dike 
justice.  In  Coptic  \ve  have  Chlom,  a  crown.  Reversed,  we  have 
in  Hebrew,  Moloch  or  Malcc,  a  King,  or  he  who  wears  a  crown. 

In  the  Kou-onen,  or  oldest  Chinese  writing,  by  Hieroglyphics,  6, 
Ge  [Hi  or  Khi,  with  the  initial  letter  modified],  was  the  Sun:  in 
Persic,  Gaw;  and  in  Turkish  Giun.  Yue  [3],  was  the  Moon  ; 


700  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

in  Sanscrit  Uh,  and  in  Turkish  Ai.  It  will  be  remembered  that, 
in  Egypt  and  elsewhere,  the  Sun  was  originally  feminine,  and  the 
Moon  masculine.  In  Egypt,  loh  was  the  Moon :  and  in  the  feasts 
of  Bacchus  they  cried  incessantly,  Euo'i  Sabvi!  Euoi  Bakhe!  lo 
Bakhe!  lo  Bakhe! 

Bunsen  gives  the  following  personal  pronouns  for  he  and  she: 

He  She 

Christian  Aramtic Hu Hi 

Jewish  Aramaic Hu Hi 

Hebrew Hu' Hi' 

Arabic Huwa. . . .  Hiya 

Thus  the  Ineffable  Name  not  only  embodies  the  Great  Philo- 
sophical Idea,  that  the  Deity  is  the  ENS,  the  To  ON,  the  Absolute 
Existence,  that  of  which  the  Essence  is  To  Exist,  the  only  Sub- 
stance of  Spinoza,  the  BEING,  that  never  could  not  have  existed, 
as  contradistinguished  from  that  which  only  becomes,  not  Nature 
or  the  Soul  of  Nature,  but  that  which  created  Nature ;  but  also 
the  idea  of  the  Male  and  Female  Principles,  in  its  highest  and 
most  profound  sense;  to  wit,  that  God  originally  comprehended 
in  Himself  all  that  is :  that  matter  was  not  co-existent  with  Him, 
or  independent  of  Him;  that  He  did  not  merely  fashion  and 
shape  a  pre-existing  chaos  into  a  Universe ;  but  that  His  Thought 
manifested  itself  outwardly  in  that  Universe,  which  so  became,  and 
before  was  not,  except  as  comprehended  in  Him :  that  the  Gene- 
rative Power  or  Spirit,  and  productive  Matter,  ever  among  the 
ancients  deemed  the  Female,  originally  were  in  God ;  and  that  He 
Was  and  Is  all  that  Was,  that  Is,  and  that  Shall  be :  in  Whom  all 
else  lives,  moves,  and  has  its  being. 

This  was  the  great  Mystery  of  the  Ineffable  Name ;  and  this 
true  arrangement  of  its  letters,  and  of  course  its  true  pronun- 
ciation and  its  meaning,  soon  became  lost  to  all  except  the 
select  few  to  whom  it  was  confided ;  it  being  concealed  from  the 
common  people,  because  the  Deity  thus  metaphysically  named 
was  not  that  personal  and  capricious,  and  as  it  were  tangible  God 
in  whom  they  believed,  and  who  alone  was  within  the  reach  of 
their  rude  capacities. 

Diodorus  says  that  the  name  given  by  Moses  to  God  was  IAQ. 
Theodorus  says  that  the  Samaritans  termed  God  I  ABE,  but  the 
Jews  f.W.  Philo  Byblius  gives  the  form  IETQ\  and  Clemens 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  /OI 

of  Alexandria  IAOT.  Macrobius  says  that  it  was  an  admitted 
axiom  among  the  Heathen,  that  the  triliteral  I. Mi  was  the  sacred 
name  of  the  Supreme  God.  And  the  Clarian  oracle  said :  "Learn 
thou  that  /.-//<?  is  the  great  God  Supreme,  that  ruleth  over  all." 
The  letter  /  signified  Unity.  A  and  £  are  the  first  and  last  letters 
of  the  Greek  Alphabet. 

Hence  the  frequent  expression :  "I  am  the  First,  and  I  am  the 
Last ;  and  besides  Me  there  is  no  other  God.  I  am  A.  and  /<?.,  the 
First  and  the  Last.  I  am  A.  and  /^.,  the  Beginning  and  the  End- 
ing, which  Is,  and  Was,  and  Is  to  come :  the  Omnipotent."  For 
in  this  we  see  shadowed  forth  the  same  great  truth ;  that  God  is 
all  in  all — the  Cause  and  the  Effect — the  beginning,  or  Impulse,  or 
Generative  Power:  and  the  Ending,  or  Result,  or  that  which  is 
produced :  that  He  is  in  reality  all  that  is,  all  that  ever  was,  and  all 
that  ever  will  be ;  in  this  sense,  that  nothing  besides  Himself  has 
existed  eternally,  and  co-eternally  with  Him,  independent  of  Him, 
and  self-existent,  or  self-originated. 

And  thus  the  meaning  of  the  expression,  ALOHAYIM,  a  plural 
noun,  used,  in  the  account  of  the  Creation  with  which  Genesis 
commences,  with  a  singular  verb,  and  of  the  name  or  title  IHUH- 
ALHIM,  used  for  the  first  time  in  the  4th  verse  of  the  2d  chapter 
of  the  same  book,  becomes  clear.  The  ALHIM  is  the  aggregate 
unity  of  the  manifested  Creative  Forces  or  Powers  of  Deity,  His 
Emanations ;  and  IHUH-ALHIM  is  the  ABSOLUTE  Existence,  or 
Essence  of  these  Powers  and  Forces,  of  which  they  are  Active 
Manifestations  and  Emanations. 

This  was  the  profound  truth  hidden  in  the  ancient  allegory  and 
covered  from  the  general  view  with  a  double  veil.  This  was  the 
esoteric  meaning  of  the  generation  and  production  of  the  Indian, 
Chaldean,  and  Phoenician  cosmognies ;  and  the  Active  and  Pass- 
ive Powers,  of  the  Male  and  Female  Principles ;  of  Heaven  and 
its  Luminaries  generating,  and  the  Earth  producing;  all  hiding 
from  vulgar  view,  as  above  its  comprehension,  the  doctrine  that 
matter  is  not  eternal,  but  that  God  was  the  only  original  Existence, 
the  ABSOLUTE,  from  \Yhom  everything  has  proceeded,  and  to 
Whom  all  returns :  and  that  all  moral  law  springs  not  from  the 
relation  of  things,  but  from  His  Wisdom  and  Essential  Justice,  as 
the  Omnipotent  Legislator.  And  this  TRUE  WORD  is  with  entire 
accuracy  said  to  have  been  lost;  because  its  meaning  was  lost, 
even  among  the  Hebrews,  although  we  still  find  the  name  (its  real 


702  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

meaning  unsuspected),  in  the  Hu  of  the  Druids  and  the  Fo-Hi 
of  the  Chinese. 

When  we  conceive  of  the  Absolute  Truth,  Beauty,  or  Good,  we 
cannot  stop  short  at  the  abstraction  of  either.  We  are  forced  to 
refer  each  to  some  living1  and  substantial  Being,  in  which  they 
have  their  foundations,  some  being  that  is  the  first  and  last  prin- 
ciple of  each. 

Moral  Truth,  like  every  other  universal  and  necessary  truth, 
cannot  remain  a  mere  abstraction.  Abstractions  are  unrealities. 
In  ourselves,  moral  truth  is  merely  conceived  of.  There  must  be 
somewhere  a  Being  that  not  only  conceives  of,  but  constitutes  it. 
U  has  this  characteristic ;  that  it  is  not  only,  to  the  eyes  of  our 
intelligence,  an  universal  and  necessary  truth,  but  one  obligatory 
on  our  will.  It  is  A  LAW.  We  do  not  establish  that  law  ourselves. 
It  is  imposed  on  us  despite  ourselves  :  its  principle  must  be  zvithout 
us.  It  supposes  a  legislator.  He  cannot  be  the  being  to  whom 
the  law  applies ;  but  must  be  one  that  possesses  in  the  highest 
degree  all  the  characteristics  of  moral  truth.  The  moral  law,  uni- 
versal and  necessary,  necessarily  has  as  its  author  a  necessary 
being; — composed  of  justice  and  charity,  its  author  must  be  a 
being  possessing  the  plenitude  of  both. 

As  all  beautiful  and  all  true  things  refer  themselves,  these  to 
a  Unity  which  is  absolute  TRUTH,  and  those  to  a  Unity  which  is 
absolute  BEAUTY,  so  all  the  moral  .principles  centre  in  a  single 
principle,  which  is  THE  GOOD.  Thus  we  arrive  at  the  conception 
of  THE  GOOD  in  itself,  the  ABSOLUTE  Good,  superior  to  all  par- 
ticular duties,  and  determinate  in  those  duties.  This  Absolute 
Good  must  necessarily  be  an  attribute  of  the  Absolute  BEING. 
There  cannot  be  several  Absolute  Beings ;  the  one  in  whom  are 
realized  Absolute  Truth  and  Absolute  Beauty  being  different  from 
the  one  in  whom  is  realized  Absolute  Good.  The  Absolute  neces- 
sarily implies  absolute  Unity.  The  True,  the  Beautiful,  and  the 
Good  are  not  three  distinct  essences :  but  they  are  one  and  the 
same  essence,  considered  in  its  fundamental  attributes :  the  differ- 
ent phases  which,  in  our  eyes,  the  Absolute  and  Infinite  Perfection 
assumes.  Manifested  in  the  World  of  the  Finite  and  Relative, 
these  three  attributes  separate  from  each  other,  and  are  distin- 
guished by  our  minds,  which  can  comprehend  nothing  except  by 
division.  But  in  the  Being  from  W'"hom  they  emanate,  they  are 
indivisibly  united ;  and  this  Being,  at  once  triple  and  one,  Who 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  /OJ 

sums  up  in  Himself  perfect  Beauty,  perfect  Truth,  and  the  per- 
fect Good,  is  GOD. 

God  is  necessarily  the  principle  of  Moral  Truth,  and  of  per- 
sonal morality.  Man  is  a  moral  person,  that  is  to  say,  one 
endowed  with  reason  and  liberty.  He  is  capable  of  Virtue :  and 
Virtue  has  with  him  two  principal  forms,  respect  for  others  and 
love  of  others, — justice  and  charity. 

The  creature  can  possess  no  real  and  essential  attribute  which 
the  Creator  does  not  possess.  The  effect  can  draw  its  reality  and 
existence  only  from  its  cause.  The  cause  contains  in  itself,  at 
least,  what  is  essential  in  the  effect.  The  characteristic  of  the 
effect  is  inferiority,  short-coming,  imperfection.  Dependent  and 
derivate,  it  bears  in  itself  the  marks  and  conditions  of  depend- 
ence ;  and  its  imperfection  proves  the  perfection  of  the  cause ;  or 
else  there  would  be  in  the  effect  something  immanent,  without 
a  cause. 

God  is  not  a  logical  Being,  whose  Nature  may  be  explained  by 
deduction,  and  by  means  of  algebraic  equations.  When,  setting 
out  with  a  primary  attribute,  the  attributes  of  God  are  deduced 
one  from  the  other,  after  the  manner  of  the  Geometricians  and 
Scholastics,  we  have  nothing  but  abstractions.  We  must  emerge 
from  this  empty  dialectic,  to  arrive  at  a  true  and  living  God. 
The  first  notion  which  we  have  of  God,  that  of  an  Infinite  Being, 
is  not  given  us  a  priori,  independently  of  all  experience.  It  is  our 
consciousness  of  ourself,  as  at  once  a  Being  and  a  limited  Being, 
that  immediately  raises  us  to  the  conception  of  a  Being,  the  prin- 
ciple of  our  being,  and  Himself  without  limits.  If  the  existence 
that  we  possess  forces  us  to  recur  to  a  cause  possessing  the  same 
existence  in  an  infinite  degree,  all  the  substantial  attributes  of 
existence  that  we  possess  equally  require  each  an  infinite  cause. 
God,  then,  is  no  longer  the  Infinite,  Abstract,  Indeterminate 
Being,  of  which  reason  and  the  heart  cannot  lay  hold,  but  a  real 
Being,  determinate  like  ourselves,  a  moral  person  like  ourself: 
and  the  study  of  our  own  souls  will  conduct  us,  without  resort  to 
hypothesis,  to  a  conception  of  God,  both  sublime  and  having  a 
connection  with  ourselves. 

If  man  be  free,  God  must  be  so.  It  would  be  strange  if,  while 
the  creature  has  that  marvellous  power  of  disposing  of  himself,  of 
choosing  and  willing  freely,  the  Being  that  has  made  him  should 
be  subject  to  a  necessary  development,  the  cause  of  which,  though 


704  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

in  Himself,  is  a  sort  of  abstract,  mechanical,  or  metaphysical 
power,  inferior  to  the  personal,  voluntary  cause  which  we  are,  and 
of  which  we  have  the  clearest  consciousness.  God  is  free  because 
we  are :  but  he  is  not  free  as  we  are.  He  is  at  once  everything  that 
we  are,  and  nothing  that  we  are.  He  possesses  the  same  attributes 
as  we,  but  extended  to  infinity.  He  possesses,  then,  an  infinite 
liberty,  united  to  an  infinite  intelligence ;  and  as  His  intelligence 
is  infallible,  exempt  from  the  uncertainty  of  deliberation,  and  per- 
ceiving at  a  glance  where  the  Good  is,  so  His  liberty  accomplishes 
it  spontaneously  and  without  effort. 

As  we  assign  to  God  that  liberty  which  is  the  basis  of  our  exist- 
ence, so  also  we  transfer  to  His  character,  from  our  own,  justice 
and  charity.  In  man  they  are  virtues :  in  God,  His  attributes. 
What  is  in  us  the  laborious  conquest  of  liberty,  is  in  Him  His 
very  nature.  The  idea  of  the  right,  and  the  respect  paid  to  the 
right,  are  signs  of  the  dignity  of  our  existence.  If  respect  of  rights 
is  the  very  essence  of  justice,  the  Perfect  Being  must  know  and 
respect  the  rights  of  the  lowest  of  His  creatures ;  for  He  assigned 
them  those  rights.  In  God  resides  a  sovereign  justice,  that  renders 
to  every  one  what  is  due  him,  not  according  to  deceitful  appear- 
ances, but  according  to  the  truth  of  things.  And  if  man,  a  limited 
being,  has  the  power  to  go  out  of  himself,  to  forget  his  own  person, 
to  love  another  like  himself,  and  devote  himself  to  his  happiness, 
dignity,  and  perfection,  the  Perfect  Being  must  have,  in  an  infinite 
degree,  that  disinterested  tenderness,  that  Charity,  the  Supreme 
Virtue  of  the  human  person.  There  is  in  God  an  infinite  tender- 
ness for  His  creatures,  manifested  in  His  giving  us  existence, 
which  He  might  have  withheld ;  and  every  day  it  appears  in  in- 
numerable marks  of  His  Divine  Providence. 

Plato  well  understood  that  love  of  God,  and  expresses  it  in  these 
great  words :  "Let  us  speak  of  the  cause  which  led  the  Supreme 
Arranger  of  the  Universe  to  produce  and  regulate  that  Universe. 
He  was  good ;  and  he  who  is  good  has  no  kind  of  ill-will.  Exempt 
from  that,  He  willed  that  created  things  should  be,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, like  Himself."  And  Christianity  in  its  turn  said,  "God  Jias 
so  loved  men  that  He  has  given  them  His  only  Son." 

It  is  not  correct  to  affirm,  as  is  often  done,  that  Christianity  has 
in  some  sort  discovered  this  noble  sentiment.  We  must  not  lower 
human  nature,  to  raise  Christianity.  Antiquity  knew,  described, 
and  practised  charity ;  the  first  feature  of  which,  so  touching,  and 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  705 

thank  God !  so  common,  is  goodness,  as  its  loftiest  one  is  heroism. 
Charity  is  devotion  to  another ;  and  it  is  ridiculously  senseless  to 
pretend  that  there  ever  was  an  age  of  the  world,  when  the  human 
soul  was  deprived  of  that  part  of  its  heritage,  the  power  of  devo- 
tion. But  it  is  certain  that  Christianity  has  diffused  and  popu- 
larized this  virtue,  and  that,  before  Christ,  these  words  were  never 
spoken:  "LovE  ONE  ANOTHER;  FOR  THAT  is  THE  WHOLE  LAW." 
Chanty  presupposes  Justice.  He  who  truly  loves  his  brother 
respects  the  rights  of  his  brother;  but  he  does  more,  he  forgets 
his  own.  Egoism  sells  or  takes.  Love  delights  in  giving.  In  God, 
love  is  what  it  is  in  us ;  but  in  an  infinite  degree.  God  is  inex- 
haustible in  His  charity,  as  He  is  inexhaustible  in  His  essence. 
That  Infinite  Omnipotence  and  Infinite  Charity,  which,  by  an 
admirable  good-will,  draws  from  the  bosom  of  its  immense  love 
the  favors  which  it  incessantly  bestows  on  the  world  and  on 
humanity,  teaches  us  that  the  more  we  give,  the  more  we  possess. 

God  being  all  just  and  all  good,  He  can  will  nothing  but  what 
is  good  and  just.  Being  Omnipotent,  whatever  He  wills  He  can 
do,  and  consequently  does.  The  world  is  the  work  of  God :  it  is 
therefore  perfectly  made. 

Yet  there  is  disorder  in  the  world,  that  seems  to  impugn  the 
justice  and  goodness  of  God. 

A  principle  indissolubly  connected  with  the  very  idea  of  good, 
tells  us  that  every  moral  agent  deserves  reward  when  he  does  well, 
and  punishment  when  he  does  ill.  This  principle  is  universal  and 
necessary.  It  is  absolute.  If  it  does  not  apply  in  this  world,  it  is 
false,  or  the  world  is  badly  ordered. 

But  good  actions  are  not  always  followed  by  happiness,  nor  evil 
ones  by  misery.  Though  often  this  fact  is  more  apparent  than 
real ;  though  virtue,  a  war  against  the  passions,  full  of  dignity  but 
full  of  sorrow  and  pain,  has  the  latter  as  its  condition,  yet  the 
pains  that  follow  vice  are  greater ;  and  virtue  conduces  most  to 
health,  strength,  and  long  life ; — though  the  peaceful  conscience 
that  accompanies  virtue  creates  internal  happiness  ;  though  public 
opinion  generally  decides  correctly  on  men's  characters,  and  re- 
wards virtue  with  esteem  and  consideration,  and  vice  with  con- 
tempt and  infamy;  and  though,  after  all.  justice  reigns  in  the 
world,  and  the  surest  road  to  happiness  is  still  'hat  of  virtue,  yet 
there  are  exceptions.  Virtue  is  not  always  rewarded,  nor  vice 
punished,  in  this  life. 


706  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  data  of  this  problem  are  these:  1st.  The  principle  of  merit 
and  demerit  within  us  is  absolute :  every  good  action  ought  to  be 
rewarded,  every  bad  one  punished :  2d.  God  is  as  just  as  He  is  all- 
powerful  :  3d.  There  are  in  this  world  particular  cases,  contradict- 
ing the  necessary  and  universal  law  of  merit  and  demerit.  What 
is  the  result? 

To  reject  the  two  principles,  that  God  is  just,  and  the  law  of 
merit  and  demerit  absolute,  is  to  raze  to  the  foundations  the  whole 
edifice  of  human  faith. 

To  maintain  them,  is  to  admit  that  the  present  life  is  to  be 
terminated  or  continued  elsewhere.  The  moral  person  who  acts 
well  or  ill,  and  awaits  reward  or  punishment,  is  connected  with  a 
body,  lives  with  it,  makes  use  of  it,  depends  upon  it  in  a  measure, 
but  is  not  it.  The  body  is  composed  of  parts.  It  diminishes  or 
increases,  it  is  divisible  even  to  infinity.  But  this  something 
which  has  a  consciousness  of  itself,  and  says  "I,  ME"  ;  that  feels 
itself  free  and  responsible,  feels  too  that  it  is  incapable  of  division, 
that  it  is  a  being  one  and  simple;  that  the  ME  cannot  be  halved, 
that  if  a  limb  is  cut  off  and  thrown  away,  no  part  of  the  ME  goes 
with  it :  that  it  remains  identical  with  itself  under  the  variety  of 
phenomena  which  successively  manifest  it.  This  identity,  indi- 
visibility, and  absolute  unity  of  the  person,  are  its  spirituality, 
the  very  essence  of  the  person.  It  is  not  in  the  least  an  hypothesis 
to  affirm  that  the  soul  differs  essentially  from  the  body.  By  the 
soul  we  mean  the  person,  not  separated  from  the  consciousness  of 
the  attributes  which  constitute  it, — thought  and  unll.  The  Exist- 
ence without  consciousness  is  an  abstract  being,  and  not  a  person. 
It  is  the  person,  that  is  identical,  one,  simple.  Its  attributes,  de- 
veloping it,  do  not  divide  it.  Indivisible,  it  is  indissoluble  and 
may  be  immortal.  If  absolute  justice  requires  this  immortality, 
it  does  not  require  what  is  impossible.  The  spirituality  of  the 
soul  is  the  condition  and  necessary  foundation  of  immortality : 
the  law  of  merit  and  demerit  the  direct  demonstration  of  it.  The 
first  is  the  metaphysical,  the  second  the  moral  proof.  Add  to 
these  the  tendency  of  all  the  powers  of  the  soul  toward  the  Infi- 
nite, and  the  principle  of  final  causes,  and  the  proof  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  is  complete. 

God,  therefore,  in  the  Masonic  creed,  is  INFINITE  TRUTH,  IN- 
FINITE BEAUTY,  INFINITE  GOODNESS.  He  is  the  Holv  of  Holies. 
as  Author  of  the  Moral  Law,  as  the  PRINCIPLE  of  Liberty,  c* 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  707 

Justice,  and  of  Charity,  Dispenser  of  Reward  and  Punishment. 
Such  a  God  is  not  an  abstract  God ;  but  an  intelligent  and  free 
person,  Who  has  made  us  in  His  image,  from  Whom  we  receive 
the  law  that  presides  over  our  destiny,  and  Whose  judgment  we 
await.  It  is  His  love  that  inspires  us  in  our  acts  of  charity :  it  is 
His  justice  that  governs  our  justice,  and  that  of  society  and  the 
laws.  We  continually  remind  ourselves  that  He  is  infinite ;  be- 
cause otherwise  we  should  degrade  His  nature :  but  He  would  be 
for  us  as  if  He  were  not,  if  His  infinite  nature  had  not  forms  inhe- 
rent in  ourselves,  the  forms  of  our  own  reason  and  soul. 

When  we  love  Truth,  Justice,  and  Nobility  of  Soul,  we  should 
know  that  it  is  God  we  love  underneath  these  special  forms,  and 
should  unite  them  all  into  one  great  act  of  total  piety.  We  should 
feel  that  we  go  in  and  out  continually  in  the  midst  of  the  vast 
forces  of  the  Universe,  which  are  only  the  Forces  of  God ;  that  in 
our  studies,  when  we  attain  a  truth,  we  confront  the  thought  of 
God ;  when  we  learn  the  right,  we  learn  the  will  of  God  laid  down 
as  a  rule  of  conduct  for  the  Universe ;  and  when  we  feel  disin- 
terested love,  we  should  know  that  we  partake  the  feeling  of  the 
Infinite  God.  Then,  when  we  reverence  the  mighty  cosmic  force, 
it  will  not  be  a  blind  Fate  in  an  Atheistic  or  Pantheistic  world, 
but  the  Infinite  God,  that  we  shall  confront  and  feel  and  know. 
Then  we  shall  be  mindful  of  the  mind  of  God,  conscious  of  God's 
conscience,  sensible  of  His  sentiments,  and  our  own  existence  will 
be  in  the  infinite  being  of  God. 

The  world  is  a  whole,  which  has  its  harmony ;  for  a  God  who 
is  One,  could  make  none  but  a  complete  and  harmonious  work. 
The  harmony  of  the  Universe  responds  to  the  unity  of  God,  as  the 
indefinite  quantity  is  the  defective  sign  of  the  infinitude  of  God. 
To  say  that  the  Universe  is  God,  is  to  admit  the  world  only,  and 
deny  God.  Give  it  what  name  you  please,  it  is  atheism  at  bottom. 
On  the  other  hand,  to  suppose  that  the  Universe  is  void  of  God, 
and  that  He  is  wholly  apart  from  it,  is  an  insupportable  and  al- 
most impossible  abstraction.  To  distinguish  is  not  to  separate.  I 
distinguish,  but  do  not  separate  myself  from  my  qualities  and 
effects.  So  God  is  not  the  Universe,  although  He  is  everywhere 
present  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

To  us,  as  to  Plato,  absolute  truth  is  in  God.  It  is  God  Himself 
under  one  of  His  phases.  In  God,  as  their  original,  are  the  immu- 
table principles  of  reality  and  cognizance.  In  Him  things  receive 


708  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

at  once  their  existence  and  their  intelligibility.  It  is  by  partici- 
pating' in  the  Divine  reason  that  our  own  reason  possesses  some- 
thing of  the  Absolute.  Every  judgment  of  reason  envelopes  a 
necessary  truth,  and  every  necessary  truth  supposes  the  necessary 
Existence. 

Thus,  from  every  direction, — from  metaphysics,  aesthetics,  and 
morality  above  all,  we  rise  to  the  same  Principle,  the  common 
centre,  and  ultimate  foundation  of  all  truth,  all  beauty,  all  good. 
The  True,  the  Beautiful,  the  Good,  are  but  diverse  revelations  of 
one  and  the  same  Being.  Thus  \ve  reach  the  threshold  of  religion  ; 
and  are  in  communion  with  the  great  philosophies  which  all  pro- 
claim a  God ;  and  at  the  same  time  with  the  religions  which  cover 
the  earth,  and  all  repose  on  the  sacred  foundation  of  natural  reli- 
gion ;  of  that  religion  which  reveals  to  us  the  natural  light  given 
to  all  men,  without  the  aid  of  a  particular  revelation.  So  long  as 
philosophy  does  not  arrive  at  religion,  it  is  below  all  worships, 
even  the  most  imperfect ;  for  they  at  least  give  man  a  Father,  a 
Witness,  a  Consoler,  a  Judge.  By  religion,  philosophy  connects 
itself  with  humanity,  which,  from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the 
other,  aspires  to  God,  believes  in  God,  hopes  in  God.  Philosophy 
contains  in  itself  the  common  basis  of  all  religious  beliefs ;  it,  as 
it  were,  borrows  from  them  their  principle,  and  returns  it  to  them 
surrounded-  with  light,  elevated  above  uncertainty,  secure  against 
all  attack. 

From  the  necessity  of  His  Nature,  the  Infinite  Being  must 
create  and  preserve  the  Finite,  and  to  the  Finite  must,  in  its 
forms,  give  and  communicate  of  His  o\vn  kind.  We  cannot  con- 
ceive of  any  finite  thing  existing  without  God,  the  Infinite  basis 
and  ground  thereof ;  nor  of  God  existing  without  something.  God 
is  the  necessary  logical  condition  of  a  world,  its  necessitating 
cause ;  a  world,  the  necessary  logical  condition  of  God,  His  neces- 
sitated consequence.  It  is  according  to  His  Infinite  Perfection  to 
create,  and  then  to  preserve  and  bless  whatever  He  creates.  That 
is  the  conclusion  of  modern  metaphysical  science.  The  stream 
of  philosophy  runs  down  from  Aristotle  to  Hegel,  and  breaks  off 
with  this  conclusion  :  and  then  again  recurs  the  ancient  difficulty. 
If  it  be  of  His  nature  to  create, — if  we  cannot  conceive  of  His 
exjst;ror  ninuc.  without  creating,  without  hai'ing  created,  then  what 
He  creator!  w«s  co-extent  wuii  Himself.  If  He  could  exist  an 
instant  without  creating,  He  could  as  well  do  so  for  a  myriad  of 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  709 

eternities.  And  so  again  comes  round  to  us  the  old  doctrine  of  a 
God,  the  Soul  of  the  Universe,  and  co-existent  with  it.  For  what 
He  created  had  a  beginning;  and  however  long  since  that  creation 
occurred,  an  eternity  had  before  elapsed.  The  difference  between 
a  beginning  and  no  beginning  is  infinite. 

But  of  some  things  we  can  be  certain.  We  are  conscious  of  our- 
selves— of  ourselves  if  not  as  substances,  at  least  as  Powers  to  be, 
to  do,  to  suffer.  We  are  conscious  of  ourselves  not  as  self-origin- 
ated at  all  or  as  self-sustained  alone ;  but  only  as  dependent,  first 
for  existence,  ever  since  for  support. 

Among  the  primary  ideas  of  consciousness,  that  are  inseparable 
from  it,  the  atoms  of  self-consciousness,  we  find  the  idea  of  God. 
Carefully  examined  by  the  "scrutinizing  intellect,  it  is  the  idea  of 
God  as  infinite,  perfectly  powerful,  wise,  just,  loving,  holy ;  abso- 
lute being  with  no  limitation.  This  made  us,  made  all,  sustains 
us,  sustains  all ;  made  our  body,  not  by  a  single  act,  but  by  a 
series  of  acts  extending  over  a  vast  succession  of  years, — for  man's 
body  is  the  resultant  of  all  created  things, — made  our  spirit,  our 
mind,  conscience,  affections,  soul,  will,  appointed  for  each  its 
natural  mode  of  action,  set  each  at  its  several  aim.  Thus  self-con- 
sciousness leads  us  to  consciousness  of  God,  and  at  last  to  con- 
sciousness of  an  infinite  God.  That  is  the  highest  evidence  of  our 
own  existence,  and  it  is  the  highest  evidence  of  His. 

If  there  is  a  God  at  all,  He  must  be  omnipresent  in  space. 
Beyond  the  last  Stars  He  must  be,  as  He  is  here.  There  can  be 
no  mote  that  peoples  the  sunbeams,  no  little  cell  of  life  that  the 
microscope  discovers  in  the  seed-sporule  of  a  moss,  but  He  is 
there. 

He  must  also  be  omnipresent  in  time.  There  was  no  second  of 
time  before  the  Stars  began  to  burn,  but  God  was  in  that  second. 
In  the  most  distant  nebulous  spot  in  Orion's  belt,  and  in  every  one 
of  the  millions  that  people  a  square  inch  of  limestone,  God  is 
alike  present.  He  is  in  the  smallest  imaginable  or  even  unimagin- 
able portion  of  time,  and  in  every  second  of  its  most  vast  and 
unimaginable  volume;  His  Here  conterminous  with  the  All  of 
Space,  His  Now  coeval  with  the  All  of  Time. 

Through  all  this  Space,  in  all  this  Time,  His  Being  extends, 
spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent ;  God  in  all  His  infinity,  per- 
fectly powerful,  \vise,  just,  loving,  and  holy.  His  being  is  an 
infinite  activity,  a  creating,  and  so  a  giving  of  Himself  to  the 
46 


710  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

World.  The  World's  being  is  a  becoming,  a  being  created  and 
continued.  It  is  so  now,  and  was  so,  incalculable  and  unimagin- 
able millions  of  ages  ago. 

All  this  is  philosophy,  the  unavoidable  conclusion  of  the  human 
mind.  It  is  not  Ihe  opinion  of  Coleridge  and  Kant,  but  their 
science;  not  what  they  guess,  but  what  they  know. 

In  virtue  of  this  in-dwelling  of  God  in  matter,  we  say  that  the 
world  is  a  revelation  of  Him,  its  existence  a  show  of  His.  He  is 
in  His  .work.  The  manifold  action  of  the  Universe  is  only  His 
mode  of  operation,  and  all  material  things  are  in  communion  with 
Him.  All  grow  and  move  and  live  in  Him,  and  by  means  of  Him, 
and  only  so.  Let  Him  withdraw  from  the  space  occupied  by  any- 
thing, and  it  ceases  to  be.  Let  Him  withdraw  any  quality  of  His 
nature  from  anything,  and  it  ceases  to  be.  All  must  partake  of 
Him,  Heiiwelling  in  each,  and  yet  transcending  all. 

The  failure  of  fanciful  religion  to  become  philosophy,  does  not 
preclude  philosophy  from  coinciding  with  true  religion.  Philos- 
ophy, or  rather  its  object,  the  divine  order  of  the  Universe,  is  the- 
intellectual  guide  which  the  religious  sentiment  needs ;  while 
exploring  the  real  relations  of  the  finite,  it  obtains  a  constantly 
improving  and  self-correcting  measure  of  the  perfect  law  of  the 
Gospel  of  Love  and  Liberty,  and  a  means  of  carrying  into  effect 
the  spiritualism  of  revealed  religion.  It  establishes  law,  by  ascer- 
taining its  terms ;  it  guides  the  spirit  to  see  its  way  to  the  ameli- 
oration of  life  and  the  increase  of  happiness.  While  religion  was 
stationary,  science  could  not  walk  alone ;  when  both  are  admitted 
to  be  progressive,  their  interests  and  aims  become  identified. 
Aristotle  began  to  show  how  religion  may  be  founded  on  an  intel- 
lectual basis ;  but  the  basis  he  laid  was  too  narrow.  Bacon,  by 
giving  to  philosophy  a  definite  aim  and  method,  gave  it  at  the 
same  time  a  safer  and  self-enlarging  basis.  Our  position  is  that 
of  intellectual  beings  surrounded  by  limitations  ;  and  the  latter 
being  constant,  have  to  intelligence  the  practical  value  of  laws,  in 
whose  investigation  and  application  consists  that  seemingly  endless 
career  of  intellectual  and  moral  progress  which  the  sentiment  of 
religion  inspires  and  ennobles.  The  title  of  Saint  has  commonly 
been  claimed  for  those  whose  boast  it  has  been  to  despise  philos- 
ophy ;  yet  faith  will  stumble  and  sentiment  mislead,  unless  knowl- 
edge be  present,  in  amount  and  quality  sufficient  to  purify  the  one 
and  to  give  beneficial  direction  to  the  other. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  711 

Science  consists  of  those  matured  inferences  from  experi- 
ence which  all  other  experience  confirms.  It  is  no  fixed  system 
superior  to  revision,  but  that  progressive  mediation  between 
ignorance  and  wisdom  in  part  conceived  by  Plato,  whose  immedi- 
ate object  is  happiness,  and  its  impulse  the  highest  kind  of  love. 
Science  realizes  and  unites  all  that  was  truly  valuable  in  both  the 
old  schemes  of  mediation ;  the  heroic,  or  system  of  action  and 
effort ;  and  the  mystical  theory  of  spiritual,  contemplative  com- 
munion. "Listen  to  me,"  says  Galen,  "as  to  the  voice  of  the 
Eleusinian  Hierophant,  and  believe  that  the  study  of  nature  is  a 
mystery  no  less  important  than  theirs,  nor  less  adapted  to  display 
the  wisdom  and  power  of  the  Great  Creator.  Their  lessons  and 
demonstrations  were  obscure,  but  ours  are  clear  and  unmistak- 
able." 

To  science  we  owe  it  that  no  man  is  any  longer  entitled  to  con- 
sider himself  the  central  point  around  which  the  whole  Universe 
of  life  and  motion  revolves — the  immensely  important  individual 
for  whose  convenience  and  even  luxurious  ease  and  indulgence  the 
whole  Universe  was  made.  On  one  side  it  has  shown  us  an  infi- 
nite Universe  of  stars  and  suns  and  worlds  at  incalculable  dis- 
tances from  each  other,  in  whose  majestic  and  awful  presence  we 
sink  and  even  our  world  sinks  into  insignificance ;  while,  on  the 
other  side,  the  microscope  has  placed  us  in  communication  with 
new  worlds  of  organized  living  beings,  gifted  with  senses,  nerves, 
appetites,  and  instincts,  in  every  tear  and  in  every  drop  of  putrid 
water. 

Thus  science  teaches  us  that  we  are  but  an  infinitesimal  portion 
of  a  great  whole,  that  stretches  out  on  every  side  of  us,  and  above 
and  below  us,  infinite  in  its  complications,  and  which  infinite  wis- 
dom alone  can  comprehend.  Infinite  wisdom  has  arranged  the 
infinite  succession  of  beings,  involving  the  necessity  of  birth, 
decay,  and  death,  and  made  the  loftiest  virtues  possible  by  provid- 
ing those  conflicts,  reverses,  trials,  and  hardships,  without  which 
even  their  names  could  never  have  been  invented. 

Knowledge  is  convertible  into  power,  and  axioms  into  rules  of 
utility  and  duty.  Modern  science  is  social  and  communicative. 
It  is  moral  as  well  as  intellectual ;  powerful,  yet  pacific  and  dis- 
interested ;  binding  man  to  man  as  well  as  to  the  Universe :  filling 
up  the  details  of  obligation,  and  cherishing  impulses  of  virtue, 
and,  by  affording  clear  proof  of  the  consistency  and  identity  of  all 


712  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

interests,  substituting  co-operation  for  rivalry,  liberality  for 
jealousy,  and  tending  far  more  powerfully  than  any  other  means 
to  realize  the  spirit  of  religion,  by  healing  those  inveterate  dis- 
orders which,  traced  to  their  real  origin,  will  be  found  rooted  in 
an  ignorant  assumption  as  to  the  penurious  severity  of  Provi- 
dence, and  the  consequent  greed  of  selfish  men  to  confine  what 
seemed  as  if  extorted  from  it  to  themselves,  or  to  steal  from  each 
other  rather  than  quietly  to  enjoy  their  own. 

We  shall  probably  never  reach  those  higher  forms  containing 
the  true  differences  of  things,  involving  the  full  discovery  and 
correct  expression  of  their  very  self  or  essence.  We  shall  ever 
fall  short  of  the  most  general  and  most  simple  nature,  the  ultimate 
or  most  comprehensive  law.  Our  widest  axioms  explain  many 
phenomena,  but  so  too  in  a  degree  did  the  principles  or  elements 
of  the  old  philosophers,  and  the  cycles  and  epicycles  of  ancient 
astronomy.  We  cannot  in  any  case  of  causation  assign  the  whole 
of  the  conditions,  nor,  though  we  may  reproduce  them  in  practice, 
can  we  mentally  distinguish  them  all,  without  knowing  the  essen- 
ces of  the  things  including  them ;  and  we  therefore  must  not 
unconsciously  ascribe  that  absolute  certainty  to  axioms,  which  the 
ancient  religionists  did  to  creeds,  nor  allow  the  mind,  which  ever 
strives  to  insulate  itself  and  its  acquisitions,  to  forget  the  nature 
of  the  process  by  which  it  substituted  scientific  for  common 
notions,  and  so  with  one  as  with  the  other  lay  the  basis  of 
self-deception  by  a  pedantic  and  superstitious  employment  of 
them. 

Doubt,  the  essential  preliminary  of  all  improvement  and  dis- 
covery, must  accompany  all  the  stages  of  man's  onward  progress. 
His  intellectual  life  is  a  perpetual  beginning,  a  preparation  for  a 
birth.  The  faculty  of  doubting  and  questioning,  without  which 
those  of  comparison  and  judgment  would  be  useless,  is  itself  a 
divine  prerogative  of  the  reason.  Knowledge  is  always  imperfect, 
or  complete  only  in  a  prospectively  boundless  career,  in  which 
discovery  multiplies  doubt,  and  doubt  leads  on  to  new  discovery. 
The  boast  of  science  is  not  so  much  its  manifested  results,  as  its 
admitted  impei  fcction  and  capacity  of  unlimited  progress.  The 
true  religions  philosophy  of  an  imperfect  being  is  not  a  system 
of  creed,  but,  as  Socrates  thought,  an  infinite  search  or  approxi- 
mation. Finality  is  but  another  name  for  bewilderment  or  defeat. 
Science  gratifies  the  religious  feeling  without  arresting  it,  and 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  713 

opens  out  the  unfathomable  mystery  of  the  One  Supreme  into 
more  explicit  and  manageable  Forms,  which  express  not  indeed 
His  Essence,  which  is  wholly  beyond  our  reach  and  higher  than 
our  faculties  can  climb,  but  His  Will,  and  so  feeds  an  endless 
enthusiasm  by  accumulating  forever  new  objects  of  pursuit.  We 
have  long  experienced  that  knowledge  is  profitable,  we  are  begin- 
ning to  find  out  that  it  is  moral,  and  we  shall  at  last  discover  it 
to  be  religious. 

God  and  truth  are  inseparable ;  a  knowledge  of  God  is  posses- 
sion of  the  saving  oracles  of  truth.  In  proportion  as  the  thought 
and  purpose  of  the  individual  are  trained  to  conformity  with  the 
rule  of  right  prescribed  by  Supreme  Intelligence,  so  far  is  his 
happiness  promoted,  and  the  purpose  of  his  existence  fulfilled. 
In  this  way  a  new  life  arises  in  him ;  he  is  no  longer  isolated,  but  is 
a  part  of  the  eternal  harmonies  around  him.  His  erring  will  is 
directed  by  the  influence  of  a  higher  will,  informing  and  mould- 
ing it  in  the  path  of  his  true  happiness. 

Man's  power  of  apprehending  outward  truth  is  a  qualified  privi- 
lege;  the  mental  like  the  physical  inspiration  passing  through  a 
diluted  medium  ;  and  yet,  even  when  truth,  imparted,  as  it  were,  by 
intuition,  has  been  specious,  or  at  least  imperfect,  the  intoxication 
of  sudden  discovery  has  ever  claimed  it  as  full,  infallible,  and  di- 
vine. And  while  human  weakness  needed  ever  to  recur  to  the  pure 
and  perfect  source,  the  revelations  once  popularly  accepted  and 
valued  assumed  an  independent  substantiality,  perpetuating  not 
themselves  only,  but  the  whole  mass  of  derivitive  forms  accident- 
ally connected  with  them,  and  legalized  in  their  names.  The  mists 
of  error  thickened  under  the  shadows  of  prescription,  until  the  free 
light  again  broke  in  upon  the  night  of  ages,  redeeming  the  genu- 
ine treasure  from  the  superstition  which  obstinately  doted  on  its 
accessories. 

Even  to  the  Barbarian,  Nature  reveals  a  mighty  power  and  a 
wondrous  wisdom,  and  continually  points  to  God.  It  is  no  won- 
der that  men  worshipped  the  several  things  of  the  world.  The 
world  of  matter  is  a  revelation  of  fear  to  the  savage  in  Northern 
climes ;  he  trembles  at  his  deity  throned  in  ice  and  snow.  The 
lightning,  the  storm,  the  earthquake  startle  the  rude  man,  and  he 
sees  the  divine  in  the  extraordinary. 

The  grand  objects  of  Nature  perpetually  constrain  men  to  think 
of  their  Author.  The  Alps  are  the  great  altar  of  Europe ;  the  noc- 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

turnal  sky  has  been  to  mankind  the  dome  of  a  temple,  starred  all 
over  with  admonitions  to  reverence,  trust,  and  love.  The  Scrip- 
tures for  the  human  race  are  writ  in  earth  and  Heaven.  No  organ 
or  miserere  touches  the  heart  like  the  sonorous  swell  of  the  sea 
or  the  ocean-wave's  immeasurable  laugh.  Every  year  the  old  world 
puts  on  new  bridal  beauty,  and  celebrates  its  Whit-Sunday,  when 
in  the  sweet  Spring  each  bush  and  tree  dons  reverently  its  new 
glories.  Autumn  is  a  long  All-Saints'  day;  and  the  harvest  is 
Hallowmass  to  Mankind.  Before  the  human  race  marched  down 
from  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas  to  take  possession  of  Asia, 
Chaldea,  and  Egypt,  men  marked  each  annual  crisis,  the  solstices 
and  the  equinoxes,  and  celebrated  religious  festivals  therein ;  and 
even  then,  and  ever  since,  the  material  was  and  has  been  the  ele- 
ment of  communion  between  man  and  God. 

Nature  is  full  of  religious  lessons  to  a  thoughtful  man.  He  dis- 
solves the  matter  of  the  Universe,  leaving  only  its  forces  ;  he  dis- 
solves away  the  phenomena  of  human  history,  leaving  only 
immortal  spirit ;  he  studies  the  law,  the  mode  of  action  of  these 
forces  and  this  spirit,  \vhich  make  up  the  material  and  the  human 
world,  and  cannot  fail  to  be  filled  with  reverence,  \vith  trust,  with 
boundless  love  of  the  Infinite  God,  who  devised  these  laws  of  mat- 
ter and  of  mind,  and  thereby  bears  up  this  marvellous  Universe 
of  things  and  men.  Science  has  its  New  Testament ;  and  the 
beatitudes  of  Philosophy  are  profoundly  touching.  An  undevout 
astronomer  is  mad.  Familiarity  with  the  grass  and  the  trees 
teaches  us  deeper  lessons  of  love  and  trust  than  we  can  glean  from 
the  writings  of  Fenelon  and  Augustine.  The  great  Bible  of  God 
is  ever  open  before  mankind.  The  eternal  flowers  of  Heaven  seem 
to  shed  sweet  influence  on  the  perishable  blossoms  of  the  earth. 
The  great  sermon  of  Jesus  was  preached  on  a  mountain,  which 
preached  to  Him  as  He  did  to  the  people,  and  His  figures  of 
speech  were  first  natural  figures  of  fact. 

If  to-morrow  I  am  to  perish  utterly,  then  I  shall  only  take 
counsel  for  to-day,  and  ask  for  qualities  which  last  no  longer. 
My  fathers  will  be  to  me  only  as  the  ground  out  of  which  my 
bread-corn  is  grown ;  dead,  they  are  but  the  rotten  mould  of 
earth,  their  memory  of  small  concern  to  me.  Posterity ! — I  shall 
care  nothing  for  the  future  generations  of  mankind.  I  am  one 
atom  in  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  care  nothing  for  the  roots  below, 
or  the  branch  above.  I  shall  sow  such  seed  only  as  will  bear  har 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  715 

vest  to-day.  Passion  may  enact  my  statutes  to-day,  and  ambition 
repeal  them  to-morrow.  I  will  know  no  other  legislators.  Moral- 
ity will  vanish,  and  expediency  take  its  place.  Heroism  will  be 
gone ;  and  instead  of  it  there  will  be  the  savage  ferocity  of  the 
he-wolf,  the  brute  cunning  of  the  she-fox,  the  rapacity  of  the 
vulture,  and  the  headlong  daring  of  the  wild  bull ;  but  no  longer 
the  cool,  calm  courage  that,  for  truth's  sake,  and  for  love's  sake, 
looks  death  firmly  in  the  face,  and  then  wheels  into  line  ready  to 
be  slain.  Affection,  friendship,  philanthrophy,  will  be  but  the 
wild  fancies  of  the  monomaniac,  fit  subjects  for  smiles  or  laugh- 
ter or  for  pity. 

But  knowing  that  we  shall  live  forever,  and  that  the  Infinite  God 
loves  all  of  us,  we  can  look  on  all  the  evils  of  the  world,  and  see 
that  it  is  only  the  hour  before  sunrise,  and  that  the  light  is  com- 
ing ;  and  so  we  also,  even  we,  may  light  a  little  taper,  to  illumi- 
nate the  darkness  while  it  lasts,  and  help  until  the  day-spring 
come.  Eternal  morning  follows  the  night :  a  rainbow  scarfs  the 
shoulders  of  every  cloud  that  weeps  its  rain  away  to  be  flowers  on 
land  and  pearls  at  sea :  Life  rises  out  of  the  grave,  the  soul  cannot 
be  held  by  fettering  flesh.  No  dawn  is  hopeless ;  and  disaster  is 
only  the  threshold  of  delight. 

Beautifully,  above  the  great  wride  chaos  of  human  errors,  shines 
the  calm,  clear  light  of  natural  human  religion,  revealing  to  us 
God  as  the  Infinite  Parent  of  all,  perfectly  powerful,  wise,  just, 
loving,  and  perfectly  holy  too.  Beautiful  around  stretches  off  ev- 
ery way  the  Universe,  the  Great  Bible  of  God.  Material  nature  is 
its  Old  Testament,  millions  of  years  old,  thick  with  eternal  truths 
under  our  feet,  glittering  with  everlasting  glories  over  our  heads ; 
and  Human  Nature  is  the  New  Testament  from  the  Infinite  God, 
every  day  revealing  a  new  page  as  Time  turns  over  the  leaves.  Im- 
mortality stands  waiting  to  give  a  recompense  for  every  virtue  not 
rewarded,  for  every  tear  not  wiped  away,  for  every  sorrow  unde- 
served, for  every  prayer,  for  every  pure  intention  and  emotion  of 
the  heart.  And  over  the  whole,  over  Nature,  Material  and  Human, 
over  this  Mortal  Life  and  over  the  eternal  Past  and  Future,  the 
infinite  Loving-kindness  of  God  the  Father  comes  enfolding  all 
and  blessing  everything  that  ever  was,  that  is,  that  ever  shall  be. 

Everything  is  a  thought  of  the  Infinite  God.  Nature  is  His 
prose,  and  man  His  Poetry.  There  is  no  Chance,  no  Fate :  but 
God's  Great  Providence,  enfolding  the  whole  Universe  in  its  bo- 


~l6  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

som,  and  feeding  it  with  everlasting  life.  In  times  past  there  has 
been  evil  which  we  cannot  understand ;  now  there  are  evils  which 
we  cannot  solve,  nor  make  square  with  God's  perfect  goodness  by 
any  theory  our  feeble  intellect  enables  us  to  frame.  There  are  suf- 
ferings, follies,  and  sins  for  all  mankind,  for  every  nation,  for  every 
man  and  every  woman.  They  were  all  foreseen  by  the  infinite 
wisdom  of  God,  all  provided  for  by  His  infinite  power  and  justice. 
and  all  are  consistent  with  His  infinite  love.  To  believe  otherwise 
would  be  to  believe  that  He  made  the  world,  to  amuse  His  idle 
hours  with  the  follies  and  agonies  of  mankind,  as  Domitian  was 
wont  to  do  with  the  wrigglings  and  contortions  of  insect  agonies. 
Then  indeed  we  might  despairingly  unite  in  that  horrible  utter- 
ance of  Heine :  "Alas,  God's  Satire  weighs  heavily  on  me !  The 
Great  Author  of  the  Universe,  the  Aristophanes  of  Heaven,  is 
bent  on  demonstrating,  with  crushing  force,  to  me,  the  little, 
earthly,  German  Aristophanes,  how  my  wittiest  sarcasms  are  only 
pitiful  attempts  at  jesting,  in  comparison  with  His,  and  how  mis- 
erably I  am  beneath  Him,  in  humor,  in  colossal  mockery." 

No,  no !  God  is  not  thus  amused  with  and  prodigal  of  human 
suffering.  The  world  is  neither  a  Here  without  a  Hereafter,  a 
body  without  a  soul,  a  chaos  with  no  God ;  nor  a  body  blasted  by 
a  soul,  a  Here  with  a  worse  Hereafter,  a  world  with  a  God  that 
hates  more  than  half  the  creatures  He  has  made.  There  is  no 
Savage,  Revengeful,  and  Evil  God :  but  there  is  an  Infinite  God, 
seen  everywhere  as  Perfect  Cause,  everywhere  as  Perfect  Provi- 
dence, transcending  all,  yet  in-dwelling  everywhere,  with  perfect 
power,  wisdom,  justice,  holiness,  and  love,  providing  for  the  future 
welfare  of  each  and  all,  foreseeing  and  forecaring  for  every  bubble 
that  breaks  on  the  great  stream  of  human  life  and  human  history. 

The  end  of  man  and  the  object  of  existence  in  this  world,  being 
not  only  happiness,  but  happiness  in  virtue  and  through  virtue, 
virtue  in  this  world  is  the  condition  of  happiness  in  another  lift1, 
and  the  condition  of  virtue  in  this  world  is  suffering,  more  or  less 
frequent,  briefer  or  longer  continued,  more  or  less  intense.  Take 
away  suffering,  and  there  is  no  longer  any  resignation  or  human- 
ity, no  more  self-sacrifice,  no  more  devotedness,  no  more  heroic 
virtues,  no  more  sublime  morality.  We  are  subjected  to  suffering, 
both  because  we  are  sensible,  and  because  we  ought  to  be  virtuous. 
If  there  were  no  physical  evil,  there  would  be  no  possible  virtue, 
and  the  world  would  be  badly  adapted  to  the  destiny  of  man. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  717 

The  apparent  disorders  of  the  physical  world,  and  the  evils  that 
result  from  them,  are  not  disorders  and  evils  that  occur  despite 
the  power  and  goodness  of  God.  God  not  only  allows,  but  wills 
them.  It  is  His  will  that  there  shall  be  in  the  physical  world 
causes  enough  of  pain  for  man,  to  afford  him  occasions  for  resig- 
nation and  courage. 

Whatever  is  favorable  to  virtue,  whatever  gives  the  moral  liberty 
more  energy,  whatever  can  serve  the  greater  moral  development 
of  the  human  race,  is  good.  Suffering  is  not  the  worst  condition 
of  man  on  earth.  The  worst  condition  is  the  moral  brutalization 
which  the  absence  of  physical  evil  would  engender. 

External  or  internal  physical  evil  connects  itself  with  the  object 
of  existence,  which  is  to  accomplish  the  moral  law  here  below, 
whatever  the  consequences,  with  the  firm  hope  that  virtue  unfor- 
tunate will  not  fail  to  be  rewarded  in  another  life.  The  moral  law 
has  its  sanction  and  its  reason  in  itself.  It  owes  nothing  to  that 
law  of  merit  and  demerit  that  accompanies  it,  but  is  not  its  basis. 
But,  though  the  principle  of  merit  and  demerit  ought  not  to  be 
the  determining  principle  of  virtuous  action,  it  powerfully  concurs 
with  the  moral  law,  because  it  offers  virtue  a  legitimate  ground  of 
consolation  and  hope. 

Morality  is  the  recognition  of  duty,  as  duty,  and  its  accomplish- 
ment, whatever  the  consequences. 

Religion  is  the  recognition  of  duty  in  its  necessary  harmony 
with  goodness ;  a  harmony  that  must  have  its  realization  in 
another  life,  through  the  justice  and  omnipotence  of  God. 

Religion  is  as  true  as  morality ;  for  once  morality  is  admitted, 
its  consequences  must  be  admitted. 

The  whole  moral  existence  is  included  in  these  two  words,  har- 
monious with  each  other :  DUTY  and  HOPE. 

Masonry  teaches  that  God  is  infinitely  good.  What  motive, 
what  reason,  and,  morally  speaking,  what  possibility  can  there  be 
to  Infinite  Power  and  Infinite  W'isdom,  to  be  anything  but  good  ? 
Our  very  sorrows,  proclaiming  the  loss  of  objects  inexpressibly 
clear  to  us,  demonstrate  His  Goodness.  The  Being  that  made  us  in- 
telligent cannot  Himself  be  without  intelligence  ;  and  He  Who  has 
made  us  so  to  love  and  to  sorrow  for  what  we  love,  must  number 
love  for  the  creatures  He  has  made,  among  His  infinite  attributes. 
Amid  all  our  sorrows,  we  take  refuge  in  the  assurance  that  He 
loves  us;  that  He  does  not  capriciously,  or  through  indifference, 


7I&  MOkALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  still  less  in  mere  anger,  grieve  and  afflict  us ;  that  He  chastens 
us,  in  order  that  by  His  chastisements,  which  are  by  His  universal 
law  only  the  consequences  of  our  acts,  we  may  be  profited ;  and 
that  He  could  not  show  so  much  love  for  His  creatures,  by  leaving 
them  unchastened,  untried,  undisciplined.  We  have  faith  in  the 
Infinite ;  faith  in  God's  Infinite  Love ;  and  it  is  that  faith  that 
must  save  us. 

No  dispensations  of  God's  Providence,  no  suffering  or  bereave- 
ment is  a  messenger  of  wrath :  none  of  its  circumstances  are  indi- 
cations of  God's  Anger.  He  is  incapable  of  Anger ;  higher  above 
any  such  feelings  than  the  distant  stars  are  above  the  earth.  Bad 
men  do  not  die  because  God  hates  them.  They  die  because  it  is 
best  for  them  that  they  should  do  so ;  and,  bad  as  they  are,  it  is 
better  for  them  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  infinitely  good  God,  than 
anywhere  else. 

Darkness  and  gloom  lie  upon  the  paths  of  men.  They  stumble 
at  difficulties,  are  ensnared  by  temptations,  and  perplexed  by 
trouble.  They  are  anxious,  and  troubled,  and  fearful.  Pain  and 
affliction  and  sorrow  often  gather  around  the  steps  of  their  earthly 
pilgrimage.  All  this  is  \vritten  indelibly  upon  the  tablets  of  the 
human  heart.  It  is  not  to  be  erased ;  but  Masonry  sees  and  reads 
it  in  a  new  light.  It  does  not  expect  these  ills  and  trials  and  suf- 
ferings to  be  removed  from  life ;  but  that  the  great  truth  will  at 
some  time  be  believed  by  all  men,  that  they  are  the  means,  se- 
lected by  infinite  wisdom,  to  purify  the  heart,  and  to  invigorate 
the  soul  whose  inheritance  is  immortality,  and  the  world  its  school. 

Masonry  propagates  no  creed  except  its  own  most  simple  and 
Sublime  One ;  that  universal  religion,  taught  by  Nature  and  by 
Reason.  Its  Lodges  are  neither  Jewish,  Moslem,  nor  Christian 
Temples.  It  reiterates  the  precepts  of  morality  of  all  religions. 
It  venerates  the  character  and  commends  the  teachings  of  the 
great  and  good  of  all  ages  and  of  all  countries.  It  extracts  the 
good  and  not  the  evil,  the  truth,  and  not  the  error,  from  all  creeds ; 
and  acknowledges  that  there  is  much  which  is  good  and  true  in  all. 

Above  all  the  other  great  teachers  of  morality  and  virtue,  it 
reveres  the  character  of  the  Great  Master  Who,  submissive  to  the 
will  of  His  and  our  Father,  died  upon  the  Cross.  All  must  admit, 
that  if  the  world  were  filled  with  beings  like  Him,  the  great  ills  of 
society  would  be  at  once  relieved.  For  all  coercion,  injury,  self- 
ishness, and  revenge,  and  all  the  wrongs  and  the  greatest  suffer- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  719 

ings  of  life,  would  disappear  at  once.  These  human  years  would 
be  happy ;  and  the  eternal  ages  would  roll  on  in  brightness  and 
beauty ;  and  the  still,  sad  music  of  Humanity,  that  sounds  through 
the  world,  now  in  the  accents  of  grief,  and  now  in  pensive  melan- 
choly, would  change  to  anthems,  sounding  to  the  March  of  Time, 
and  bursting  out  from  the  heart  of  the  world. 

If  every  man  were  a  perfect  imitator  of  that  Great,  Wise,  Good 
Teacher,  clothed  with  all  His  faith  and  all  His  virtues,  how  the 
circle  of  Life's  ills  and  trials  would  be  narrowed !  The  sensual 
passions  would  assail  the  heart  in  vain.  Want  would  no  longer 
successfully  tempt  men  to  act  wrongly,  nor  curiosity  to  do  rashly. 
Ambition,  spreading  before  men  its  Kingdoms  and  its  Thrones, 
and  offices  and  honors,  would  cause  none  to  swerve  from  their 
great  allegiance.  Injury  and  insult  would  be  shamed  by  forgive- 
ness. "Father,"  men  would  say,  "forgive  them  ;  for  they  know 
not  what  they  do."  None  would  seek  to  be  enriched  at  another's 
loss  or  expense.  Every  man  would  feel  that  the  whole  human 
race  were  his  brothers.  All  sorrow  and  pain  and  anguish  would 
be  soothed  by  a  perfect  faith  and  an  entire  trust  in  the  Infinite 
Goodness  of  God.  The  world  around  us  would  be  new,  and  the 
Heavens  above  us  ;  for  here,  and  there,  and  everywhere,  through 
all  the  ample  glories  and  splendors  of  the  Universe,  all  men  would 
recognize  and  feel  the  presence  and  the  beneficent  care  of  a  loving 
Father. 

However  the  Mason  may  believe  as  to  creeds,  and  churches,  and 
miracles,  and  missions  from  Heaven,  he  must  admit  that  the  Life 
and  character  of  Him  who  taught  in  Galilee,  and  fragments  of 
Whose  teachings  have  come  down  to  us,  are  worthy  of  all  imita- 
tion. That  Life  is  an  undenied  and  undeniable  Gospel.  Its 
teachings  cannot  be  passed  by  and  discarded.  All  must  admit 
that  it  would  be  happiness  to  follow  and  perfection  to  imitate 
Him.  None  ever  felt  for  Him  a  sincere  emotion  of  contempt,  nor 
in  anger  accused  Him  of  sophistry,  nor  saw  immorality  lurking  in 
His  doctrines ;  however  they  may  judge  of  those  who  succeeded 
Him,  and  claimed  to  be  His  apostles.  Divine  or  human,  inspired 
or  only  a  reforming  Essene,  it  must  be  agreed  that  His  teachings 
are  far  nobler,  far  purer,  far  less  alloyed  with  error  and  imperfec- 
tion, far  less  of  the  earth  earthly,  than  those  of  Socrates,  Plato, 
Seneca,  or  Mahomet,  or  any  other  of  the  great  moralists  and 
Reformers  of  the  world. 


72Q  MORALS  AND  DOGMA'. 

If  our  aims  went  as  completely  as  His  beyond  personal  care  and 
selfish  gratification ;  if  our  thoughts  and  words  and  actions  were 
as  entirely  employed  upon  the  great  work  of  benefiting  our  kind — 
the  true  work  which  we  have  been  placed  here  to  do — as  His  were  ; 
if  our  nature  were  as  gentle  and  as  tender  as  His ;  and  if  society, 
country,  kindred,  friendship,  and  home  were  as  dear  to  us  as  they 
were  to  Him,  we  should  be  at  once  relieved  of  more  than  half  the 
difficulties  and  the  diseased  and  painful  affections  of  our  lives. 
Simple  obedience  to  rectitude,  instead  of  self-interest ;  simple  self- 
culture  and  self-improvment,  instead  of  constant  cultivation  of 
the  good  opinion  of  others;  single-hearted  aims  and  purposes, 
instead  of  improper  objects,  sought  and  approached  by  devious  and 
crooked  ways,  would  free  our  meditations  of  many  disturbing  and 
irritating  questions. 

Not  to  renounce  the  nobler  and  better  affections  of  our  natures, 
nor  happiness,  nor  our  just  dues  of  love  and  honor  from  men ;  not 
to  vilify  ourselves,  nor  to  renounce  our  self-respect,  nor  a  just 
and  reasonable  sense  of  our  merits  and  deserts,  nor  our  own 
righteousness  of  virtue,  does  Masonry  require,  nor  would  our 
imitation  of  Him  require ;  but  to  renounce  our  vices,  our  faults, 
our  passions,  our  self-flattering  delusions ;  to  forego  all  outward 
advantages,  which  are  to  be  gained  only  through  a  sacrifice  of  our 
inward  integrity,  or  by  anxious  and  petty  contrivances  and  appli- 
ances ;  to  choose  and  keep  the  better  part ;  to  secure  that,  and  let 
the  worst  take  care  of  itself;  to  keep  a  good  conscience,  and  let 
opinion  come  and  go  as  it  will ;  to  retain  a  lofty  self-respect,  and 
let  low  self-indulgence  go;  to  keep  inward  happiness,  and  let 
outward  advantages  hold  a  subordinate  place ;  to  renounce  our 
selfishness,  and  that  eternal  anxiety  as  to  what  we  are  to  have,  and 
what  men  think  of  us ;  and  be  content  with  the  plenitude  of  God's 
great  mercies,  and  so  to  be  happy.  For  it  is  the  inordinate 
devotion  to  self,  and  consideration  of  self,  that  is  ever  a  stumbling- 
block  in  the  way ;  that  spreads  questions,  snares,  and  difficulties 
around  us,  darkens  the  way  of  Providence,  and  makes  the  world 
a  far  less  happy  one  to  us  than  it  might  be. 

As  He  taught,  so  Masonry  teaches,  affection  to  our  kindred, 
tenderness  to  our  friends,  gentleness  and  forbearance  toward  our 
inferiors,  pity  for  the  suffering,  forgiveness  of  our  enemies  ;  and  to 
wear  an  affectionate  nature  and  gentle  disposition  as  the  garment 
of  our  life,  investing  pain,  and  toil,  and  a^ony.and  even  death,  with 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  721 

a  serene  and  holy  beauty.  It  does  not  teach  us  to  wrap  ourselves 
in  the  garments  of  reserve  and  pride,  to  care  nothing  for  the  world 
because  it  cares  nothing  for  us,  to  withdraw  our  thoughts  from 
society  because  it  does  us  not  justice,  and  see  how  patiently  we 
can  live  within  the  confines  of  our  own  bosoms,  or  in  quiet  com- 
munion, through  books,  with  the  mighty  dead.  No  man  ever 
found  peace  or  light  in  that  way.  Every  relation,  of  hate,  scorn,  or 
neglect,  to  mankind,  is  full  of  vexation  and  torment.  There  is 
nothing  to  do  with  men  but  to  love  them,  to  admire  their  virtues, 
pity  and  bear  with  their  faults,  and  forgive  their  injuries.  To 
hate  your  adversary  will  not  help  you ;  to  kill  him  will  help  you 
still  less :  nothing  within  the  compass  of  the  Universe  will  help 
you,  but  to  pity,  forgive,  and  love  him. 

If  we  possessed  His  gentle  and  affectionate  disposition,  His  love 
and  compassion  for  all  that  err  and  all  that  offend,  how  many 
difficulties,  both  within  and  without  us,  would  they  relieve !  How 
many  depressed  minds  should  we  console !  How  many  troubles  in 
society  should  we  compose!  How  many  enmities  soften!  How 
many  a  knot  of  mystery  and  misunderstanding  would  be  untied 
by  a  single  word,  spoken  in  simple  and  confiding  truth!  How 
many  a  rough  path  would  be  made  smooth,  and  how  many  a 
crooked  path  be  made  straight !  Very  many  places,  now  solitary, 
would  be  made  glad ;  very  many  dark  places  be  filled  with 
light. 

Morality  has  its  axioms,  like  the  other  sciences ;  and  these 
axioms  are,  in  all  languages,  justly  termed  moral  truths.  Moral 
truths,  considered  in  themselves,  are  equally  as  certain  as  mathe- 
matical truths.  Given  the  idea  of  a  deposit.,  the  idea  of  keeping 
it  faithfully  is  attached  to  it  as  necessarily,  as  to  the  idea  of  a 
triangle  is  attached  the  idea  that  its  three  angles  arc  equal  to  two 
right  angles.  You  may  violate  a  deposit ;  but  in  doing  so,  do  not 
imagine  that  you  change  the  nature  of  things,  or  make  what  is  in 
itself  a  deposit  become  your  own  property.  The  two  ideas  exclude 
each  other.  You  have  but  a  false  semblance  of  property :  and  all 
the  efforts  of  the  passions,  all  the  sophisms  of  interest,  will  not 
overturn  essential  differences.  Therefore  it  is  that  a  moral  truth 
is  so  imperious ;  because,  like  all  truth,  it  is  what  it  is,  and  shapes 
itself  to  please  no  caprice.  Always  the  same,  and  always  present, 
little  as  we  may  like  it,  it  inexorably  condemns,  with  a  voice 
>lways  heard,  but  not  always  regarded,  the  insensate  and  guilty 


722  MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

will  which  thinks  to  prevent  its  existing,  by  denying,  or  rather 
by  pretending  to  deny,  its.  existence. 

The  moral  truths  are  distinguished  from  other  truths  by  this 
singular  characteristic :  so  soon  as  we  perceive  them,  they  appear 
to  us  as  the  rule  of  our  conduct.  If  it  is  true  that  a  deposit  is 
made  in  order  to  be  returned  to  its  legitimate  possessor,  it  must  be 
returned.  To  the  necessity  of  believing  the  truth,  the  necessity  of 
practising  it  is  added. 

The  necessity  of  practising  the  moral  truths  is  obligation.  The 
moral  truths,  necessary  to  the  eye  of  reason,  are  obligatory  on  the 
will.  The  moral  obligation,  like  the  moral  truth  w7hich  is  its 
basis,  is  absolute.  As  necessary  truths  are  not  more  or  less  neces- 
sary, so  obligation  is  not  more  or  less  obligatory.  There  are  degrees 
of  importance  among  different  obligations ;  but  there  are  no  de- 
grees in  the  obligation  itself.  One  is  not  nearly  obliged,  almost 
obliged ;  but  wholly  so,  or  not  at  all.  If  there  be  any  place  of 
refuge  against  the  obligation,  it  ceases  to  exist. 

If  the  obligation  is  absolute,  it  is  immutable  and  universal.  For 
if  what  is  obligation  to-day  may  not  be  so  to-morrow,  if  what  is 
obligatory  for  me  may  not  be  so  for  you,  the  obligation  differing 
from  itself,  it  would  be  relative  and  contingent.  This  fact  of  ab- 
solute, immutable,  universal  obligation  is  certain  and  manifest. 
The  good  is  the  foundation  of  obligation.  If  it  be  not,  obligation 
has  no  foundation ;  and  that  is  impossible.  If  one  act  ought  to 
be  done,  and  another  ought  not,  it  must  be  because  evidently  there 
is  an  essential  difference  between  the  two  acts.  If  one  be  not  good 
and  the  other  bad,  the  obligation  imposed  on  us  is  arbitrary. 

To  make  the  Good  a  consequence,  of  anything  whatever,  is  to 
annihilate  it.  It  is  the  first,  or  it  is  nothing.  When  we  ask  an 
honest  man  why,  despite  his  urgent  necessities,  he  has  respected 
the  sanctity  of  a  deposit,  he  answers,  because  it  was  his  duty. 
Asked  why  it  was  his  duty,  he  answers,  because  it  was  right,  was 
just,  was  good.  Beyond  that  there  is  no  answer  to  be  made,  but 
there  is  also  no  question  to  be  asked.  No  one  permits  a  duty  to  be 
imposed  on  him  without  giving  himself  a  reason  for  it :  but  when 
it  is  admitted  that  the  duty  is  commanded  by  justice,  the  mind  is 
satisfied ;  for  it  has  arrived  at  a  principle  beyond  which  there  is 
nothing  to  seek,  justice  being  its  own  principle.  The  primary 
truths  include  their  own  reason:  and  justice,  the  essential  dis- 
tinction between  good  and  evil,  is  the  first  truth  of  morality. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR    PRINCE  ADEPT.  723 

Justice  is  not  a  consequence;  because  we  cannot  ascend  to  any 
principle  above  it.  Moral  truth  forces  itself  on  man,  and  does  not 
emanate  from  him.  It  no  more  becomes  subjective,  by  appearing 
to  us  obligatory,  than  truth  does  by  appearing  to  us  necessary.  It 
is  in  the  very  nature  of  the  true  and  the  good  that  we  must  seek 
for  the  reason  of  necessity  and  obligation.  Obligation  is  founded  on 
the  necessary  distinction  between  the  good  and  the  evil ;  and  it  is 
itself  the  foundation  of  liberty.  If  man  has  his  duties  to  perform, 
he  must  have  the  faculty  of  accomplishing  them,  of  resisting  de- 
sire, passion,  and  interest,  in  order  to  obey  the  law.  He  must  be 
free;  therefore  he  is  so,  or  human  nature  is  in  contradiction  with 
itself.  The  certainty  of  the  obligation  involves  the  corresponding 
certainty  of  free  ten//. 

It  is  the  unl I  that  is  free :  though  sometimes  that  will  may  be 
ineffectual.  The  power  to  do  must  not  be  confounded  with  the 
power  to  will.  The  former  may  be  limited:  the  latter  is  sovereign. 
The  external  effects  may  be  prevented  :  the  resolution  itself  cannot. 
Of  this  sovereign  power  of  the  will  we  are  conscious.  We  feel  in 
ourselves,  before  it  becomes  determinate,  the  force  which  can 
determine  itself  in  one  way  or  another.  At  the  same  time  when  I 
will  this  or  that,  I  am  equally  conscious  that  I  can  will  the  con- 
trary. I  am  conscious  that  I  am  the  master  of  my  resolution : 
that  I  may  check  it,  continue  it,  retake  it.  When  the  act  has 
ceased,  the  consciousness  of  the  poivcr  which  produced  it  has  not. 
That  consciousness  and  the  power  remain,  superior  to  all  the 
manifestations  of  the  power.  Wherefore  free-will  is  the  essential 
and  ever-subsisting  attribute  of  the  will  itself. 

At  the  same  time  that  we  judge  that  a  free  agent  has  done  a 
good  or  a  bad  act,  we  form  another  judgment,  as  necessary  as  the 
first;  that  if  he  has  done  well,  he  deser  js  compensation;  if  ill. 
punishment.  That  judgment  may  be  expressed  in  a  manner  more 
or  less  vivid,  according  as  it  is  mingled  with  sentiments  more  or 
less  ardent.  Sometimes  it  will  be  a  merely  kind  feeling  toward  a 
virtuous  agent,  and  moderately  hostile  to  a  guilty  one ;  sometimes 
enthusiasm  or  indignation.  The  judgment  of  merit  and  demerit 
is  intimately  connected  with  the  judgment  of  good  and  evil. 
Merit  is  the  natural  right  which  we  have  to  be  rewarded :  demerit 
the  natural  right  which  others  have  to  punish  us.  P>ut  whether 
the  reward  is  received,  or  the  punishment  undergone,  or  not,  the 
merit  or  demerit  equally  subsists.  Punishment  and  reward  are 


724  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  satisfaction  of  merit  and  demerit,  but  do  not  constitute  t-hem. 
Take  away  the  former,  and  the  latter  continue.  Take  away  the 
latter,  and  there  are  no  longer  real  rewards  or  punishments.  When 
a  base  man  encompasses  our  merited  honors,  he  has  obtained  but 
the  mere  appearance  of  a  reward;  a  mere  material  advantage. 
The  reward  is  essentially  moral ;  and  its  value  is  independent  of  its 
form.  One  of  those  simple  crowns  of  oak  with  which  the  early 
Romans  rewarded  heroism,  was  of  more  real  value  than  all  the 
wealth  of  the  world,  when  it  was  the  sign  of  the  gratitude  and 
admiration  of  a  people.  Reward  accorded  to  merit  is  a  debt ; 
without  merit  it  is  an  alms  or  a  theft. 

The  Good  is  good  in  itself,  and  to  be  accomplished,  whatever 
the  consequences.  The  results  of  the  Good  cannot  but  be  fortu- 
nate. Happiness,  separated  from  the  Good,  is  but  a  fact  to  which 
no  moral  idea  is  attached.  As  an  effect  of  the  Good,  it  enters  into 
the  moral  order,  completes  and  crowns  it. 

Virtue  without  happiness,  and  crime  without  misery,  is  a  con- 
tradiction and  disorder.  If  virtue  suppose  sacrifice  (that  is,  suffer- 
ing), eternal  justice  requires  that  sacrifice  generously  accepted  and 
courageously  borne,  shall  have  for  its  reward  the  same  happiness 
that  was  sacrificed :  and  it  also  requires  that  crime  shall  be  pun- 
ished with  unhappiness,  for  the  guilty  happiness  which  it  attempted 
to  procure. 

This  law  that  attaches  pleasure  and  sorrow  to  the  good  and  the 
evil,  is,  in  general,  accomplished  even  here  below.  For  order  rules 
in  the  world ;  because  the  world  lasts.  Is  that  order  sometimes 
disturbed  ?  Are  happiness  and  sorrow  not  always  distributed  in 
legitimate  proportion  to  crime  and  virtue?  The  absolute  judg- 
ment of  the  Good,  the  absolute  judgment  of  obligation,  the  abso- 
lute judgment  of  merit  and  demerit,  continue  to  subsist,  inviolable 
and  imprescriptible ;  and  we  cannot  help  but  believe  that  He  Who 
has  implanted  in  us  the  sentiment  ?nd  idea  of  order,  cannot  therein 
Himself  be  wanting;  and  that  He  will,  sooner  or  later,  re-establish 
the  holy  harmony  of  virtue  and  happiness,  by  means  belonging  to 
Himself. 

The  Judgment  of  the  Good,  the  decision  that  such  a  thing  is 
good,  and  that  such  another  is  not, — this  is  the  primitive  fact, 
and  reposes  on  itself.  By  its  intiirate  resemblances  to  the  iudg- 
ment  of  the  true  and  the  beautiful,  it  shows  us  the  secret  affinities 
of  morality,  metaphysics,  and  aesthetics.  The  good,  so  especially 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  725 

united  to  the  true,  is  distinguished  from  it,  only  because  it  is  truth 
put  in  practice.  The  good  is  obligatory.  These  are  two  indivisi- 
ble but  not  identical  ideas.  The  idea  of  obligation  reposes  on  the 
idea  of  the  Good.  In  this  intimate  alliance,  the  former  borrows 
from  the  latter  its  universal  and  absolute  character. 

The  obligatory  good  is  the  moral  law.  That  is  the  foundation 
of  all  morality.  By  it  we  separate  ourselves  from  the  morality  of 
interest  and  the  morality  of  sentiment.  We  admit  the  existence 
of  those  facts,  and  their  influence ;  but  we  do  not  assign  them  the 
same  rank. 

To  the  moral  law,  in  the  reason  of  man,  corresponds  liberty  in 
action.  Liberty  is  deduced  from  obligation,  and  is  a  fact  irresist- 
ibly evident.  Man,  as  free,  and  subject  to  obligation,  is  a  moral 
person ;  and  that  involves  the  idea  of  rights.  To  these  ideas  is 
added  that  of  merit  and  demerit ;  which  supposes  the  distinction 
between  good  and  evil,  obligation  and  liberty ;  and  creates  the  idea 
of  reward  and  punishment. 

The  sentiments  play  no  unimportant  part  in  morality.  All  the 
moral  judgments  are  accompanied  by  sentiments  that  respond  to 
them.  From  the  secret  sources  of  enthusiasm  the  human  will 
draws  the  mysterious  virtue  that  makes  heroes.  Truth  enlightens 
and  illumines.  Sentiment  warms  and  inclines  to  action.  Interest 
also  bears  its  part ;  and  the  hope  of  happiness  is  the  work  of  God, 
and  one  of  the  motive  powers  of  human  action. 

Such  is  the  admirable  economy  of  the  moral  constitution  of 
man.  His  Supreme  Object,  the  Good :  his  law,  Virtue,  which  often 
imposes  upon  him  suffering,  thus  making  him  to  excel  all  other 
created  beings  known  to  us.  But  this  law  is  harsh,  and  in  con- 
tradiction with  the  instinctive  desire  for  happiness.  Wherefore 
the  Beneficent  Author  of  his  being  has  placed  in  his  soul,  by  the 
side  of  the  severe  law  of  duty,  the  sweet,  delightful  force  of  senti- 
ment. Generally  he  attaches  happiness  to  virtue ;  and  for  the 
exceptions,  for  such  there  are,  he  has  placeu  Hope  at  the  end  of 
the  journey  to  be  travelled. 

Thus  there  is  a  side  on  which  morality  touches  religion.  It  is 
a  sublime  necessity  of  Humanity  to  see  in  God  the  Legislator  su- 
premely wise,  the  Witness  always  present,  the  infallible  Judge  of 
virtue.  The  human  mind,  ever  climbing  up  to  God,  would  deem 
the  foundations  of  morality  too  unstable,  if  it  did  not  place  in 
God  the  first  principle  of  the  moral  law.  Wishing  to  give  to  the 
47 


726  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

moral  law  a  religions  character,  we  run  the  risk  of  taking  from 
it  its  moral  character.  We  may  refer  it  so  entirely  to  God  as  to 
make  His  will  an  arbitrary  decree.  But  the  will  of  God,  whence 
\ve  deduce  morality,  in  order  to  give  it  authority,  itself  has  no  moral 
authority,  except  as  it  is  just.  The  Good  comes  from  the  will  of 
God  alone ;  but  from  His  will,  in  so  far  as  it  is  the  expression  of 
His  wisdom  and  justice.  The  Eternal  Justice  of  God  is  the  sole 
foundation  of  Justice,  such  as  Humanity  perceives  and  practises  it. 
The  Good,  duty,  merit  and  demerit,  are  referred  to  God,  as  every- 
thing is  referred  to  Him;  but  they  have  none  the  less  a  proper 
evidence  and  authority.  Religion  is  the  crown  of  Morality,  not 
its  base.  The  base  of  Morality  is  in  itself. 

The  Moral  Code  of  Masonry  is  still  more  extensive  than  that 
developed  by  philosophy.  To  the  requisitions  of  the  law  of  Nature 
and  the  law  of  God,  it  adds  the  imperative  obligation-  of  a  contract. 
Upon  entering  the  Order,  the  Initiate  binds  to  himself  every 
Mason  in  the  world.  Once  enrolled  among  the  children  of  Light, 
every  Mason  on  earth  becomes  his  brother,  and  owes  him  the 
duties,  the  kindnesses,  and  the  sympathies  of  a  brother.  On  every 
one  he  may  call  for  assistance  in  need,  protection  against  danger, 
sympathy  in  sorrow,  attention  in  sickness,  and  decent  burial  after 
death.  There  is  not  a  Mason  in  the  world  who  is  not  bound  to  go 
to  his  relief,  when  he  is  in  danger,  if  there  be  a  greater  probability 
of  saving  his  life  than  of  losing  his  own.  No  Mason  can  wrong 
him  to  the  value  of  anything,  knowingly,  himself,  nor  suffer  it  to 
be  done  by  others,  if  it  be  in  his  power  to  prevent  it.  No  Mason 
can  speak  evil  of  him,  to  his  face  or  behind  his  back.  Every 
Mason  must  keep  his  lawful  secrets,  and  aid  him  in  his  business, 
defend  his  character  when  unjustly  assailed,  and  protect,  counsel, 
and  assist  his  widow  and  his  orphans.  What  so  many  thousands 
owe  to  him,  he  owes  to  each  of  them.  He  has  solemnly  bound 
himself  to  be  ever  ready  to  discharge  this  sacred  debt.  If  he  fails 
to  do  it  he  is  dishonest  and  forsworn ;  and  it  is  an  unparalleled 
meanness  in  him  to  obtain  good  offices  by  false  pretences,  to  receive 
kindness  and  service,  rendered  him  under  the  confident  expectation 
that  he  will  in  his  turn  render  the  same,  and  then  to  disappoint, 
without  ample  reason,  that  just  expectation. 

Masonry  holds  him  also,  by  his  solemn  promise,  to  a  purer  life, 
a  nobler  generosity,  a  more  perfect  charity  of  opinion  and  action; 
to  be  tolerant,  catholic  in  his  love  for  his  race,  ardent  in  his  zeal 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  ,727 

for  the  interest  of  mankind,  the  advancement  and  progress  of 
humanity. 

Such  are,  we  think,  the  Philosophy  and  the  Morality,  such  the 
TRUE  WORD  of  a  Master  Mason. 

The  world,  the  ancients  believed,  was  governed  by  Seven  Sec- 
ondary Causes ;  and  these  were  the  universal  forces,  known  to  the 
Hebrews  by  the  plural  name  ELOIIIM.  These  forces,  analogous 
and  contrary  one  to  the  other,  produce  equilibrium  by  their  con- 
trasts, and  regulate  the  movements  of  the  spheres.  The  Hebrews 
called  them  the  Seven  great  Archangels,  and  gave  them  names, 
each  of  which,  being  a  combination  of  another  word  with  AL,  the 
first  Phoenician  Nature-God,  considered  as  the  Principle  of  Light, 
represented  them  as  His  manifestations.  Other  peoples  assigned 
to  these  Spirits  the  government  of  the  Seven  Planets  then  known, 
and  gave  them  the  names  of  their  great  divinities. 

So,  in  the  Kabala,  the  last  Seven  Sephiroth  constituted  ATIK 
YOMIN,  the  Ancient  of  Days;  and  these,  as  well  as  the  Seven 
planets,  correspond  with  the  Seven  colors  separated  by  the  prism, 
and  the  Seven  notes  of  the  musical  octave. 

Seven  is  the  sacred  number  in  all  theogonies  and  all  symbols, 
because  it  is  composed  of  3  and  4.  It  represents  the  magical 
power  in  its  full  force.  It  is  the  Spirit  assisted  by  all  the  Element- 
ary Powers,  the  Soul  served  by  Nature,  the  Holy  Empire  spoken 
of  in  the  clavicules  of  Solomon,  symbolized  by  a  warrior,  crowned, 
bearing  a  triangle  on  his  cuirass,  and  standing  on  a  cube,  to  which 
are  harnessed  two  Sphinxes,  one  \vhite  and  the  other  black,  pull- 
ing contrary  ways,  and  turning  the  head  to  look  backward. 

The  vices  are  Seven,  like  the  virtues ;  and  the  latter  were 
anciently  symbolized  by  the  Seven  Celestial  bodies  then  known  as 
planets.  FAITH,  as  the  converse  of  arrogant  Confidence,  was  rep- 
resented by  the  Sun;  HOPE,  enemy  of  Avarice,  by  the  Moon; 
CHARITY,  opposed  to  Luxury,  by  Venus;  FORCE,  stronger  than 
Rage,  by  Mars;  PRUDENCE,  the  opposite  of  Indolence,  by  Mer- 
cury; TEMPERANCE,  the  antipodes  of  Gluttony,  by  Saturn;  and 
JUSTICE,  the  opposite  of  Envy,  by  Jupiter. 

The  Kabalistic  book  of  the  Apocalypse  is  represented  as  closed 
with  Seven  Seals.  In  it  we  find  the  Seven  genii  of  the  Ancient 
Mythologies ;  and  the  doctrine  concealed  under  its  emblems  is  the 
pure  Kabala,  already  lost  by  the  Pharisees  at  the  advent  of  the 
Saviour.  The  pictures  that  follow  in  this  wondrous  epic  are  so 


728  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

many  pantacles,  of  which  the  numbers  3,  4,  7,  and  12  are  the 

keys. 

The  Cherub,  or  symbolic  bull,  which  Moses  places  at  the  gate  of 
the  Edenic  world,  holding  a  blazing  sword,  is  a  Sphinx,  with  the 
body  of  a  bull  and  a  human  head ;  the  old  Assyrian  Sphinx 
whereof  the  combat  and  victory  of  Mithras  were  the  hieroglyphic 
analysis.  This  armed  Sphinx  represents  the  law  of  the  Mystery, 
which  keeps  watch  at  the  door  of  initiation,  to  repulse  the  Pro- 
fane. It  also  represents  the  grand  Magical  Mystery,  all  the  ele- 
ments whereof  the  number  7  expresses,  still  without  giving  its 
last  word.  This  "unspeakable  word"  of  the  Sages  of  the  school 
of  Alexandria,  this  word,  which  the  Hebrew  Kabalists  \vrote  ~*n'» 
[!HUH],  and  translated  by  NJTHfrOtf,  [ARARITA,]  so  expressing  the 
threefoldness  of  the  Secondary  Principle,  the  dualism  of  the  mid- 
dle ones,  and  the  Unity  as  well  of  the  first  Principle  as  of  the  end ; 
and  also  the  junction  of  the  number  3  with  the  number  4  in  a  word 
composed  of  four  letters,  but  formed  of  seven  by  one  triplicate  and 
two  repeated, — this  word  is  pronounced  Ararita. 

The  vowels  in  the  Greek  language  are  also  Seven  in  number, 
and  were  used  to  designate  the  Seven  planets. 

Tsadok  or  Sydyc  was  the  Supreme  God  in  Phoenicia.  His  Seven 
Sons  were  probably  the  Seven  Cabiri ;  and  he  was  the  Heptaktis, 
the  God  of  Seven  Rays. 

Kronos,  the  Greek  Saturn,  Philo  makes  Sanchoniathon  say,  had 
six  sons,  and  by  Astarte  Seven  daughters,  the  Titanides.  The  Per- 
sians adored  Ahura  Masda  or  Ormuzd  and  the  Six  Amshaspands, 
the  first  three  of  whom  were  Lords  of  the  Empires  of  Light,  Fire, 
and  Splendor;  the  Babylonians,  Bal  and  the  Gods;  the  Chinese, 
Shangti,  and  the  Six  Chief  Spirits ;  and  the  Greeks,  Kronos,  and 
the  Six  great  Male  Gods,  his  progeny,  Zeus,  Poseidon,  Apollo, 
Arcs,  Hephaistos,  and  Hermes ;  while  the  female  deities  were  also 
Seven  :  Rhea,  wife  of  Kronos,  Here,  Athene,  Artemis,  Aphrodite, 
Hestia,  and  Demetei.  In  the  Orphic  Theogony,  Gaia  produced 
the  fourteen  Titans,  Seven  male  and  Seven  female,  Kronos  being 
the  most  potent  of  the  males ;  and  as  the  number  Seven  appears 
in  these,  nine  by  threes,  or  the  triple  triangle,  is  found  in  the  three 
Mnerae  or  Fates,  the  three  Centimanes,  and  the  three  Cyclopes, 
offspring  of  Ouranos  and  Gaia,  or  Heaven  and  Earth. 

The  metals,  like  the  colors,  were  deemed  to  be  Seven  in  num- 
ber, and  a  metal  and  color  were  assigned  to  each  planet.  Of 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT. 

the   metals,   gold   was   assigned   to  the   Sun   and   silver  to  the 
Moon. 

The  palace  of  Deioces  in  Ecbatana  had  Seven  circular  walls  of 
different  colors,  the  two  innermost  having  their  battlements  cov- 
ered respectively  with  silvering  and  gilding. 

And  the  Seven  Spheres  of  Borsippa  were  represented  by  the 
Seven  Stories,  each  of  a  different  color,  of  the  tower  or  truncated 
pyramid  of  Bel  at  Babylon. 

Pharaoh  saw  in  his  dream,  which  Joseph  interpreted,  Seven  ears 
of  wheat  on  one  stalk,  full  and  good,  and  after  them  Seven  ears, 
withered,  thin,  and  blasted  with  the  East  wind ;  and  the  Seven 
thin  ears  devoured  the  Seven  good  ears ;  and  Joseph  interpreted 
these  to  mean  Seven  years  of  plenty  succeeded  by  Seven  years  of 
famine. 

Connected  with  this  Ebn  Hesham  relates  that  a  flood  of  rain 
laid  bare  to  view  a  sepulchre  in  Yemen,  in  which  lay  a  wroman 
having  on  her  neck  Seven  collars  of  pearls,  and  on  her  hands  and 
feet  bracelets  and  ankle-rings  and  armlets,  Seven  on  each,  with  an 
inscription  on  a  tablet  showing  that,  after  attempting  in  vain  to 
purchase  grain  of  Joseph,  she,  Tajah,  daughter  of  Dzu  Shefar,  and 
her  people,  died  of  famine. 

Hear  again  the  words  of  an  adept,  who  had  profoundly  studied 
the  mysteries  of  science,  and  wrote,  as  the  Ancient  Oracles  spoke, 
in  enigmas ;  but  who  knew  that  the  theory  of  mechanical  forces 
and  of  the  materiality  of  the  most  potent  agents  of  Divinity, 
explains  nothing,  and  ought  to  satisfy  no  one ! 

Through  the  veil  of  all  the  hieratic  and  mystic  allegories  of  the 
ancient  dogmas,  under  the  seal  of  all  the  sacred  writings,  in  the 
ruins  of  Nineveh  or  Thebes,  on  the  worn  stones  of  the  ancient 
temples,  and  on  the  blackened  face  of  the  sphinx  of  Assyria  or 
Egypt,  in  the  monstrous  or  marvellous  pictures  which  the  sacred 
pages  of  the  Vedas  translate  for  the  believers  of  India,  in  the 
strange  emblems  of  our  old  books  of  alchemy,  in  the  ceremonies 
of  reception  practised  by  all  the  mysterious  Societies,  we  find  the 
traces  of  a  doctrine,  everywhere  the  same,  and  everywhere  care- 
fully concealed.  The  occult  philosophy  seems  to  have  been  the 
nurse  or  the  godmother  of  all  religions,  the  secret  lever  of  all  the 
intellectual  forces,  the  key  of  all  divine  obscurities,  and  the  abso- 
lute Queen  of  Society,  in  the  ages  when  it  was  exclusively  reserved 
for  the  education  of  the  Priests  and  Kings. 


73O  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

It  had  reigned  in  Persia  with  the  Magi,  who  perished  one  day, 
as  the  masters  of  the  world  had  perished,  for  having  abused  their 
power.  It  had  endowed  India  with  the  most  marvellous  tradi- 
tions, and  an  incredible  luxury  of  poetry,  grace,  and  terror  in  its 
emblems :  it  had  civilized  Greece  by  the  sounds  of  the  lyre  of 
Orpheus :  it  hid  the  principles  of  all  the  sciences,  and  of  the 
whole  progression  of  the  human  spirit,  in  the  audacious  calcula- 
tions of  Pythagoras :  fable  teemed  with  its  miracles ;  and  history, 
when  it  undertook  to  judge  of  this  unknown  power,  confounded 
itself  with  fable :  it  shook  or  enfeebled  empires  by  its  oracles ; 
made  tyrants  turn  pale  on  their  thrones,  and  ruled  over  all  minds 
by  means  of  curiosity  or  fear.  To  this  science,  said  the  crowd, 
nothing  is  impossible ;  it  commands  the  elements,  knows  the  lan- 
guage of  the  planets,  and  controls  the  movements  of  the  stars ; 
the  moon,  at  its  voice,  falls,  reeking  with  blood,  from  Heaven ;  the 
dead  rise  upright  on  their  graves,  and  shape  into  fatal  words  the 
wind  that  breathes  through  their  skulls.  Controller  of  Love  or 
Hate,  this  science  can  at  pleasure  confer  on  human  hearts  Para- 
dise or  Hell :  it  disposes  at  will  of  all  forms,  and  distributes  beauty 
or  deformity  as  it  pleases :  it  changes  in  turn,  with  the  rod  of 
Circe,  men  into  brutes  and  animals  into  men :  it  even  disposes  of 
Life  or  of  Death,  and  can  bestow  on  its  adepts  riches  by  the  trans- 
mutation of  metals,  and  immortality  by  its  quintessence  and  elixir, 
compounded  of  gold  and  light. 

This  is  what  magic  had  been,  from  Zoroaster  to  Manes,  from 
Orpheus  to  Apollonius  Thyaneus;  when  positive  Christianity, 
triumphing  over  the  splendid  dreams  and  gigantic  aspirations  of 
the  school  of  Alexandria,  publicly  crushed  this  philosophy  with 
its  anathemas,  and  compelled  it  to  become  more  occult  and  more 
mysterious  than  ever. 

At  the  bottom  of  magic,  nevertheless,  was  science,  as  at  the 
bottom  of  Christianity  there  was  love ;  and  in  the  Evangelic  Sym- 
bols we  see-  the  incarnate  WORD  adored  in  its  infancy  by  three 
magi  whom  a  star  guides  (the  ternary  and  the  sign  of  the  micro- 
cosm), and  receiving  from  them  gold,  frankincense,  and  myrrh; 
another  mysterious  ternary,  under  the  emblem  whereof  are  alle- 
gorically  contained  the  highest  secrets  of  the  Kabala. 

Christianity  should  not  have  hated  magic ;  but  human  igno- 
rance always  fears  the  unknown.  Science  was  obliged  to  conceal 
itself,  to  avoid  the  impassioned  aggressions  of  a  blind  love.  It 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,   OR    KMXCK   ADEPT.  7.V 

enveloped  itself  in  new  hieroglyphs,  concealed  its  efforts,  disguised 
its  hopes.  Then  was  created  the  jargon  of  alchemy,  a  continual 
deception  for  the  vulgar  herd,  greedy  of  gold,  and  a  living  lan- 
guage for  the  true  disciples  of  Hermes  alone. 

Resorting  to  Masonry,  the  alchemists  there  invented  Degrees, 
and  partly  unveiled  their  doctrine  to  their  Initiates ;  not  by  the 
language  of  their  receptions,  but  by  oral  instruction  afterward ; 
for  their  rituals,  to  one  who  has  not  the  key,  are  but  incompre- 
hensible and  absurd  jargon. 

Among  the  sacred  books  of  the  Christians  arc  two  works  which 
the  infallible  church  does  not  pretend  to  understand,  and  never 
attempts  to  explain, — the  prophecy  of  Ezekiel  and  the  Apocalypse  ; 
two  cabalistic  clavicules,  reserved,  no  doubt,  in  Heaven,  for  the 
exposition  of  the  Magian  kings ;  closed  with  Seven  seals  for  all 
faithful  believers ;  and  perfectly  clear  to  the  unbeliever  initiated 
in  the  occult  sciences. 

For  Christians,  and  in  their  opinion,  the  scientific  and  magical 
clavicules  of  Solomon  are  lost.  Nevertheless,  it  is  certain  that,  in 
the  domain  of  intelligence  governed  by  the  WORD,  nothing  that  is 
written  is  lost.  Only  those  things  which  men  cease  to  under- 
stand no  longer  exist  for  them,  at  least  as  WORD  ;  then  they  enter 
into  the  domain  of  enigmas  and  mystery. 

The  mysterious  founder  of  the  Christian  Church  was  saluted 
in  His  cradle  by  the  three  Magi,  that  is  to  say  by  the  hieratic  am- 
bassadors from  the  three  parts  of  the  known  world,  and  from  the 
three  analogical  worlds  of  the  occult  philosophy. 

In  the  school  of  Alexandria,  Magic  and  Christianity  almost  take 
each  other  by  the  hand  under  the  auspices  of  Ammonius  Saccos 
and  Plato.  The  dogma  of  Hermes  is  found  almost  entire  in  the 
writings  attributed  to  Dionysius  the  Arcopagite.  Synesius  traces 
the  plan  of  a  treatise  on  dreams,  which  was  subsequently  to  be 
commented  on  by  Cardan,  and  composes  hymns  which  might  serve 
for  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  Swedenborg,  if  a  church  of  illu- 
minati  could  have  a  liturgy-. 

To  this  epoch  of  ardent  abstractions  and  impassioned  logoma- 
chies belongs  the  philosophical  reign  of  Julian,  an  illuminatus 
and  Initiate  of  the  first  order,  who  believed  in  the  unity  of  God 
and  the  universal  Dogma  of  the  Trinity,  and  regretted  the  loss  of 
nothing  of  the  old  world  but  its  magnificent  symbols  and  too 
graceful  images.  He  was  no  Pagan,  bur  a  Gnostic,  infected  with 


732  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  allegories  of  Grecian  polytheism,  and  whose  misfortune  it 
was  to  find  the  name  of. Jesus  Christ  less  sonorous  than  that  of 
Orpheus. 

We  may  be  sure  that  so  soon  as  Religion  and  Philosophy  become 
distinct  departments,  the  mental  activity  of  the  age  is  in  advance 
of  its  Faith ;  and  that,  though  habit  may  sustain  the  latter  for  a 
time,  its  vitality  is  gone. 

The  dunces  who  led  primitive  Christianity  astray,  by  substitut- 
ing faith  for  science,  reverie  for  experience,  the  fantastic  for  the 
reality ;  and  the  inquisitors  who  for  so  many  ages  waged  against 
Magism  a  war  of  extermination,  have  succeeded  in  shrouding  in 
darkness  the  ancient  discoveries  of  the  human  mind ;  so  that  we 
now  grope  in  the  dark  to  find  again  the  key  of  the  phenomena  of 
nature.  But  all  natural  phenomena  depend  on  a  single  and 
immutable  law,  represented  by  the  p;  ;o£ophal  stone  and  its  sym- 
bolic form,  which  is  that  of  a  cube.  This  law,  expressed  in  the 
Kabala  by  the  number  4,  furnished  the  Hebrews  with  all  the 
mysteries  of  their  divine  Tetragram. 

Everything  is  contained  in  that  word  of  four  letters.  It  is  the 
Azot  of  the  Alchemists,  the  Thot  of  the  Bohemians,  the  Taro  of 
the  Kabalists.  It  supplies  to  the  Adept  the  last  word  of  the  human 
Sciences,  and  the  Key  of  the  Divine  Power :  but  he  alone  under- 
stands how  to  avail  himself  of  it  who  comprehends  the  necessity 
of  never  revealing  it.  If  CEdipus,  in  place  of  slaying  the  Sphynx, 
had  conquered  it,  and  driven  it  into  Thebes  harnessed  to  his 
chariot,  he  would  have  been  King,  without  incest,  calamities,  or 
exile.  If  Psyche,  by  submission  and  caresses,  had  persuaded  Love 
to  reveal  himself,  she  would  never  have  lost  him.  Love  is  one  of 
the  mythological  images  of  the  grand  secret  and  the  grand  agent, 
because  it  expresses  at  once  an  action  and  a  passion,  a  void  and  a 
plenitude,  an  arrow  and  a  wound.  The  Initiates  ought  to  under- 
stand this,  and,  lest  the  profane  should  overhear,  Masonry  never 
says  too  much. 

When  Science  had  been  overcome  in  Alexandria  by  the  fanati- 
cism of  the  murderers  of  Llypatia,  it  became  Christian,  or,  rather, 
it  concealed  it?elf  under  Christian  disguises,  with  Ammonius, 
Synosius,  and  the  author  of  the  books  of  Dionysius  the  Areop- 
agite.  Then  it  was  necessary  to  win  the  pardon  of  miracles  by  the 
appearances  of  superstition,  and  of  science  by  a  language  unin- 
telligible. Hieroglyphic  writing  was  revived,  and  pantacles  and 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  733 

characters  were  invented,  that  summed  up  a  whole  doctrine  in  a 
sign,  a  whole  series  of  tendencies  and  revelations  in  a  word.  What 
was  the  object  of  the  aspirants  to  knowledge?  They  sought  for 
the  secret  of  the  great  work,  or  the  Philosophal  Stone,  or  the 
perpetual  motion,  or  the  squaring  of  the  circle,  or  the  universal 
medicine ;  formulas  which  often  saved  them  from  persecution  and 
general  ill-will,  by  exposing  them  to  the  charge  of  folly ;  and  each 
of  which  expressed  one  of  the  forces  of  the  grand  magical  secret. 
This  lasted  until  the  time  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  which  also 
expresses  the  mysterious  and  magical  meaning  of  the  poem  of 
Dante,  borrowed  from  the  High  Kabalah,  that  immense  and  con- 
cealed source  of  the  universal  philosophy. 

It  is  not  strange  that  man  knows  but  little  of  the  powers  of  the 
human  will,  and  imperfectly  appreciates  them ;  since  he  knows 
nothing  as  to  the  nature  of  the  will  and  its  mode  of  operation. 
That  his  own  will  can  move  his  arm,  or  compel  another  to  obey 
him ;  that  his  thoughts,  symbolically  expressed  by  the  signs  of 
writing,  can  influence  and  lead  other  men,  are  mysteries  as  incom- 
prehensible to  him,  as  that  the  will  of  Deity  could  effect  the  crea-. 
tion  of  a  Universe. 

The  powers  of  the  will  are  as  yet  chiefly  indefinite  and  un- 
known. Whether  a  multitude  of  well-established  phenomena  are 
to  be  ascribed  to  the  power  of  the  will  alone,  or  to  magnetism  or 
some  other  natural  agent,  is  a  point  as  yet  unsettled  ;  but  it  is 
agreed  by  all  that  a  concentrated  effort  of  the  will  is  in  every  case 
necessary  to  success. 

That  the  phenomena  are  real  is  not  to  be  doubted,  unless  credit 
is  no  longer  to  be  given  to  human  testimony ;  and  if  they  are  real, 
there  is  no  reason  for  doubting  the  exercise  heretofore,  by  many 
adepts,  of  the  powers  that  were  then  termed  magical.  Nothing  is 
better  vouched  for  than  the  extraordinary  performances  of  the 
Brahmins.  No  religion  is  supported  by  stronger  testimony ;  nor 
has  any  one  ever  even  attempted  to  explain  what  may  well  be 
termed  their  miracles. 

How  far,  in  this  life,  the  mind  and. soul  can  act  without  and  in- 
dependently of  the  body,  no  one  as  yet  knows.  That  the  will  can 
act  at  all  without  bodily  contact,  and  the  phenomena  of  dreams, 
are  mysteries  that  confound  the  wisest  and  most  learned,  whose 
explanations  are  but  a  Habel  of  words. 

Man  as  vet  knows  little  of  the  forces  of  nature.    Surrounded, 


734  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

controlled,  and  governed  by  them,  while  he  vainly  thinks  himself 
independent,  not  only  of  his  race,  but  the  universal  nature  and  her 
infinite  manifold  forces,  he  is  the  slave  of  these  forces,  unless  he 
becomes  their  master.  He  can  neither  ignore  their  existence 
nor  be  simply  their  neighbor. 

There  is  in  nature  one  most  potent  force,  by  means  whereof  a 
single  man,  who  could  possess  himself  of  it,  and  should  know 
how  to  direct  it,  could  revolutionize  and  change  the  face  of  the 
world. 

This  force  was  knowTn  to  the  ancients.  It  is  a  universal  agent, 
whose  Supreme  law  is  equilibrium ;  and  whereby,  if  science  can 
but  learn  how  to  control  it,  it  will  be  possible  to  change  the 
order  of  the  Seasons,  to  produce  in  night  the  phenomena  of 
day,  to  send  a  thought  in  an  instant  round  the  world,  to  heal 
or  slay  at  a  distance,  to  give  our  words  universal  success,  and  make 
them  reverberate  everywhere. 

This  agent,  partially  revealed  by  the  blind  guesses  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  Mesmer,  is  precisely  what  the  Adepts  of  the  middle 
ages  called  the  elementary  matter  of  the  great  work.  The  Gnostics 
held  that  it  composed  the  igneous  body  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and 
it  was  adored  in  the  secret  rites  of  the  Sabbat  or  the  Temple,  under 
the  hieroglyphic  figure  of  Baphomet  or  the  hermaphroditic  goat  of 
Mendes. 

There  is  a  Life-Principle  of  the  world,  a  universal  agent, wherein 
are  two  natures  and  a  double  current,  of  love  and  wrath.  This 
ambient  fluid  penetrates  everything.  It  is  a  ray  detached  from 
the  glory  of  the  Sun,  and  fixed  by  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere 
and  the  central  attraction.  It  is  the  body  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
universal  Agent,  the  Serpent  devouring  his  own  tail.  With  this 
electro-magnetic  ether,  this  vital  and  luminous  caloric,  the  an- 
cients and  the  alchemists  were  familiar.  Of  this  agent,  that  phase 
of  modern  ignorance  termed  physical  science  talks  incoherently, 
knowing  naught  of  it  save  its  effects  ;  and  theology  might  apply 
to  it  all  its  pretended  definitions  of  spirit.  Quiescent,  it  is 
appreciable  by  no  human  sense ;  disturbed  or  in  movement,  none 
can  explain  its  mode  of  action  ;  and  to  term  it  a  "fluid,"  and 
speak  of  its  "currents,"  is  but  to  veil  a  profound  ignorance  under 
a  cloud  of  words. 

Force  attracts  force,  life  attracts  life,  health  attracts  health.  It  is 
a  law  of  nature. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  735 

If  two  children  live  together,  and  still  more  if  they  sleep  to- 
gether, and  one  is  feeble  and  the  other  strong,  the  strong  will 
absorb  the  feeble,  and  the  latter  will  perish. 

In  schools,  some  pupils  absorb  the  intellect  of  the  others,  and 
in  every  circle  of  men  some  one  individual  is  soon  found,  who 
possesses  himself  of  the  wills  of  the  others. 

Enthralments  by  currents  is  very  common ;  and  one  is  carried 

away  by  the  crowd,  in  morals  as  in  physics.    The  human  will  has 

an  almost  absolute  power  in  determining  one's  acts ;  and  every  ex- 

1  ternal  demonstration  of  a  will  has  an  influence  on  external  things. 

Tissot  ascribed  most  maladies  to  disorders  of  the  will,  or  the  per- 
verse influences  of  the  wills  of  others.  We  become  subject  to  the 
wills  of  others  by  the  analogies  of  our  inclinations,  and  still  more 
by  those  of  our  defects.  To  caress  the  weaknesses  of  an  individ- 
ual, is  to  possess  ourself  of  him,  and  make  of  him  an  instru- 
ment in  the  order  of  the  same  errors  or  depravations.  But  when 
two  natures,  analogical  in  defects,  are  subordinated  one  to  the 
other,  there  is  effected  a  kind  of  substitution  of  the  stronger 
instead  of  the  weaker,  and  a  genuine  imprisonment  of  one  mind 
by  the  other.  Often  the  weaker  struggles,  and  would  fain  revolt ; 
and  then  falls  lower  than  ever  in  servitude. 

We  each  have  some  dominant  defect,  by  which  the  enemy  can 
grasp  us.  In  some  it  is  vanity,  in  others  indolence,  in  most  ego- 
tism. Let  a  cunning  and  evil  spirit  possess  himself  of  this,  and 
you  are  lost.  Then  you  become,  not  foolish,  nor  an  idiot,  but 
positively  a  lunatic,  the  slave  of  an  impulse  from  without.  You 
have  an  instinctive  horror  for  everything  that  could  restore  you  to 
reason,  and  will  not  even  listen  to  representations  that  contravene 
your  insanity. 

Miracles  are  the  natural  effects  of  exceptional  causes. 

The  immediate  action  of  the  human  will  on  bodies,  or  at  least 
this  action  exercised  without  visible  means,  constitutes  a  miracle 
in  the  physical  order. 

The  influence  exercised  on  wills  or  intellects,  suddenly  or  within 
a  given  ti:nc,  and  capable  of  taking  captive  the  thoughts,  chang- 
ing the  firmest  resolutions,  paralyzing  the  most  violent  passions, 
constitutes  a  miracle  in  the  moral  order. 

The  common  error  in  relation  to  miracles  is,  to  regard  them  as 
effects  without  causes ;  as  contradictions  of  nature ;  as  sudden 
fictions  of  the  Divine  imagination ;  and  men  do  not  reflect  that  a 


MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

single  miracle  of  this  sort  would  break  the  universal  harmony 
ana  re-plunge  the  Universe  into  Chaos. 

There  are  miracles  impossible  to  God  Himself :  absurd  miracles 
are  so.  if  God  could  be  absurd  for  a  single  instant,  neither  He 
nor  the  Universe  would  exist  an  instant  afterward.  To  expect  of 
the  Divine  Free-Will  an  effect  whose  cause  is  unacknowledged  or 
does  not  exist,  is  what  is  termed  tempting  God.  It  is  to  precipi- 
tate one's  self  into  the  void. 

God  acts  by  His  works  :  in  Heaven,  by  angels ;  on  earth,  by  men. 

In  the  heaven  of  human  conceptions,  it  is  humanity  that  creates 
God;  and  men  think  that  God  has  made  them  in  His  image,  be- 
cause they  make  Him  in  theirs. 

The  domain  of  man  is  all  corporeal  nature,  visible  on  earth ;  and 
if  he  does  not  rule  the  planets  or  the  stars,  he  can  at  least  calcu- 
late their  movement,  measure  their  distances,  and  identify  his  will 
with  their  influence :  he  can  modify  the  atmosphere,  act  to  a  cer- 
tain point  on  the  seasons,  cure  .and  afflict  with  sickness  other  men, 
preserve  life  and  cause  death. 

The  absolute  in  reason  and  will  is  the  greatest  power  which  it  is 
given  to  men  to  attain ;  and  it  is  by  means  of  this  power  that  what 
the  multitude  admires  under  the  name  of  miracles,  are  effected. 

POWER  is  the  wise  use  of  the  will,  which  makes  Fatality  itself 
serve  to  accomplish  the  purposes  of  Sages. 

Omnipotence  is  the  most  absolute  Liberty ;  and  absolute  Liberty 
cannot  exist  without  a  perfect  equilibrium;  and  the  columns 
JACK  IN  and  BOAZ  are  also  the  unlimited  POWER  and  SPLENDOR 
OF  PERFECTION  of  the  Deity,  the  seventh  and  eighth  SEPHIROTIT 
of  the  Kabalah,  from  whose  equilibrium  result  the  eternal  perma- 
nence and  Stability  of  His  plans  and  works,  and  of  that  perfect 
Success  and  undivided,  unlimited  Dominion,  which  are  the  ninth 
and  tenth  SEPHIROTH,  and  of  which  the  Temple  of  Solomon,  in 
its  stately  symmetry,  erected  without  the  sound  of  any  tool  of  metal 
being  heard,  is  to  us  a  symbol.  "For  Thine,"  says  the  Most  Per- 
fect of  Prayers,  "is  the  DOMINION,  the  POWER,  and  the  GLORY, 
during  all  the  ages  !  Amen  !" 

The  ABSOLUTE  is  the  very  necessity  of  BEING,  the  immutable 
law  of  Reason  and  of  Truth.  It  is  THAT  WHICH  IS.  But  THAT 
WHICH  IS  is  in  some  sort  before  HE  WHO  IS.  God  Himself  is 
not  without  a  reason  of  existence.  He  does  not  exist  accidentally. 
He  could  not  not  have  been.  His  Existence,  then,  is  necessitated 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  737 

is  necessary.  He  can  exist  only  in  virtue  of  a  Supreme  and  inevi- 
table REASON.  That  REASON,  then,  is  THE  ABSOLUTE;  for  it  is 
in  IT  we  must  believe,  if  we  would  that  our  faith  should  have  a 
reasonable  and  solid  basis.  It  has  been  said  in  our  times,  that 
God  is  a  Hypothesis ;  but  Absolute  Reason  is  not  one :  it  is  essen- 
tial to  Existence. 

Saint  Thomas  said,  "A  thing  is  not  just  because  God  tvills  it, 
BUT  GOD  WILLS  IT  BECAUSE  IT  is  JUST.  "  If  he  had  deduced  all 
the  consequences  of  this  fine  thought,  he  would  have  discovered 
the  true  Philosopher's  Stone ;  the  magical  elixir,  to  convert  all  the 
trials  of  the  world  into  golden  mercies.  Precisely  as  it  is  a  neces- 
sity for  God  to  BE,  so  it  is  a  necessity  for  Him  to  be  just,  loving, 
and  merciful.  He  cannot  be  unjust,  cruel,  merciless.  He  cannot 
repeal  the  law  of  right  and  wrong,  of  merit  and  demerit ;  for  the 
moral  laws  are  as  absolute  as  the  physical  laws.  There  are  impossi- 
ble things.  As  it  is  impossible  to  make  two  and  two  be  five  and  not 
four ;  as  it  is  impossible  to  make  a  thing  be  and  not  be  at  the  same 
time ;  so  it  is  impossible  for  the  Deity  to  make  crime  a  merit,  and 
love  and  gratitude  crimes.  So,  too,  if  was  impossible  to  make 
Man  perfect,  with  his  bodily  senses  and  appetites,  as  it  was  to 
make  his  nerves  susceptible  of  pleasure  and  not  also  of  pain. 

Therefore,  according  to  the  idea  of  Saint  Thomas,  the  moral 
laws  are  the  enactments  of  the  Divine  WILL,  only  because  they 
are  the  decisions  of  the  Absolute  WISDOM  and  REASON,  and 
the  Revelations  of  the  Divine  NATURE.  In  this  alone  consists 
the  right  of  Deity  to  enact  them ;  and  thus  only  do  we  attain  the 
certainty  in  Faith  that  the  Universe  is  one  Harmony. 

To  believe  in  the  Reason  of  God,  and  in  the  God  of  Reason,  is 
to  make  Atheism  impossible.  It  is  the  Idolaters  who  have  made 
the  Atheists. 

Analog}'  gives  the  Sage  all  the  forces  of  Nature.  It  is  the  key 
of  the  Grand  Arcanum,  the  root  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  the  science 
of  Good  and  Evil. 

The  Absolute,  is  REASON.  Reason  IS,  by  means  of  Itself.  It  IS 
BECAUSE  IT  IS,  and  net  because  we  suppose  it.  IT  IS,  where 
nothing  c.vists;  but  nothing  could  possibly  exist  without  IT. 
Reason  is  Necessity,  Law,  the  Rule  of  all  Liberty,  and  the  direction 
of  every  Initiative.  If  God  IS,  HE  IS  by  Reason.  The  concep- 
tion of  an  Absolute  Deity,  outside  of,  or  independent  of,  Reason, 
is  the  IDOL  of  Black  Magic,  the  PHANTOM  of  the  Daemon. 


738  M-ORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

The  Supreme  Intelligence  is  necessarily  rational.  God,  in  phi- 
losophy, can  be  no  mop?  than  a  Hypothesis;  but  a  Hypothesis 
imposed  by  good  sense  on  Human  Reason.  To  personify  the 
Absolute  Reason,  is  to  determine  the  Divine  Ideal. 

NECESSITY,  LIBERTY,  and  REASON!  Behold  the  great  and 
Supreme  Triangle  of  the  Kabalists  ! 

FATALITY,  WILL,  and  POWER!  Such  is  the  magical  ternary 
which,  in  human  things,  corresponds  with  the  Divine  Triangle. 

FATALITY  is  the  inevitable  linking  together,  in  succession,  of 
effects  and  causes,  in  a  given  order. 

WILL  is  the  faculty  that  directs  the  forces  of  the  Intellect, 
so  as  to  reconcile  the  liberty  of  persons  with  the  necessity  of 
things. 

'  The  argument  from  these  premises  must  be  made  by  yourself. 
Each  one  of  us  does  that.  "Seek,"  say  the  Holy  Writings,  "and 
ye  shall  find."  Yet  discussion  is  not  forbidden ;  and  without 
doubt  the  subject  will  be  fully  treated  of  in  your  hearing  here- 
after. Affirmation,  negation,  discussion, — it  is  by  these  the  truth 
is  attained. 

To  explore  the  great  Mysteries  of  the  Universe  and  seek  to  solve 
its  manifold  enigmas,  is  the  chief  use  of  Thought,  and  constitutes 
the  principal  distinction  between  Alan  and  the  animals.  Accord- 
ingly, in  all  ages  the  Intellect  has  labored  to  understand  and 
explain  to  itself  the  Nature  of  the  Supreme  Deity. 

That  one  Reason  and  one  Will  created  and  governed  the  Uni- 
verse was  too  evident  not  to  be  at  once  admitted  by  the  philosophers 
of  all  ages.  It  was  the  ancient  religions  that  sought  to  multiply 
gods.  The  Nature  of  the  One  Deity,  and  the  mode  in  which  the 
Universe  had  its  beginning,  are  questions  that  have  always  been 
the  racks  on  which  the  human  intellect  has  been  tortured :  and  it 
is  chiefly  with  these  that  the  Kabalists  have  dealt. 

It  is  true  that,  in  one  sense,  we  can  have  no  actual  knowledge 
of  the  Absolute  Itself,  the  very  Deity.  Our  means  of  obtaining 
what  is  commonly  termed  actual  knowledge,  are  our  senses  only. 
If  to  sec  and  feel  be  knowledge,  we  have  none  of  our  own  Soul, 
of  electricity,  of  magnetism.  We  see  and  feel  and  taste  an  acid 
or  an  alkali,  and  know  something  of  the  qualities  of  each  ;  but  it 
i-s  only  when  we  use  them  in  combination  with  other  substances, 
and  learn  their  effects,  that  we  really  begin  to  know  their  nature. 
It  is  the  combination  and  experiments  of  Chemistry  that  give 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  739 

us  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  and  powers  of  most  animal  and 
vegetable  substances  As  these  are  cognizable  by  inspection  by 
our  senses,  we  may  partially  know  them  by  that  alone:  but  the 
Soul,  either  of  ourself  or  of  another,  being  beyond  that  cognizance, 
can  dhly  be  known  by  the  acts  and  words  which  arc  its  effects. 
Magnetism  and  electricity,  when  at  rest,  are  equally  beyond  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  senses;  and  when  they  are  in  action,  we  see, 
feel,  hear,  taste,  and  smell  only  their  effects.  We  do  not  know 
what  they  arc,  but  only  what  they  do.  We  can  know  the  attributes 
of  Deity  only  through  His  manifestations.  To  ask  anything  more, 
is  to  ask,  not  knowledge,  but  something  else,  for  which  we  have  no 
name.  God  is  a  Power ;  and  we  know  nothing  of  any  Power  itself, 
but  only  its  effects,  results,  and  action,  and  what  Reason  teaches  us 
by  analogy. 

In  these  later  days,  in  laboring  to  escape  from  all  material  ideas 
in  regard  to  Deity,  we  have  so  refined  away  our  notions  of  GOD,  as 
to  have  no  idea  of  Him  at  all.  In  struggling  to  regard  Him  as  a 
pure  immaterial  Spirit,  we  have  made  the  word  Spirit  synonymous 
with  nothing,  and  can  only  say  that  He  is  a  Somei^'hat,  with  certain 
attributes,  such  as  Power,  Wisdom,  and  Intelligence.  To  compare 
Him  to  LIGHT,  would  now  be  deemed  not  only  unphilosophical,  but 
the  equivalent  of  Atheism ;  and  .we  find  it  necessary  to  excuse  and 
pity  the  ancients  for  their  inadequate  and  gross  ideas  of  Deity, 
expressed  in  considering  Him  as  the  Light-Principle,  the  invisible 
essence  or  substance  from  which  visible  Light  flows. 

Yet  our  own  holy  writings  continually  speak  of  Him  as  Light ; 
and  therefore  the  Tsabeans  and  the  Kabala  may  well  be  pardoned 
for  doing  the  same ;  especially  since  they  did  not  regard  Him  as 
the  risible  Light  known  to  us,  but  as  the  Primordial  Ether-Ocean 
from  which  light  flows. 

Before  the  creation,  did  the  Deity  dwell  alone  in  the  Darkness,  or 
in  the  Light?  Did  the  Light  co-exist  with  Him,  or  was  it  created, 
after  an  eternity  of  darkness?  and  if  it  co-existed,  was  it  an 
effluence  from  Him,  filling  all  space  as  He  also  filled  it,  He  and 
the  Light  at  the  same  time  filling  the  same  place  and  every 
place  ? 

MILTON  says,  expressing  the  Hebraic  doctrine : 

"Hail,  Holy  Light,  offspring  of  Heaven  first-born, 
Or  of  th'  Eternal,  co-eternal  beam  ! 
May  I  express  thee  unblamed,  since  God  is  JJght. 


74°  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

And  never  but  in  unapproached  Light 
Dwelt  from  Eternity;  dwelt  then  in  Thee, 
Bright  effluence  of  bright  Essence  uncreate." 

"The  LIGHT/'  says  the  Book  Omschim,  or  Introduction  to  the 
Kabala,  "Supremest  of  all  things,  and  most  Lofty,  and  Limitless, 
and  styled  INFINITE,  can  be  attained  unto  by  no  cogitation  or 
speculation ;  and  its  VERY  SELF  is  evidently  withdrawn  and 
removed  beyond  all  intellection.  It  WAS,  before  all  things  what- 
ever, produced,  created,  formed,  and  made  by  Emanation ;  and  in 
it  was  neither  Time,  Head,  or  Beginning;  since  it  always  existed, 
and  remains  forever,  without  commencement  or  end." 

"Before  the  Emanations  flowed  forth,  and  created  things  were 
created,  the  Supreme  Light  was  infinitely  extended,  and  filled  the 
whole  WHERE ;  so  that  with  reference  to  Light  no  vacuum 
could  be  affirmed,  nor  any  unoccupied  space ;  but  the  ALL  was 
filled  with  that  Light  of  the  Infinite,  thus  extended,  whereto  in 
every  regard  was  no  end,  inasmuch  as  nothing  was,  except  that 
extended  Light,  which,  with  a  certain  single  and  simple  equality, 
was  everywhere  like  unto  itself." 

AINSOPH  is  called  Light,  says  the  Introduction  to  the  Sohar, 
because  it  is  impossible  to  express  it  by  any  other  word. 

To  conceive  of  God  as  an  actuality,  and  not  as  a  mere  non- 
substance  or  name,  which  involved  non-existence,  the  Kabala,  like 
the  Egyptians,  imagined  Him  to  be  "a  most  occult  Light,"  AUR  ; 
not  our  material  and  visible  Light,  but  the  Substance  out  of  which 
Light  flows,  the  fire,  as  relative  to  its  heat  and  flame.  Of  this 
Light  or  Ether,  the  Sun  was  to  the  Tsabeans  the  only  manifesta- 
tion or  out-shining,  and  as  such  it  was  worshipped,  and  not  as  the 
type  of  dominion  and  power.  God  was  the  Phos  Noeton,  the  Light 
cognizable  only  by  the  Intellect,  the  Light-Principle,  the  Light- 
Ether,  from  which  souls  emanate,  and  to  which  they  return. 

Light,  Fire,  and  Flame,  with  the  Phoenicians,  were  the  sons  of 
Kronos.  They  are  the  Trinity  in  the  Chaldaean  Oracles,  the  AOR  of 
the  Deity,  manifested  in  flame,  that  issues  out  of  the  invisible 
Fire. 

In  the  first  three  Persian  Amshaspands,  Lords  of  LIGHT,  FIRE, 
and  SPLENDOR,  we  recognize  the  AOR,  ZOHAR,  and  ZAYO,  Light, 
Splendor,  and  Brightness,  of  the  Kabalah.  The  first  of  these  is 
termed  AOR  MUPALA,  Wonderful  or  Hidden  Light,  unrevealed. 
undisplayed — which  is  KETHER,  the  first  Emanation  or  Scphirah. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  741 

the  Will  of  Deity :  the  second  is  NESTAR,  Concealed — which  is 
HAKEMAH,  the  second  Sephirah,  or  the  Intellectual  Potence  of  the 
Deity:  and  the  third  is  METANOTSATS,  coruscating — which  r 
BINAII,  the  third  Sephirah,  or  the  intellectual  producing  capa- 
city. In  other  words,  they  are  THE  VERY  SUBSTANCE  of  light, 
in  the  Deity :  Fire,  which  is  that  light,  limited  and  furnished 
with  attributes,  so  that  it  can  be  revealed,  but  yet  remains  unre- 
vealed,  and  its  splendor  or  out-shining,  or  the  light  that  goes  out 
from  the  fire. 

Masonry  is  a  search  after  Light.  That  search  leads  us  directly 
back,  as  you  see,  to  the  Kabalah.  In  that  ancient  and  little  un- 
derstood medley  of  absurdity  and  philosophy,  the  Initiate  will  find 
the  source  of  many  doctrines ;  and  may  in  time  come  to  under- 
stand the  Hermetic  philosophers,  the  Alchemists,  all  the  Anti- 
papal  Thinkers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  Emanuel  Sweden- 
borg. 

The  Hansavati  Rich,  a  celebrated  Sanscrit  Stanza,  says :  "He  is 
Hansa  (the  Sun),  dwelling  in  light;  Vasu,  the  atmosphere  dwell- 
ing in  the  firmament;  the  invoker  of  the  gods  (Agni),  dwelling 
on  the  altar  (i.  e.,  the  altar-fire)  ;  the  guest  (of  the  worshipper), 
dwelling  in  the  house  (the  domestic  fire)  ;  the  dweller  amongst 
men  (as  consciousness)  ;  the  dweller  in  the  most  excellent  orb, 
(the  Sun)  ;  the  dweller  in  truth ;  the  dweller  in  the  sky  (the  air)  : 
born  in  the  waters,  in  the  rays  of  light,  in  the  verity  (of  manifests 
tion),  in  the  Eastern  mountains;  the  Truth  (itself)." 

"In  the  beginning,"  says  a  Sanscrit  hymn,  "arose  the  .Source 
of  golden  light.  He  was  the  only  born  Lord  of  all  that  is.  He 
established  the  earth  and  the  sky.  Who  is  the  God  to  Whom  we 
shall  offer  our  sacrifice?" 

"He  who  gives  life,  He  who  gives  strength  ;  Whose  blessing 
all  the  bright  gods  desire;  Whose  shadow  is  immortality;  ITliosc 
shadow  is  death;  Who  is  the  God,  etc?" 

"He  through  Whom  the  sk\  is  bright  and  the  earth  for  us: 
He  through  Whom  the  Heaven  was  established,  nay,  the  highest 
Heaven ;  He  who  measured  out  the  light  in  the  air ;  Who  is  the 
God,  etc.?" 

"He  to  Whom  the  Heaven  and  earth,  standing  firm  by  His  will, 
look  up  trembling  inwardly ;  He  over  Whom  the  rising  sun  shines 
forth :  Who  is  the  God,  etc.  ?" 

"Wherever  the  mighty  water-clouds  went,  where  they  placed 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  seed  and  lit  the  fire,  thence  arose  He  Who  is  the  only  life  of 
the  bright  gods ;  Who  is  the  God,  etc.  ?" 

The  WORD  of  God,  said  the  Indian  philosophy,  is  the  universal 
and  invisible  Light,  cognizable  by  the  senses,  tftat  emits  its  blaze 
in  the  Sun,  Moon,  Planets,  and  other  Stars.  Philo  calls  it  the 
"Universal  Light,"  which  loses  a  portion  of  its  purity  and  splendor 
in  descending  from  the  intellectual  to  the  sensible  world,  mani- 
festing itself  outwardly  from  the  Deity ;  and  the  Kabalah  repre- 
sents that  only  so  much  of  the  Infinite  Light  flowed  into  the  cir- 
cular void  prepared  for  creation  within  the  Infinite  Light  and 
Wisdom,  as  could  pass  by  a  canal  like  a  line  or  thread.  The  Se- 
phiroth,  emanating  from  the  Deity,  were  the  rays  of  His  splendor. 

The  Chaldaean  Oracles  said :  "The  intellect  of  the  Generator, 
stirred  to  action,  out-spoke,  forming  within  itself,  by  intellection, 
universals  of  every  possible  form  and  fashion,  which  issued  out, 
flowing  forth  from  the  One  Source  .  .  .  For  Deity,  impersonated  as 
Dominion,  before  fabricating  the  manifold  Universe,  posited  an 
intellected  and  unchangeable  universal,  the  impression  of  the  form 
whereof  goes  forth  through  the  Universe ;  and  that  VJniverse, 
formed  and  fashioned  accordingly,  becomes  visibly  beautified  in 
infinitely  varying  types  and  forms.the  Source  and  fountain  whereof 
is  one.  .  .  .  Intellectual  conceptions  and  forms  from  the  Generative 
source,  succeeding  each  other,  considered  in  relation  to  ever- 
progressing  Time, and  intimately  partaking  of  THE  PRIMAL  ETHER 
or  FIRE  ;  but  yet  all  these  Universals  and  Primal  Types  and  Ideas 
flowed  forth  from,  and  are  part  of,  the  first  Source  of  the  Gene- 
rative Power,  perfect  in  itself." 

The  Chaldeans  termed  the  Supreme  Deity  ARAOR,  Father  of 
Light.  From  Him  was  supposed  to  flow  the  light  above  the 
world,  which  illuminates  the  heavenly  regions.  This  Light  or 
Fire  was  considered  as  the  Symbol  of  the  Divine  Essence,  extend- 
ing itself  to  inferior  spiritual  natures.  Hence  the  Chaldean  ora- 
cles say  :  "The  Father  took  from  Himself,'and  did  not  confine  His 
proper  fire  within  His  intellectual  potency :"  .  .  "All  things  are 
begotten  from  one  Fire." 

The  Tsabeans  held  that  all  inferior  spiritual  beings  were  emana- 
tions from  the  Supreme  Deity ;  and  therefore  Proclus  says :  "The 
progression  of  the  gods  is  one  and  continuous,  proceeding  down- 
ward irom  the  intelligible  and  latent  unities,  and  terminating  in 
the  last  partition  of  the  Divine  cause." 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN.  OK   I'UIXCK  ADEPT.  743 

It  is  impossible  to  speak  clearly  of  the  Divinity.  Whoever  at- 
tempts to  express  His  attributes  by  the  help  of  abstractions,  con- 
fines himself  to  negatives,  and  at  once  loses  sight  of  his  ideas,  in 
wandering  through  a  wilderness  of  words.  To  heap  Superlatives 
on  Superlatives,  and  call  Him  best,  wisest,  greatest,  is  but  to  exag- 
gerate qualities  which  are  found  in  man.  That  there  exists  one 
only  God,  and  that  He  is  a  Perfect  and  Beneficent  Being,  Reason 
legitimately  teaches  us;  but  of  the  Divine  Nature,  of  the  Sub- 
stance of  the  Deity,  of  the  manner  of  His  Existence,  or.  of  the 
mode  of  creation  of  His  Universe,  the  human  mind  is  inadequate 
to  form  any  just  conception.  We  can  affix  no  clear  ideas  to  Om- 
nipotence, Omniscience,  Infinity  or  Eternity ;  and  we  have  no 
more  right  to  attribute  intelligence  to  Him,  than  any  other  men- 
tal quality  of  ourselves,  extended  indefinitely ;  or  than  we  have  to 
attribute  our  senses  to  Him,  and  our  bodily  organs,  as  the  Hebrew 
writings  do. 

We  satisfy  ourselves  with  negativing  in  the  Deity  everything 
that  constitutes  existence,  so  far  as  we  are  capable  of  conceiving 
of  existence.  Thus  He  becomes  to  us  logically  nothing,  Non-Ens. 
The  Ancients  saw  no  difference  between  that  and  Atheism,  and 
sought  to  conceive  of  Him  as  something  real.  It  is  a  necessity  of 
Human  Nature.  The  theological  idea,  or  rather  non-idea,  of  the 
Deity,  is  not  shared  or  appreciated  by  the  unlearned.  To  them, 
God  will  always  be  The  Father  Who  is  in  Heaven,  a  Monarch  on 
His  Throne,  a  Being  with  human  feelings  and  human  sympathies, 
angry  at  their  misdeeds,  lenient  if  they  repent,  accessible  to  their 
supplications.  It  is  the  Humanity,  far  more  than  the  Divinity,  of 
Christ,  that  makes  the  mass  of  Christians  worship  Him,  far  more 
than  they  do  the  Father. 

"The  Light  of  the  Substance  of  The  Infinite."  is  the  Kabalis- 
tic  expression.  Christ  was.  according  to  Saint  John,  "the  Light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world"  :  and  ''that 
Light  was  the  life  of  men."  "The  Light  shone  in  the  darkness, 
and  the  darkness  comprehended  it  not." 

The  ancient  ideas  in  respect  to  Light  were  perhaps  quite  as  cor- 
rect as  our  own.  It  does  not  appear  that  they  ascribed  to  Light 
any  of  the  qualities  of  matter.  But  modern  Science  defines  it  to 
be  a  flood*  of  particles  of  matter,  flowing  or  shot  out  from  the  Sun 
and  Stars,  and  moving  through  space  to  come  to  us.  On  the  the- 
ories of  mechanism  and  force,  what  force  of  attraction  here  or 


744  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

rep-ulsion  at  the  Sun  or  at  the  most  distant  Star  could  draw  or 
drive  these  impalpable,  weightless,  infinitely  minute  particles,  ap- 
preciable by  the  Sense  of  Sight  alone,  so  far  through  space  ?  What 
has  become  of  the  immense  aggregate  of  particles  that  have 
reached  the  earth  since  the  creation?  Have  they  increased  its 
bulk?  Why  cannot  chemistry  detect  and  analyze  them?  If  mat- 
ter, why  can  they  travel  only  in  right  lines  ? 

No  characteristic  of  matter  belongs  to  Light,  or  Heat,  or  flame, 
or  to  Galvanism,  Electricity,  and  Magnetism.  The  electric  spark- 
is  light,  and  so  is  that  produced  by  the  flint,  when  it  cuts  off  par- 
ticles of  steel.  Iron,  melted  or  heated,  radiates  light;  and  insects, 
infusoria,  and  decayed  wood  emit  it.  Heat  is  produced  by  friction 
and  by  pressure;  to  explain  which,  Science  tells  us  of  latent  Ca- 
loric, thus  representing  it  to  us  as  existing  without  its  only  known 
distinctive  quality.  What  quality  of  matter  enables  lightning, 
blazing  from  the  Heavens,  to  rend  the  oak?  What  quality  of 
matter  enables  it  to  make  the  circuit  of  the  earth  in  a  score  of 
seconds  ? 

Profoundly  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  these  mighty  agents  of 
Divine  Power,  we  conceal  our  ignorance  by  words  that  have  no 
meaning;  and  we  might  well  be  asked  why  Light  may  not  be  an 
effluence  from  the  Deity,  as  has  been  agreed  by  all  the  religions  of 
all  the  Ages  of  the  World. 

All  truly  dogmatic  religions  have  issued  from  the  Kabalah  and 
return  to  it :  everything  scientific  and  grand  in  the  religious 
dreams  of  all  the  illuminati,  Jacob  Boehme,  Swedenborg,  Saint- 
Martin,  and  others,  is  borrowed  from  the  Kabalah ;  all  the  Ma- 
sonic associations  owe  to  it  their  Secrets  and  their  Symbols. 

The  Kabalah  alone  consecrates  the  alliance  of  the  L^niversal 
Reason  and  the  Divine  Word ;  it  establishes,  by  the  counterpoises 
of  two  forces  apparently  opposite,  the  eternal  balance  of  being",  it 
alone  reconciles  Reason  with  Faith,  Power  with  Liberty,  Science 
with  Mystery ;  it  has  the  keys  of  the  Present,  the  Past,  and  the 
Future. 

The  Bible,  with  all  the  allegories  it  contains,  expresses,  in  an 
incomplete  and  veiled  manner  only,  the  religious  science  of  the 
Hebrews.  The  doctrine  of  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  identical  at 
bottom  with  that  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  also  had  its  outward 
meaning  and  its  veils.  The  Hebrew  books  were  written  only  to 
recall  to  memory  the  traditions:  and  thev  were  written  in  Sym- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  Ok   1'KlNUi   AD  KPT.  745 

bols  unintelligible  to  the  Profane.  The  Pentateuch  and  the  pro- 
phetic poems  were  merely  elementary  books  of  doctrine,  morals, 
or  liturgy ;  and  the  true  secret  and  traditional  philosophy  was 
only  written  afterward,  under  veils  still  less  transparent.  Thus 
was  a  second  Bible  born,  unknown  to,  or  rather  uncomprehended 
by,  the  Christians ;  a  collection,  they  say,  of  monstrous  absurdi- 
ties; a  monument,  the  adept  says,  wherein  is  everything  that  the 
genius  of  philosophy  and  that  of  religion  have  ever  formed  or 
imagined  of  the  sublime ;  a  treasure  surrounded  by  thorns ;  a 
diamond  concealed  in  a  rough  dark  stone. 

One  is  filled  with  admiration,  on  penetrating  into  the  Sanctuary 
of  the  Kabalah,  at  seeing  a  doctrine  so  logical,  so  simple,  and  at 
the  same  time  so  absolute.  The  necessary  union  of  ideas  and 
signs,  the  consecration  of  the  most  fundamental  realities  by  the 
primitive  characters ;  the  Trinity  of  Words,  Letters,  and  Num- 
bers ;  a  philosophy  simple  as  the  alphabet,  profound  and  infinite 
as  the  Word ;  theorems  more  complete  and  luminous  than  those 
of  Pythagoras  ;  a  theology  summed  up  by  counting  on  one's  fin- 
gers ;  an  Infinite  which  can  be  held  in  the  hollow  of  an  infant's 
hand ;  ten  ciphers  and  twenty-two  letters,  a  triangle,  a  square, 
and  a  circle, — these  are  all  the  elements  of  the  Kabalah.  These 
are  the  elementary  principles  of  the  written  Word,  reflection  of 
that  spoken  Word  that  created  the  world ! 

This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Kabalah,  with  which  you  will  no 
doubt  seek  to  make  yourself  acquainted,  as  to  the  Creation. 

The  Absolute  Deity,  with  the  Kabalists,  has  no  name.  The 
terms  applied  to  Him  are  tilths  TlS,  AOR  PASOT,  the  Most  Simple 
[or  Pure]  Light,  "called  C]1D  pS,  AYEN  SOPH,  or  INFINITE,  before 
any  Emanation.  For  then  there  was  no  space  or  vacant  place, 
but  all  was  infinite  Light." 

Before  the  Deity  created  any  Ideal,  any  limited  and  intelligible 
Nature,  or  any  form  whatever,  He  was  alone,  and  without  form  or 
similitude,  and  there  could  be  no  cognition  or  comprehension  of 
Him  in  any  wise.  He  was  without  Idea  or  Figure,  and  it  is  for- 
bidden to  form  any  Idea  or  Figure  of  Him,  neither  by  the  letter 
He  [n],  nor  by  the  letter  Yod  [•»],  though  these  are  contained 
in  the  Holy  Name ;  nor  by  any  other  letter  or  point  in  the 
world. 

But  after  He  created  this  Idea  [this  limited  and  existing-in- 
intellection  Nature,  which  the  ten  Numerations,  SEPHIROTH  or 


746  .  MORALS    AND   DOGMA. 

Rays  are],  of  the  Medium,  the  First  Man  ADAM  KADMON,  He 
descended  therein,  that,  by  means  of  this  Idea,  He  might  be  called 
by  the  name  TETRAGRAMMATON  ;  that  created  things  might  have 
cognition  of  Him,  in  His  own  likeness. 

When  the  Infinite  God  willed  to  emit  what  were  to  flow  forth. 
He  contracted  Himself  in  the  centre  of  His  light,  in  such  manner 
that  that  most  intense  light  should  recede  to  a  .certain  circumfer- 
ence, and  on  all  sides  upon  itself.  And  this  is  the  first  contrac- 
tion, and  termed  EXES,  Tsemsum. 

jlDlp  Cltf,  ADAM  KADMON,  the  Primal  or  First  Man,  is  the  first 
Aziluthic  emanant  from  the  Infinite  Light,  immitted  into  the 
evacuated  Space,  and  from  which,  afterward,  all  the  other  degrees 
and  systems  had  their  beginnings.  It  is  called  the  Adam  prior  to 
all  the  first.  In  it  are  imparted  ten  spherical  numerations ;  and 
thereafter  issued  forth  the  rectilinear  figure  of  a  man  in  his 
sephirothic  decade,  as  it  were  the  diameter  of  the  said  circles  ;  as 
it  were  the  axis  of  these  spheres,  reaching  from  their  highest  point 
to  their  lowest ;  and  from  it  depend  all  the  systems. 

But  now,  as  the  Infinite  Light  would  be  too  excellent  and  great 
to  be  borne  and  endured,  except  through  the  medium  of  thiJ 
Adam  Kadmon,  its  most  Secret  Nature  preventing  this,  its  illu- 
minating light  had  again  to  emanate  in  streams  out  of  itself,  by 
certain  apertures,  as  it  were,  like  windows,  and  which  are  termed 
the  ears,  eyes,  nostrils,  and  mouth. 

The  light  proceeding  from  this  Adam  Kadmon  is  indeed  but 
one ;  but  in  proportion  to  its  remoteness  from  the  place  of  out- 
flowing, and  to  the  grades  of  its  descent,  it  is  more  dense. 

From  the  word^'S,  ATSIL,  to  emanate  or  flow  forth,  comes  the 
word  m^i'S,  ATSILOTII  or  Aziluth,  Emanation,  or  the  System  of 
Emanants.  When  the  primal  space  was  evacuated,  the  surround- 
ing Light  of  the  Infinite,  and  the  Light  immitted  into  the  void, 
did  not  touch  each  other;  but  the  Light  of  the  Infinite  flowed  into 
that  void  through  a  line  or  certain  slender  canal :  and  that  Light 
is  the  Emanative  and  emitting  Principle,  or  the  out-flow  and 
origin  of  Emanation  :  but  the  Light  within  the  void  is  the  ema- 
nant subordinate ;  and  the  two  cohere  only  by  means  of  the  afore- 
said line. 

Aziluth  means  specifically  and  principally  the  first  system  of 
the  four  Olamoth  [mD^JJ],  worlds  or  systems ;  which  is  thence 
called  the  Aziluthic  World. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  747 

The  ten  Sephiroth  of  the  general  Aziluthic  system  are  ten 
Xekudoth  or  Points. 

Cp  pS,  AINSOPH,  AENSOPH,  or  AYENSOPH,  is  the  title  of  the 
Cause  of  Causes,  its  meaning  being  "endless,"  because  there  is  no 
limit  to  Its  loftiness,  and  nothing  can  comprehend  it.  Sometimes, 
also,  the  name  is  applied  to  KETIIER,  or  the  CROWN,  the  first 
emanation,  because  that  is  the  Throne  of  the  Infinite,  that  is,  its 
first  and  highest  Seat,  than  which  none  is  higher,  and  because 
Ainsoph  resides  and  is  concealed  therein:  hence  it  rejoices  in  the 
same  name. 

Before  that  anything  was,  says  the  Emcch  Haintnclcch,  He,  of 
His  mere  will,  proposed  to  Himself  to  make  worlds  .  .  .  but  at  that 
time  there  was  no  vacant  space  for  worlds ;  but  all  space  was  filled 
with  the  light  of  His  Substance,  which  He  had  with  fixed  limits 
placed  in  the  centre  of  Himself,  and  of  the  parts  whereof,  and 
wherein,  He  was  thereafter  to  effect  a  folding  together. 

What  then  did  the  Lord  of  the  Will,  that  most  perfectly  free 
Agent,  do?  By  His  own  estimation,  He  measured  off  within  His 
own  Substance  the  width  and  length  of  a  circular  space  to  be 
made  vacant,  and  wherein  might  be  posited  the  worlds  aforesaid  ; 
and  of  that  Light  which  was  included  within  the  circle  so  meas- 
ured, He  compressed  and  folded  over  a  certain  portion  .  .  .  and 
that  Light  He  lifted  higher  up,  and  so  a  place  was  left  unoccupied 
by  the  Primal  Light. 

But  yet  was  not  this  space  left  altogether  empty  of  that  Light ; 
for  the  vestiges  of  the  Primal  Light  still  remained  in  the  place 
where  Itself  had  been ;  and  they  did  not  recede  therefrom. 

Before  the  Emanations  out-flowed,  and  created  things  were 
created,  the  Supreme  Light  was  infinitely  extended,  and  filled  the 
whole  Where:  nothing  ivas,  except  that  extended  light,  called  AOR 
H'  AINSOPII,  the  Light  of  the  non-finite. 

When  it  came  into  the  mind  of  the  Extended  to  will  to  make 
worlds,  and  by  forth-flowing  to  utter  Emanations,  and  to  omit  as 
Light  the  perfection  of  His  active  powers,  and  of  His  aspects  and 
attributes,  which  was  the  impelling  cause  of  the  creation  of  worlds  ; 
then  that  Light,  in  some  measure  compressed,  receded  in  every 
direction  from  a  particular  central  point,  and  on  all  sides  of  it 
drew  back,  and  so  a  certain  vacuum  was  left,  called  void  space, 
its  circumference  even-where  equidistant  from  that  point  which 
was  exactly  in  the  centre  of  the  space  ...  a  certain  void  place  and 


MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

space  left  in  Mid-Infinite :  a  certain  Where  was  thereby  constituted 
wherein  Emanations  might  BE,  and  the  Created,  the  Fashioned 
and  the  Fabricated. 

This  world  of  the  garmenting, — this  circular  vacant  space,  with 
the  vestiges  of  the  withdrawn  light  of  the  Infinite  yet  remaining, 
is  the  inmost  garment,  nearest  to  His  substance ;  and  to  it  belongs 
the  name  AOR  PENAI-AL,  Light  of  the  Countenance  of  God. 

An  interspace  surrounds  this  great  circle,  established  between 
the  light  of  the  very  substance,  surrounding  the  circle  on  its  out- 
side, and  the  substance  contained  within  the  circle.  This  is  called 
SPLENDOR  EXCELSUS,  in  contradistinction  to  Simple  Splendor. 

This  light  "of  the  vestige  of  the  garment,"  is  said  to  be,  rela- 
tively to  that  of  the  vestige  of  the  substance,  like  a  point  in  the 
centre  of  a  circle.  This  light,  a  point  in  the  centre  of  the  Great 
Light,  is  called  Auir,  Ether,  or  Space. 

This  Ether  is  somewhat  more  gross  than  the  Light — not  so 
Subtle — though  not  perceptible  by  the  Senses — is  termed  the  Pri- 
mal Ether — extends  everywhere ;  Philosophers  call  it  the  Soul  of 
the  World. 

The  Light  so  forth-shown  from  the  Deity,  cannot  be  said  to  be 
severed  or  diverse  from  Him.  "It  is  flashed  forth  from  Him,  and 
yet  all  continues  to  be  perfect  unity  .  .  .  The  Sephiroth,  sometimes 
called  the  Persons  of  the  Deity,  are  His  rays,  by  which  He  is 
enabled  most  perfectly  to  manifest  Himself. 

The  Introduction  to  the  Book  SOHAR  says : 

The  first  compression  was  effected,  in  order  that  the  Primal 
Light  might  be  upraised,  aiid  a  space  become  vacant.  The  second 
compression  occurred  when  the  vestiges  of  the  removed  Light 
remaining  were  compressed  into  points ;  and  that  compression 
was  effected  by  means  of  the  emotion  of  joy ;  the  Deity  rejoicing, 
it  had  already  been  said,  on  account  of  His  Holy  People,  there- 
after to  come  into  being;  and  that  joy  being  vehement,  and  a 
commotion  and  exhilaration  in  the  Deity  being  caused  by  it,  so 
that  He  flowed  forth  in  His  delight ;  and  of  this  commotion  an 
abstract  power  of  judgment  being  generated,  which  is  a  collection 
of  the  letters  generated  by  the  points  of  the  vestiges  of  Light  left 
within  the  circle.  For  He  writes  the  finite  expressions,  or  limited 
manifestations  of  Himself  upon  the  Book,  in  single  letters. 

Like  as  when  water  or  fire,  it  had  been  said,  is  blown  upon  by 
the  wind,  it  is  wont  to  be  greatly  moved,  and  with  flashes  like 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINVE  ADEPT.  749 

lightning  to  smite  the  eyes,  and  gleam  and  coruscate  hither  and 
thither,  even  so  The  Infinite  was  moved  within  Himself,  and 
shone  and  coruscated  in  that  circle,  from  the  centre  outward  and 
again  to  the  centre :  and  that  commotion  we  term  exhilaration ; 
and  from  that  exhilaration,  variously  divided  within  Himself,  was 
generated  the  potency  of  determining  the  fashioning  of  the  letters. 

Of  that  exhilaration,  it  had  also  been  said,  was  generated  the 
determination  of  forms,  by  which  determination  the  Infinite 
determined  them  within  Himself,  as  if  by  saying:  "Let  this 
Sphere  be  the  appointed  place,  wherein  let  all  worlds  be  cre- 
ated !" 

He,  by  radiating  and  coruscating,  effected  the  points,  so  that 
their  sparkling  should  smite  the  eyes  like  lightning.  Then  He 
combined  diversely  the  single  points,  until  letters  were  fashioned 
thereof,  in  the  similitude  and  image  of  those  wherewith  THE 
BLESSED  had  set  forth  the  decrees  of  His  Wisdom. 

It  is  not  possible  to  attain  to  an  understanding  of  the  creation 
of  man,  except  by  the  mystery  of  letters ;  and  in  these  worlds  of 
The  Infinite  is  nothing,  except  the  letters  of  the  Alphabet  and 
their  combinations.  All  the  worlds  are  Letters  and  Names;  but 
He  Who  is  the  Author  of  all,  has  no  name. 

This  world  of  the  covering  [or  garment — vestimenti],  [that  is, 
the  circular  vacant  space,  with  the  vestiges  of  the  removed  Light 
of  The  Infinite  still  remaining  after  the  first  contraction  and  com- 
pression], is  the  inmost  covering,  nearest  to  His  substance ;  and  to 
this  covering  belongs  the  general  name  AUR  PENIAL,  Light  of  the 
Countenance  of  God:  by  which  we  are  to  understand  the  Light  of 
The  Substance. 

And  after  this  covering  was  effected,  He  contracted  it,  so  as  to 
lift  up  the  lower  moiety ;  .  .  .  and  this  is  the  third  contraction ; 
and  in  this  manner  He  made  vacant  a  space  for  the  worlds,  which 
had  not  the  capacity  to  use  the  great  Light  of  the  covering,  the 
end  whereof  was  lucid  and  excellent  as  its  beginning.  And  so 
[by  drawing  up  the  lower  half  and  half  the  letters],  are  made  the 
Male  and  Female,  that  is,  the  anterior  and  posterior  adhering 
mutually  to  one  another. 

The  vacant  space  effected  by  this  retraction  is  called  AUIR  KAD- 
MON,  the  PRIMAL  SPACE  :  for  it  was  the  first  of  all  Spaces ;  nor 
was  it  allowable  to  call  it  covering,  which  is  AUR  PENI-BAL,  the 
Light  of  the  Countenance  of  God. 


75O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  vestiges  of  the  Light  of  the  Garment  still  remained  there. 
And  this  world  of  the  garment  has  a  name  that  includes  all  things, 
which  is  the  name  IHUH.  Before  the  world  of  the  vacant  space 
was  created,  HE  was,  and  His  Name,  and  they  alone :  that  is,  AIN- 
SOPH  and  His  garmenting. 

The  EMECH  HAMMELECH  says  again: 

The  lower  half  of  the  garment  [by  the  third  retraction],  was 
left  empty  of  the  light  of  the  garment.  But  the  vestiges  of  that 
light  remained  in  the  place  so  vacated  .  .  .  and  this  garment  is 
called  SHEKINAH,  God  in-dwelling;  that  is,  the  place  where  iV 
Yod  He,  of  the  anterior  [or  male],  and  m  Vav  He,  of  the  poste- 
rior [or  female],  combinations  of  letters  dwelt. 

This  vacant  space  was  square,  and  is  called  the  Primal  Space; 
and  in  Kabalah  it  is  called  Auira  Kadmah,  or  Rasimu  Allah,  The 
Primal  Space,  or  The  Sublime  Vestige.  It  is  the  vestige  of  the 
Light  of  the  Garment,  with  which  is  intermingled  somewhat  of 
the  vestige  of  the  Very  Substance.  It  is  called  Primal  Ether,  but 
not  void  Space.  .  .  The  Light  of  the  Vestige  still  remains  in  the 
place  it  occupied,  and  adheres  there,  like  somewhat  spiritual,  of 
extreme  tenuity. 

In  this  Ether  are  two  Lights ;  that  is,  the  Light  of  the  SUB- 
STANCE, which  was  taken  away,  and  that  of  the  Garment.  There 
is  a  vast  difference  between  the  two ;  for  that  of  the  Vestige  of  the 
Garment  is,  relatively  to  that  of  the  Vestige  of  the  Substance,  like 
a  point  in  the  centre  of  a  circle.  And  as  the  only  appropriate 
name  for  the  Light  of  the  Vestige  of  Ainsoph  is  AUR,  Light, 
therefore  the  Light  of  the  Vestige  of  the  Garment  could  not  be 
called  by  that  name;  and  so  we  term  it  a  point,  that  is,  Yod  ['  or 
*],  which  is  that  point  in  the  centre  of  Light  .  .  .  and  this  Light, 
a  point  in  the  centre  of  the  Great  Light,  is  called  Anir,  Ether,  or 
Space. 

This  Ether  is  somewhat  more  gross  than  The  Light  ....  not  ?o 
subtle,  though  not  perceptible  by  the  senses  ...  is  termed  the  Pri- 
mal Ether  .  .  .  extends  everywhere;  whence  the  Philosophers  call 
it  The  Soul  of  the  World.  .  .  Light  is  visible,  though  not  percep- 
tible. This  Ether  is  neither  perceptible  nor  visible. 

The  Introduction  to  the  Book  Sohar  continues,  in  the  Section 
of  the  Letter  Yod,  etc. : 

Worlds  could  not  be  framed  in  this  Primal  Ether,  on  account 
of  its  extreme  itr'ty  'aid  the  excess  of  Light ;  and  also  because 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  751 

in  it  remained  the  vital  Spirit  of  the  Vestige  of  the  Light  Ain- 
soph,  and  that  of  the  Vestige  of  the  Light  of  the  Garment; 
whereby  such  manifestation  was  prevented. 

Wherefore  HE  directed  the  letter  Yod,  since  it  was  not  so  bril- 
liant as  the  Primal  Ether,  to  descend,  and  take  to  itself  the  light 
remaining  in  the  Primal  Ether,  and  return  above,  with  that  Ves- 
tige which  so  impeded  the  manifestation  ;  which  Yod  did. 

It  descended  below  five  times,  to  remove  the  vital  Spirit  of  the 
Vestige  of  the  Light  Ainsoph ;  and  the  Vestige  of  the  Light  and 
vital  Spirit  of  the  Garment  from  the  Sphere  of  Splendor,  so  as  to 
make  of  it  ADAM,  called  KADMON.  And  by  its  return,  manifes- 
tation is  effected  in  the  space  below,  and  a  Vestige  of  the  Sublime 
Brilliance  yet  remains  there,  existing  as  a  Spherical  Shape,  and 
termed  in  the  Sohar  simply  Tchiru,  that  is,  Splendor ;  and  it  is 
styled  The  First  Matter.  ...  it  being,  as  it  were,  vapor,  and,  as  it 
were,  smoke.  And  as  smoke  is  formless,  not  comprehended  under 
any  fixed  definite  form,  so  this  Sphere  is  a  formless  somewhat, 
since  it  seems  to  be  somewhat  that  is  spherical,  and  yet  is  not 
limited. 

The  letter  Yod,  while  adhering  to  the  Shekinah,  had  ad-hering 
to  himself  the  Light  of  the  Shekinah,  though  his  light  was  not 
so  great  as  that  of  the  Shekinah.  But  when  he  descended,  he  left 
that  light  of  his  own  below,  and  the  Splendor  consisted  of  it. 
After  which  there  was  left  in  Yod  only  a  vestige  of  that  light, 
inasmuch  as  he  could  not  re-ascend  to  the  Shekinah  and  adhere  to 
it.  Wherefore  The  Holy  and  Blessed  directed  the  letter  He  [n, 
the  female  letter],  to  communicate  to  Yod  of  her  Light;  and  sent 
him  forth,  to  descend  and  share  with  that  light  in  the  Splendor 
aforesaid.  .  .  and  when  he  re-descended  into  the  Sphere  of  Splen- 
dor, he  diffused  abroad  in  it  the  Light  communicated  to  him  by 
the  letter  He. 

And  when  he  again  ascended  he  left  behind  him  the  productive 
light  of  the  letter  He,  and  thereof  was  constituted  another  Sphere, 
within  the  Sphere  of  Splendor;  which  lesser  Sphere  is  termed  in 
the  Sohar  KETIIER  AILAII,  CORONA  SUM  MA,  The  Supreme  Crouni, 
and  also  ATIKA  DE  ATIKIM,  Antiqnus  Antiqnuin,  The  Ancient 
of  Ancients,  and  even  AILIT  H'  AILIT,  Causa  Cansaruin,  the  Cause 
of  Causes.  But  the  Crown  is  very  far  smaller  than  the  Sphere  of 
Splendor,  so  that  within  the  latter  an  immense  unoccupied  place 
and  space  is  still  left. 


752  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  BETH  ALOHIM  says: 

Before  the  Infinite  God,  the  Supreme  and  First  Good,  formed 
objectively  within  Himself  a  particular  conception,  definite,  lim- 
ited, and  the  object  of  intellection,  and  gave  form  and  shape  to  an 
intellectual  conception  and  image,  HE  was  alone,  companionless, 
without  form  or  similitude,  utterly  without  Ideal  or  Figure.  .  .  It 
is  forbidden  to  make  of  Him  any  figure  whatever,  by  any  image 
in  the  world,  neither  by  the  letter  He  nor  by  the  letter  Yod,  nor 
by  any  other  letter  or  point  in  the  world. 

But  after  He  had  formed  this  Idea,  the  particular  conception, 
limited  and  intelligible,  which  the  Ten  Numerations  are,  of  the 
medium  of  transmission,  Adam  Kadmon,  the  Primal  or  Supreme 
Man,  He  by  that  medium  descended,  and  may,  through  that  Idea, 
be  called  by  the  name  IHUH,  and  so  created  things  have  cognizance 
of  Him,  by  means  of  His  proper  likeness. 

Woe  unto  him  who  makes  God  to  be  like  unto  any  mode  or  at- 
tribute whatever,  even  were  it  to  one  of  His  own ;  and  still  more  if 
he  make  Him  like  unto  the  Sons  of  Men,  whose  elements  are 
earthly,  and  so  are  consumed  and  perish ! 

There  can  be  no  conception  had  of  Him,  except  in  so  far  as  He 
manifests  Himself,  in  exercising  dominion  by  and  through  some 
attribute  .  .  .  Abstracted  from  this,  there  can  be  no  attribute,  con- 
ception, or  ideal  of  Him.  He  is  comparable  only  to  the  Sea,  fill- 
ing some  great  reservoir,  its  bed  in  the  earth,  for  example ; 
wherein  it  fashions  for  itself  a  certain  concavity,  so  that  thereby 
we  may  begin  to  compute  the  dimensions  of  the  Sea  itself. 

For  example,  the  Spring  and  Source  of  the  Ocean  is  a  somewhat, 
which  is  one.  If  from  this  Source  or  Spring  there  issues  forth  a 
certain  fountain,  proportioned  to  the  space  occupied  by  the  Sea  in 
that  hemispherical  reservoir,  such  as  is  the  letter  Yod,  there  the 
Source  of  Spring  is  the  first  somewhat,  and  the  fountain  that  flows 
forth  from  it  is  the  second.  Then  let  there  be  made  a  great  reser- 
voir, as  by  excavation, and  let  this  be  called  the  Ocean,and  we  have 
the  third  thing,  a  vessel  [Fas].  Now  let  this  great  reservoir  be 
divided  into  seven  beds  of  rivers,  that  is,  into  seven  oblong  reser- 
voirs, so  that  from  this  ocean  the  waters  may  flow  forth  in  seven 
rivers ;  and  the  Source,  Fountain,  and  Ocean  thus  make  ten  in 
all. 

The  Cause  of  Causes  made  ten  Numerations,  and  called  the 
Source  of  Spring  KETHER,  Corona,  the  Crown,  in  which  the  idea 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  733 

of  circularity  is  involved,  for  there  is  no  end  to  the  out-flow  of 
Light ;  and  therefore  He  called  this,  like  Himself,  endless;  for  this 
also,  like  Him,  has  no  similitude  or  configuration,  nor  hath  it  any 
vessel  or  receptacle  wherein  it  may  be  contained,  or  by  means 
whereof  any  possible  cognizance  can  be  had  of  it. 

After  thus  forming  the  Crown,  He  constituted  a  certain  smaller 
receptacle,  the  letter  Yod,  and  rilled  it  from  that  source ;  and  this 
is  called  "The  Fountain  gushing  with  Wisdom,"  and,  manifested 
in  this,  He  called  Himself  WISE,  and  the  vessel  He  called  HAKE- 
MAH, Wisdom,  Sapicntia. 

Then  He  also  constituted  a  great  reservoir,  which  He  called  the 
Ocean ;  and  to  it  He  gave  the  name  of  BINAII,  Understanding, 
Intclligcntia.  In  this  He  characterized  Himself  as  Intelligent  or 
Conceiver.  HE  is  indeed  the  Absolutely  Wise  and  Intelligent,  but 
Hakemah  is  not  Absolute  Wisdom  of  itself,  but  is  zvise  by  means 
of  Binah,  who  fills  Himself  from  it,  and  if  this  supply  were  taken 
from  it,  would  be  dry  and  unintelligent. 

And  thereupon  seven  precious  vessels  become,to  which  are  given 
the  following  names :  GEDULAH,  Magnificence  or  Benignity  [or 
KIIASED,  Mercy]  ;  GEBURAH,  Austerity,  Rigor  or  Severity: 
TEPIIARETH,  Beauty;  NETSAKH,  Victory;  HOD,  Glory;  YESOD, 
Foundation  or  Basis;  and  MALAKOTH,  Rule,  Reign,  Royalty, 
Dominion  or  Pozver.  And  in  GEDULAH  He  took  the  character  of 
Great  and  Benignant;  in  GEBURAH,  of  Severe;  in  TEPHARETH,  of 
Beautiful;  in  NETSAKH,  of  Overcoming;  in  HOD,  of  OUR  GLORI- 
OUS AUTHOR  ;  in  YESOD,  of  Just,  by  Yesod  all  vessels  and  worlds 
being  upheld ;  and  in  MALAKOTH  He  applied  to  Himself  the  title 
of  King. 

These  numerations  or  Sephiroth  are  held  in  the  Kabala  to  have 
been  originally  contained  in  each  other ;  that  is,  Kether  contained 
the  nine  others,  Hakemah  contained  Binah,  and  Binah  contained 
the  last  seven. 

For  all  things,  says  the  commentary  of  Rabbi  Jizch-ak  Lorja, 
in  a  certain  most  abtruse  manner,  consist  or  reside  and  are  con- 
tained in  Binah,  and  it  projects  them,  and  sends  them  downward, 
species  by  species,  intd  the  several  worlds  of  Emanation,  Creation, 
Formation.and  Fabrication  ;  all  whereof  are  derived  from  what  are 
above  them,  and  are  termed  their  out-flowings ;  for,  from  the 
potency  which  was  their  state  there,  they  descend  into  actual- 
itv. 


754  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  INTRODUCTION  says : 

It  is  said  in  many  places  in  the  Sohar,  that  all  things  that 
emanate  or  are  created  have  their  root  above.  Hence  also  the  Ten 
Sephiroth  have  their  root  above,  in  the  world  of  the  garment,  with 
the  very  Substance  of  HIM.  And  AINSOPH  had  full  conscious- 
ness and  appreciation,  prior  to  their  actual  existence,  of  all  the 
Grades  and  Impersonations  contained  unmanifested  within  Him- 
self, with  regard  to  the  essence  of  each,  and  its  domination  then  in 
potency  .  .  .  When  He  came  to  the  Sephirah  of  the  Impersonation 
Malakoth,  which  He  then  contained  hidden  within  Himself.  He 
concluded  within  Himself  that  therein  worlds  should  be  framed  ; 
since  the  scale  of  the  first  nine  Sephiroth  was  so  constituted,  that 
it  was  neither  fit  nor  necessary  for  worlds  to  be  framed  from  them; 
for  all  the  attributes  of  these  nine  Superior  Sephiroth  could  be 
assigned  to  Himself,  even  if  He  should  never  operate  outwardly ; 
but  Malakoth,  which  is  Empire  or  Dominion,  could  not  be  at- 
tributed to  Him,  unless  He  ruled  over  other  Existences ;  whence 
from  the  point  Malakoth  He  produced  all  the  worlds  into  actu- 
ality. 

These  circles  are  ten  in  number.  Originated  by  points,  they 
expanded  in  circular  shape.  Ten  Circles,  under  the  mystery  of 
the  ten  Sephiroth,  and  between  them  ten  Spaces ;  whence  it  ap- 
pears that  the  sphere  of  Splendor  is  in  the  centre  of  the  space 
Malakoth  of  the  First  Occult  Adam. 

The  First  Adam,  in  the  ten  circles  above  the  Splendor,  is  called 
the  First  occult  Adam;  and  in  each  of  these  spaces  are  formed 
many  thousand  worlds.  The  first  Adam  is  involved  in  the  Primal 
Ether,  and  is  the  analogue  of  the  world  Binah. 

Again  the  Introduction  repeats  the  first  and  second  descent  of 
Yod  into  the  vacated  space,  to  make  the  light  there  less  great  and 
subtile ;  the  constitution  of  the  Tehirn,  Splendor,  from  the  light 
left  behind  there  by  him ;  the  communication  of  Light  to  him  by 
the  female  letter  He ;  the  emission  by  him  of  that  Light,  within  the 
sphere  of  Splendor,  and  the  formation  thereof,  within  the  sphere, 
"of  a  certain  sphere  called  the  Supreme  Crown,"  Corona  Suinma, 
KETHER,  "wherein  were  contained,  in  potence,  all  the  remaining 
Numerations,  so  that  they  were  not  distinguishable  from  it.  Pre- 
cisely as  in  man  exist  the  four  elements,  in  potence  specifically 
undistinguishable,  so  in  this  Corona  were  in  potence  all  the  ten 
Numerations,  specifically  undistinguishable."  This  Crown,  it  is 


tCNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  755 

Added,  was  called,  after  the  restoration,  The  Cause  of  Causes,  and 
the  Ancient  of  the  Ancients. 

The  point,  Kether,  adds  the  Introduction,  was  the  aggregate  of 
all  the  Ten  .  .  .  when  it  first  emanated,  it  consisted  of  all  the  Ten  , 
and  the  Light  which  extended  from  the  Emanative  Principle 
simultaneously  flowed  into  it;  and  beheld  the  two  Universal* 
[that -is,  the  Unities  out  of  which  manifoldness  flows;  as,  for  ex- 
ample, the  idea,  within  the  Deity,  of  Humanity  as  a  Unit,  out  of 
which  the  individuals  were  to  flow],  the  Vessel  or  Receptacle  con- 
taining this  immitted  Light,  and  the  Light  Itself  within  it.  And 
this  Light  is  the  Substance  of  the  point  Kether;  for  the  WILL  of 
God  is  the  Soul  of  all  tilings  that  are. 

The  Ainsophic  Light,  it  had  said,  was  infinite  in  every  direc- 
tion, and  without  end  or  limit.  To  prevent  it  from  flowing  into 
and  re-filling  the  quasi-vacant  space,  occupied  by  an  infinitely  less 
Splendor,  a  partition  between  the  greater  and  lesser  Splendor 
was  necessary ;  and  this  partition,  the  boundary  of  the  sphere  ot 
Splendor,  and  a  like  one  bounding  the  sphere  Kether,  were  called 
yessels  or  Receptacles,  containing,  including,  and  enclosing  within 
themselves  the  light  of  the  sphere.  Imagine  a  sea  of  pellucid 
water,  and  in  the  centre  of  it  a  spherical  mass  of  denser  and 
darker  water.  The  outer  surface  of  this  sphere,  or  its  limits  every- 
way, is  the  vessel  containing  it.  The  Kabalah  regards  the  vessels 
"as  by  their  nature  somewhat  opaque,  and  not  so  splendid  as  the 
light  they  enclose." 

The  contained  Light  is  the  Soul  of  the  vessels,  and  is  active  in 
them,  like  the  Human  Soul  in  the  human  body.  The  Light  of 
the  Emanative  Principle  [Ainsoph]  inheres  in  the  vessels,  as  their 
Life,  internal  Light,  and  Soul.  .  .  Kether  emanated,  with  its  Very 
Substance,  at  the  same  time  as  Substance  and  Vessel,  in  like  man- 
ner as  the  flame  is  annexed  to  the  live  coal,  and  as  the  Soul  per- 
vades, and  is  within,  the  body.  All  the  Numerations  were  poten- 
tially contained  in  it. 

And  this  potentiality  is  thus  explained :  When  a  woman  con- 
ceives, a  Soul  is  immediately  sent  into  the  embryo  which  is  to 
become  the  infant,  in  which  Soul  are  then,  potentially,  all  the 
members  and  veins  of  the  body,  which  afterward,  from  that  po- 
tency of  the  Soul,  become  in  the  human  body  of  the  child  to  bf 
born. 

Then  the  wisdom  of  God  commanded  that  these  Numerations 


756  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

potentially  in  Kether,  should  be  produced  from  potentiality  into 
actuality,  in  order  that  worlds  might  consist;  and  HE  directed 
Yod  again  to  descend,  and  to  enter  into  and  shine  within  Kether, 
and  then  to  re-ascend :  which  was  so  done.  From  which  illumina~ 
tion  and  re-ascension,  all  the  other  numerations,  potentially  in 
Kether,  were  manifested  and  disclosed;  but  they  continued  still 
compacted  together,  remaining  within  Kether  in  a  circle. 

When  God  willed  to  produce  the  other  emanations  or  numera- 
tions from  Kether,  it  is  added,  HE  sent  Yod  down  again,  to  the 
upper  part  of  Kether,  one-half  of  him  to  remain  without  and  one- 
half  to  penetrate  within  the  sphere  of  Kether.  Then  HE  sent  the 
letter  Vav  into  the  Splendor,  to  pour  out  its  light  on  Yod :  and 
thus, — 

Yod  received  light  from  Vav,  and  thereby  so  directed  his  coun- 
tenance that  it  should  illuminate  and  confer  exceeding  great 
energy  on  Hakemah,  which  yet  remained  in  Kether ;  so  giving  it 
the  faculty  to  proceed  forth  therefrom ;  and  that  it  might  collect 
and  contain  within  itself,  and  there  reveal,  all  the  other  eight 
numerations,  until  that  time  in  Kether. 

The  sphere  of  Kether  opened,  and  thereout  issued  Hakemah,  to 
remain  below  Kether,  containing  in  itself  all  the  other  numerations. 

By  a  similar  process,  Binah,  illuminated  within  Hakemah  by  a 
second  Yod,  "issued  forth  out  of  Hakemah,  having  within  itself 
the  Seven  lower  Numerations." 

And  since  the  vessel  of  Binah  was  excellent,  and  coruscated 
with  rays  of  the  color  of  sapphire,  and  was  so  nearly  of  the  same 
color  as  the  vessel  of  Hakemah  that  there  was  scarcely  any  differ- 
ence between  them,  hence  it  would  not  quietly  remain  below 
Hakemah,  but  rose,  and  placed  itself  on  his  left  side. 

And  because  the  light  from  above  profusely  flowed  into  and 
accumulated  in  the  vessel  of  Hakemah,  to  so  great  an  extent  that 
it  overflowed,  and  escaped,  coruscating,  outside  of  that  vessel,  and, 
flowing  off  to  the  left,  communicated  potency  and  increase  to  the 
vessel  of  Binah  ....  For  Binah  is  female  .... 

Binah,  therefore,  by  means  of  this  energy  that  flowed  into  it 
from  the  left  side  of  Hakemah,  by  virtue  of  the  second  Yod,  came 
to  possess  such  virtue  and  potency,  as  to  project  beyond  itself  the 
Seven  remaining  vessels  contained  within  itself,  and  so  emitted 
them  all,  continuously,  one  after  the  other  ...  all  connected  and 
linked  one  with  the  other,  like  the  links  of  a  chain. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUM,  OR   I'RINCK  ADKl'T.  757 

Three  points  first  emanated,  one  under  the  other ;  Kether, 
Hakemah,  and  Binah ;  and,  so  far,  there  was  no  copulation.  But 
afterward  the  positions  of  Hakemah  and  Binah  changed,  so  that 
they  were  side  by  side,  Kether  remaining  ahove  them ;  and  then 
conjunction  of  the  Male  and  Female,  ABA  and  IMMA,  Father  and 
Mother,  as  points. 

HE,  from  Whom  all  emanated,  created  Adam  Kadmon,  consist- 
ing of  all  the  worlds,  so  that  in  him  should  he  somewhat  from 
those  above,  and  somewhat  from  those  below.  Hence  in  Him  was 
NEPHESCH  [PSYCHE,  anima  infima,  the  lowest  spiritual  part  of 
man,  Soul} ,  from  the  world  ASIAII,  which  is  one  letter  He  of  the 
Tetragrammaton;  RUACH  [SpiRiTUS,a;n";/;a  media,the  next  higher 
spiritual  part,  or  Spirit],  from  the  world  YEZIRAH,  which  is  the 
Vav  of  the  Tetragrammaton;  NESCHAMAH  [the  highest  spiritual 
part,  mens  or  anima  superior},  from  the  world  BRIAII,  which  is 
the  other  letter  He;  and  NESCHAMAH  LENESCHAMAH,  from  the 
world  ATSILUTH,  which  is  the  YOD  of  the  Tetragrammaton. 

And  these  letters  [the  Sephiroth]  were  changed  from  the  spher- 
ical form  into  the  form  of  a  person,  the  symbol  of  which  person  is 
the  BALANCE,  it  being  Male  and  Female  .  .  .  Hakemah  on  one 
side,  Binah  on  the  other,  and  Kether  over  them :  and  so  Gedulah 
on  one  side,  Geburah  on  the  other,  and  Tephareth  under  them. 

The  Book  Omschim  says :  Some  hold  that  the  ten  Sephiroth 
succeeded  one  another  in  ten  degrees,  one  above  the  other,  in 
regular  gradation,  one  connected  with  the  other  in  a  direct  line, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  Others  hold  that  they  issued  forth 
in  three  lines,  parallel  with  each  other,  one  on  the  right  hand,  one 
on  the  left,  and  one  in  the  middle ;  so  that,  beginning  with  the 
highest  and  going  down  to  the  lowest,  Hakemah,  Khased  [or  Ged- 
ulah], and  Netsach  are  one  over  the  other,  in  a  perpendicular  line. 
on  the  right  hand ;  Binah,  Geburah,  and  Hod  on  the  left ;  and 
Kether,  Tephareth,  Yesod,  and  Malakoth  in  the  middle  :  and  many 
hold  that  all  the  ten  subsist  in  circles,  one  within  the  other,  and 
all  homocentric. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted,  that  the  Sephirothic  tables  contain  still 
another  numeration,  sometimes  called  also  a  Scphirah,  which  is 
called  Daath,  cognition.  It  is  in  the  middle,  below  Hakemah  and 
Binah,  and  is  the  result  of  the  conjunction  of  these  two. 

To  Adam  Kadmon,  the  Idea  of  the  Universe,  the  Kabalah  as- 
signs a  human  form.  In  this,  Kether  is  the  cranium.  Hakemah  and 

49 


75&  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Binah  the  two  lobes  of  the  brain,  Gedulah  and  Geburah  the  two 
arms,  Tephareth  the  trunk,  Netsach  and  Hod  the  thighs,  Yesod 
the  male  organ,  and  Malkuth  the  female  organ,  of  generation. 

Yod  is  Hakemah,  and  He  Binah ;  Vav  is  Tephareth,  and  the 
last  He,  Malkuth. 

The  whole,  say  the  Books  Mysterii  or  of  Occultation,  is  thus 
summed  up :  The  intention  of  God  The  Blessed  was  to  form 
Impersonations,  in  order  to  diminish  the  Light.  Wherefore  HE 
constituted,  in  Macroprosopos,  Adam  Kadmon,  or  Arik  Anpin/ 
three  Heads.  The  first  is  called,  "The  Head  whereof  is  no  cogni- 
tion"; the  second,  "The  Head  of  that  which  is  non-existent"; 
and  the  third,  "The  Very  Head  of  Macroprosopos" ;  and  these 
three  are  Corona,  Sapicntia,  and  Informatio,  Kether,  Hakemah, 
and  Binah,  existent  in  the  Corona  of  the  World  of  Emanation,  or 
in  Macroprosopos ;  and  these  three  are  called  in  the  Sohar  ATIKA 
KADISCHA,  Sene.v  Sanctissimus,  The  Most  Holy  Ancient.  But  the 
Seven  inferior  Royalties  of  the  first  Adam  are  called  "The  Ancient 
of  Days" ;  and  this  Ancient  of  Days  is  the  internal  part,  or  Soul, 
of  Macroprosopos. 

The  human  mind  has  never  struggled  harder  to  understand  and 
explain  to  itself  the  process  of  creation,  and  of  Divine  manifesta- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time  to  conceal  its  thoughts  from  all  but  the 
initiated,  than  in  the  Kabalah.  Hence,  much  of  it  seems  at  first 
like  jargon.  Macroprosopos  or  Adam  Kadmon  is,  we  have  said, 
the  idea  or  intellectual  aggregate  of  the  whole  Universe,  included 
and  contained  unevolved  in  the  manifested  Deity,  Himself  yet 
contained  unmanifested  in  the  Absolute.  The  Head,  Kether, 
"whereof  is  no  cognition,"  is  the  Will  of  the  Deity,  or  the  Deity 
as  Will.  Hakemah,  the  head  "of  that  which  is  non-existent,"  is 
the  Generative  Power  of  begetting  or  producing  Thought ;  yet 
172  the  Deity,  not  in  action,  and  therefore  non-existent.  Binah. 
"the  very  or  actual  head"  of  Macroprosopos,  is  the  productive 
intellectual  capacity,  which,  impregnated  by  Hakemah,  is  to 
produce  the  Thought.  This  Thought  is  Daath  ;  or  rather,  the  result 
is  Intellection.  Thinking;  the  Unity,  of  which  Thoughts  are  the 
manifold  outflowings. 

This  may  be  illustrated  by  a  comparison.  Pain,  in  the  human 
being,  is  a  feeling  or  sensation.  It  must  be  produced.  To  produce 
it.  there  must  be,  not  only  the  capacity  to  produce  it,  in  the  nerves, 
but  also  the  potver  of  generating  it  by  means  of  that  capacity. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  759 

This  generative  Power,  the  Passive  Capacity  which  produces,  and 
the  pain  produced,  are  like  Hakemah,  Binah,  and  Daath. 

The  four  Worlds  or  Universals,  Aziluth,  Briah,  Yetzirah,  and 
Asiah,  of  Emanation,  Creation,  Formation,  and  Fabrication,  are 
another  enigma  of  the  Kabalah.  The  first  three  are  wholly  within 
the  Deity.  The  first  is  the  Universe,  as  it  exists  potentially  in  the 
Deity,  determined  and  imagined,  but  as  yet  wholly  formless  and 
undeveloped,  except  so  far  as  it  is  contained  in  His  Emanations. 
The  second  is  the  Universe  in  idea,  distinct  within  the  Deity,  but 
not  invested  with  forms ;  a  simple  unity.  The  third  is  the  same 
Universe  in  potence  in  the  Deity,  unmanifestecl,  but  invested  with 
forms, — the  idea  developed  into  manifoldness  and  individuality, 
and  succession  of  species  and  individuals ;  and  the  fourth  is  the 
potentiality  become  the  Actuality,  the  Universe  fabricated,  and 
existing  as  it  exists  for  us. 

The  Sephiroth,  says  the  Porta  Ccclorum,  by  the  virtue  of  their 
Infinite  Emanator,  who  uses  them  as  a  workman  uses  his  tools, 
and  who  operates  with  and  through  them,  are  the  cause'of  exist- 
ence of  everything  created,  formed,  and  fashioned,  employing  in 
their  production  certain  media.  But  these  same  Sephiroth,  Persons 
and  Lights,  are  not  creatures  per  sc,  but  ideas,  and  Rays  of  THE 
INFINITE,  which,  by  different  gradations,  so  descended  from  the 
Supreme  Source  as  still  not  to  be  severed  from  It ;  but  It,  through 
them,  is  extended  to  the  production  and  government  of  all  Enti- 
ties, and  is  the  Single  and  Perfect  Universal  Cause  of  All,  though 
becoming  determinate  for  this  or  the  other  operation,  through  this 
or  that  Sephiroth  or  MODE. 

God  produced  all  things  by  His  Intellect  and  Will  and  free 
Determination.  He  willed  to  produce  them  by  the  mediation  of 

His  Sephiroth,  and  Persons by  which  He  is  enabled  most 

perfectly  to  manifest  Himself;  and  that  the  more  perfectly,  by 
producing  the  causes  themselves,  and  the  Causes  of  Causes,  and 
not  merely  the  viler  effects. 

God  produced,  in  the  first  Originate,  all  the  remaining  causates. 
For,  as  He  Himself  is  most  simply  Qne,  and  from  One  Simple 
Being  One  only  can  immediately  proceed,  hence  it  results  that 
from  the  First  Supreme  Infinite  Unity  flowed  forth  at  the  same 
time  All  and  One.  One,  that  is,  in  so  far  as  flowing  from  the  Most 
Simple  Unity,  and  being  like  unto  It ;  but  also  All,  in  so  far  as. 
departing  from  that  perfect  Singleness  which  can  be  measured  by 


/6O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

no  other  Singleness,  it  became,  to  a  certain  extent,  manifold, 
though  still  Absolute  and  Perfect. 

Emanation,  says  the  same,  is  the  Resulting  displayed  from  the 
Unresulting,  the  Finite  from  the  Infinite,  the  Manifold  and  Com- 
posite from  the  Perfect  Single  and  Simple,  Potentiality  from  that 
which  is  Infinite  Power  and  Act,  the  mobile  from  that  which  is 
perennially  permanent ;  and  therefore  in  a  more  imperfect  and 
diminished  mode  than  His  Infinite  Perfection  is.  As  the  First 
Cause  is  all  things,  in  an  unresulting  and  Infinite  mode,  so  the 
Entities  that  flow  from  Him  are  the  First  Causes,  in  a  resulting 
and  finite  mode. 

THE  NECESSARY  ENTITY,  subsisting  of  Itself,  as  It  cannot  be 
dissevered  into  the  manifold,  yet  becomes,  as  it  were,  multiplied 
in  the  Causates,  in  respect  of  their  Nature,  or  of  the  Subsistences, 
Vessels,  and  openings  assigned  to  them ;  whereby  the  Single  and 
Infinite  Essence,  being  inclosed  or  comprehended  in  these  limits, 
bounds,  or  externalnesses,  takes  on  Itself  Definiteness  of  dimen- 
sion, and  becomes  Itself  manifold,  by  the  manifoldness  of  these 
envelopes. 

As  man  [the  unit  of  Humanity]  is  a  microcosm,  so  Adam  Kad- 
mon  is  a  macrocosm,  containing  all  the  Causates  of  the  First 

Cause as  the  Material  Man  is  the  end  and  completion  of 

all  creation,  so  in  the  Divine  Man  is  the  beginning  thereof.  As 
the  inferior  Adam  receives  all  things  from  all,  so  the  superior 
Adam  supplies  all  things  to  all.  As  the  former  is  the  principle  of 
reflected  light,  so  the  latter  is  of  Direct  Light.  The  former  is  the 
terminus  of  the  Light,  descending ;  the  latter  its  terminus,  ascend- 
ing. As  the  Inferior  man  ascends  from  the  lowest  matter  even  to 
the  First  Cause,  so  the  Superior  Adam  descends  from  the  Sim- 
ple and  Infinite  Act,  even  to  the  lowest  and  most  attenuated 
Potence. 

The  Ternary  is  the  bringing  back  of  duality  to  unity. 

The  Ternary  is  the  Principle  of  Number,  because,  bringing  back 
the  binary  to  unity,  it  restores  to  it  the  same  quantity  whereby  it 
had  departed  from  unity.  Jt  is  the  first  odd  number,  containing 
in  itself  the  first  even  number  and  the  unit,  which  are  the 
Father  and  Mother  of  all  Numbers;  and  it  has  in  itself  the  begin- 
ning, middle,  and  end. 

Xow.  Adam  Kadmon  emanated  from  the  Absolute  Unity,  and  so 
is  himself  a  unit;  but  he  also  descends  and  flows  downward  into 


KNIGHT   OF  THE   SUN,   OR    PRINCE   ADEPT.  761 

his  own  Nature,  and  so  is  duality.  Again,  he  returns  to  the  Unity, 
which  he  hath  in  himself,  and  to  The  Highest,  and  so  is  the 
Ternary  and  Quaternary. 

And  this  is  why  the  Essential  Name  has  four  letters, — three 
different  ones,  and  one  of  them  once  repeated ;  since  the  first  He 
is  the  wife  of  the  Yod,  and  the  second  He  is  the  wife  of  the 
Vav. 

Those  media  which  manifest  the  First  Cause,  in  Himself  pro- 
foundly hidden,  are  the  Sephiroth,  which  emanate  immediately 
from  that  First  Cause,  and  by  Its  Nature  have  produced  and  do 
control  all  the  rest. 

These  Sephiroth  were  put  forth  from  the  One  First  and  Simple, 
manifesting  His  Infinite  Goodness.  They  are  the  mirrors  of  His 
Truth,  and  the  analogues  of  His  Supremest  Essence,  the  Ideas  of 
His  Wisdom,  and  the  representations  of  His  Will ;  the  receptacles 
of  His  Potency,  and  the  instruments  with  which  He  operates ;  the 
Treasury  of  His  Felicity,  the  dispensers  of  His  Benignity,  the 
Judges  of  His  Kingdom,  and  reveal  His  Law ;  and  finally,  the 
Denominations,  Attributes,  and  Names  of  Him  Who  is  above  all 

and  the  Cause  of  all the  ten  categories,  wherein  all  things 

are  contained ;  the  universal  genera,  which  in  themselves  include 
all  things,  and  utter  them  outwardly.  ..  .the  Second  Causes, 
whereby  the  First  Cause  effects,  preserves,  and  governs  all  things ; 
the  rays  of  the  Divinity,  whereby  all  things  are  illumined  and 
manifested ;  the  Forms  and  Ideas  and  Species,  out  whereof  all 
things  issue  forth ;  the  Souls  and  Potencies,  whereby  essence,  life, 
and  movement  are  given  to  all  things ;  the  Standard  of  times, 
whereby  all  things  are  measured;  the  incorporeal  .Spaces  which, 
in  themselves,  hold  and  inclose  the  Universe  ;  the  Supernal  Monads 
to  which  all  manifolds  are  referred,  and  through  them  to  The  One 
and  Simple ;  and  finally  the  Formal  Perfections,  flowing  forth 
from  and  still  connected  with  the  One  Eminent  Limitless  Perfec- 
tion, are  the  Causes  of  all  dependent  Perfections,  and  so  illumin- 
ate the  elementary  Intelligences,  not  adjoined  to  matter,  and  the 
intellectual  Souls,  and  the  Celestial,  Elemental  and  Element- 
produced  bodies. 

The  IDRA  SUTA  says  : 

HE,  the  Most  Holy  Hidden  Eldest,  separates  Himself,  and  is 
ever  more  and  more  separated  from  all  that  are ;  nor  yet  does  HE 
in  very  deed  separate  Himself :  because  all  things  cohere  with 


762  MORALS    AND    DOGMA. 

Him  and  HE  with  All.  HE  is  All  that  is,  the  Most  Holy  Eldest 
of  All,  the  Occult  by  all  possible  occupations. 

\Yhen  HE  takes  shape,  HE  produces  nine  Lights,  which  shine 
forth  from  Him,  from  His  butforming.  And  those  Lights  out- 
shine from  Him  and  emit  flames,  and  go  forth  and  spread  out  on 
every  side ;  as  from  one  elevated  Lamp  the  Rays  are  poured  forth 
in  every  direction,  and  these  Rays  thus  diverging,  are  found  to  be, 
when  one  approaching  has  cognizance  of  them,  but  a  single  Lamp. 

The  Space  in  which  to  create  is  fixed  by  THE  MOST  HOLY 
ANCIENT,  and  illuminated  by  His  inflowing,  which  is  the  Light 
of  Wisdom,  and  the  Beginning  from  which  manifestation  flows. 

And  HE  is  conformed  in  three  Heads,  which  are  but  one  Head ; 
and  these  three  are  extended  into  Microprosopos,  and  from  them 
shines  out  all  that  is. 

Then  this  Wisdom  instituted  investiture  with  form,  whereby 
the  unmanifested  and  informous  became  manifested,  putting  on 
form  ;  and  produced  a  certain  outflow. 

When  this  Wisdom  is  thus  expanded  by  flowing  forth,  then  it 
is  called  "Father  of  Fathers,"  the  whole  Universe  of  Things  being 
contained  and  comprehended  in  it.  This  Wisdom  is  the  principle 
of  all  things,  and  in  it  beginning  and  end  are  found. 

The  Book  of  the  Abstruse,  says  the  Siphra  de  Zeniutha,  is  that 
which  describes  the  equilibrium  of  the  Balance.  Before  the 
Balance  was,  face  did  not  look  toward  face. 

And  the  Commentary  en  it  says:  The  Scales  of  the  Balance  are 
designated  as  Male  and  Female.  In  the  Spiritual  world  Evil  and 
Good  are  /';/  equilibria,  and  it  will  be  restored,  when  of  the  Evil 
Good  becomes,  until  all  is  Good.  Also  this  other  world  is  called 
the  World  of  the  Balance.  For,  as  in  the  Balance  are  two  scales, 
one  on  either  side  and  the  beam  and  needle  between  them,  so  too 
in  this  world  of  restoration,  the  Numerations  are  arranged  as  dis- 
tinct persons.  For  Hakemah  is  on  the  right  hand,  on  the  side 
of  Gedulah.  and  Binah  on  the  left,  on  the  side  of  Geburah  ;  and 
Kether  is  the  beam  of  the  Balance  above  them  in  the  middle.  So 
Gedulah  or  Khased  is  on  one  hand,  and  Geburah  on  the  other, 
and  under  these  Tephareth  ;  and  Netsach  is  on  one  side,  and  Hod 
on  the  other,  and  under  these  Yesod. 

The  Supreme  Crown,  which  is  the  Ancient  Most  Holy,  the  most 
Hidden  of  the  Hidden,  is  fashioned,  •within  the  occult  Wisdom, 
of  both  sexes,  Male  and  Female. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  763 

Hakemah,  and  Binah,  the  Mother,  whom  it  impregnates,  are 
quantitatively  equal.  Wisdom  and  the  Mother  of  Intellection  go 
forth  at  once  and  dwell  together ;  for  when  the  Intellectual  Power 
emanates,  the  productive  Source  of  intellection  is  included  in  Him. 

Before  Adam  Kadmon  was  fashioned  into  Male  and  Female, 
and  the  state  of  equilibrium  introduced,  the  Father  and  Mother 
did  not  look  each  other  in  the  face ;  for  the  Father  denotes  most 
perfect  Love,  and  the  Mother  most  perfect  Rigor ;  and  she  averted 
her  face. 

There  is  no  left  [female],  says  the  Idra  Rabba,  in  the  Ancient 
and  Hidden  One;  but  His  totality  is  Right  [male].  The  totality 
of  things  is  HUA,  HE,  and  HE  is  hidden  on  every  side. 

Macroprosopos  [Adam  Kadmon]  is  not  so  near  unto  us  as  to 
speak  to  us  in  the  first  person ;  but  is  designated  in  the  third  per- 
son, HUA,  HE. 

Of  the  letters  it  says  : 
.     Yod  is  male,  He  is  female,  Vav  is  both. 

In  Yod  f1  ]  are  three  Yods,  the  upper  and  lower  apex,  and  Vav 
in  the  middle.  By  the  upper  apex  is  denoted  the  Supreme  Kether ; 
by  Vav  in  the  middle,  Hakemah ;  and  by  the  lower  apex,  Binah. 

The  IDRA  SUTA  says  : 

The  Universe  was  out-formed  in  the  form  of  Male  and  Female. 
Wisdom,  pregnant  with  all  that  is,  when  it  flowed  and  shone  forth, 
shone  altogether  under  the  form  of  male  and  female.  Hakemah 
is  the  Father,  and  Binah  is  the  Mother ;  and  so  the  two  are  in 
equilibrium  as  male  and  female,  and  for  this  reason,  all  things 
whatsoever  are  constituted  in  the  form  of  male  and  female ;  and 
if  it  zvcrc  not  so  they  -would  not  c.vist. 

This  Principle,  Hakemah,  is  the  Generator  of  all  things  ;  and 
He  and  Binah  conjoin,  and  she  shines  within  Him.  When  they 
thus  conjoin,  she  conceives,  and  the  out-flow  is  Truth. 

Yod  impregnates  the  letter  He  and  begets  a  son  ;  and  she,  thus 
pregnant,  brings  forth.  The  Principle  called  Father  [the  Male  or 
Generative  Principle]  is  comprehended  in  Yod,  which  itself  flows 
downward  from  the  energy  of  the  Absolute  Holy  One. 

Yod  is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  all  tilings  that  are.  The 
stream  that  flows  forth  is  the  Universe  cf  things,  which  always 
becomes,  having  no  cessation.  And  this  becoming  world  is  created 
by  Yod  :  for  Yod  includes  two  letters.  All  things  are  included  in 
Yod ;  wherefore  it  is  called  the  Father  of  all. 


764  MORALS  AND   DOGMA. 

All  Categories  whatever  go  forth  from  Hakemah ;  and  in  it  are 
contained  all  things,  unmanifested ;  and  the  aggregate  of  all 
things,  or  the  Unity  in  which  the  many  are,  and  out  of  which  all- 
flow,  is  the  Sacred  Name  IHUH. 

In  the  view  of  the  Kabalists,  all  individuals  are  contained  in 
species,  and  all  species  in  genera,  and  all  particulars  in  a  Univer- 
sal, which  is  an  idea,  abstracted  from  all  consideration  of  indi- 
viduals;  not  an  aggregate  of  individuals-;  but,  as  it  were,  an  Ens, 
Entity  or  Being,  ideal  or  intellectual,  but  none  the  less  real ;  prior 
to  any  individual,  containing  them  all,  and  out  of  which  they  are 
all  in  succession  evolved. 

If  this  discontents  you,  reflect  that,  supposing  the  theory  cor- 
rect, that  all  was  originally  in  the  Deity,  and  that  the  Universe 
has  proceeded  forth  from  Him,  and  not  been  created  by  Him  out 
of  nothing,  the  idea  of  the  Universe,  existing  in  the  Deity  before 
its  out-flow,  must  have  been  as  real  as  the  Deity  Himself.  The 
whole  Human  race,  or  Humanity,  for  example,  then  existed  in  the 
Deity,  not  distinguished  into  individuals,  but  as  a  Unit,  out  of 
which  the  Manifold  was  to  flow. 

Everything  actual  must  also  first  have  been  possible,  before  hav- 
ing actual  existence ;  and  this  possibility  or  potentiality  was  to  the 
Kabalists  a  real  Ens.  Before  the  evolvement  of  the  Universe,  it 
had  to  exist  potentially,  the  whole  of  it,  with  all  its  individuals, 
included  in  a  single  Unity.  This  was  the  Idea  or  Plan  of  the 
Universe;  and  this  had  to  be  formed.  It  had  to  emanate  from  the 
Infinite  Deity,  and  be  of  Himself,  though  not  His  Very  Self. 

Geburah,  Severity,  the  Sephirah  opposite  to  and  conjoined  sex- 
ually with  Geclulah,  to  produce  Tephareth,  Harmony  and  Beauty, 
is  also  called  in  the  Kabalah  "Judgment!'  in  which  term  are  in- 
cluded the  ideas  of  limitation  and  conditioning,  which  often  seems, 
indeed,  to  be  its  principal  sense ;  while  Benignity  is  as  often  styled 
Infinite.  Thus  it  is  obscurely  taught  that  in  everything  that  is. 
not  only  the  Finite  but  also  the  Infinite  is  present ;  and  that  the 
rigor  of  the  stern  law  of  limitation,  by  which  everything  below 
or  beside  the  Infinite  Absolute  is  limited,  bounded,  and  condi- 
tioned, is  tempered  and  modified  by  the  grace,  which  so  relaxes  it 
that  the  Infinite,  Unlimited.  Unconditioned,  is  also  everywhere 
present :  and  that  it  is  thus  the  Spiritual  and  Material  Natures 
are  in  equilibria.  Good  everywhere  counterbalancing  Evil,  Light 
everywhere  in  equilibrium  with  Darkness ;  from  which  again  re- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  765 

suits  the  Universal  Harmony  of  things.  Jn  the  vacant  <spacc 
effected  for  creation,  there  at  last  remained  a  faint  vestige  or  trace 
of  Ainsophic  Light,  of  the  Light  of  the  Substance  of  the  Infinite. 
Man  is  thus  both  human  and  divine :  and  the  apparent  antagon- 
isms in  his  Nature  are  a  real  equilibrium,  if  he  ivills  it  shall  b& 
so;  from  which  results  the  Harmony,  not  only  of  Life  and  Ac- 
tion, but  of  Virtue  and  Perfection. 

To  understand  the  Kabalistic  idea  of  the  Sephiroth,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  they  were  assigned,  not  only  to  the  world  of 
Emanation,  Aziluth,  but  also  to  each  of  the  other  worlds,  Briah, 
Jezirah,  and  Asiah.  They  were  not  only  attributes  of  the  Unmani- 
fested  Deity,  not  only  Himself  in  limitation,  but  His  actual  mani- 
festations, or  His  qualities  made  apparent  as  modes ;  and  they 
were  also  qualities  of  the  Universal  Nature — Spiritual,  Mental, and 
Material,  produced  and  made  existent  by  the  outflow  of  Himself. 

In  the  view  of  the  Kabalah,  God  and  the  Universe  were  One ; 
and  in  the  One  General,  as  the  type  or  source,  were  included  and 
involved,  and  from  it  have  been  evolved  and  issued  forth,  the 
manifold  and  all  particulars.  Where,  indeed,  does  individuality 
begin  ?  Is  it  the  Hidden  Source  and  Spring  alone  that  is  the  indi- 
vidual, the  Unit,  or  is  it  the  flowing  fountain  that  fills  the  ocean, 
or  the  ocean  itself,  or  its  waves,  or  the  drops,  or  the  vaporous  par- 
ticles, that  are  the  individuals  ?  The  Sea  and  the  River — these  are 
each  One ;  but  the  drops  of  each  are  many.  The  tree  is  one  ?  but 
its  leaves  are  a  multitude :  they  drop  with  the  frosts,  and  fall  upon 
his  roots  :  but  the  tree  still  continues  to  grow,  and  new  leaves 
come  again  in  the  Spring.  Is  the  Human  Race  not  the  Tree,  and 
are  not  individual  men  the  leaves?  How  else  explain  the  force 
of  will  and  sympathy,  and  the  dependence  of  one  man  at  every 
instant  of  his  life  on  others,  except  by  the  oneness  .of  the  race? 
The  links  that  bind  all  created  things  together  are  the  links  of  a 
single  Unity,  and  the  whole  Universe  is  One,  developing  itself  into 
the  manifold. 

Obtuse  commentators  have  said  that  the  Kabalah  assigns  sexual 
characteristics  to  the  very  Deity.  There  is  no  warrant  for  such 
an  assertion,  anywhere  in  the  Sohar  or  in  any  commentary  upon 
it.  On  the  contrary,  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  Kabalah  is  based 
on  the  fundamental  proposition,  that  the  Very  Deity  is  Infinite, 
everywhere  extended,  without  limitation  or  determination,  and 
therefore  without  anv  conformation  whatever.  In  order  to  com- 


766  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

mence  the  process  of  creation,  it  was  necessary  for  Him,  first  of 
all,  to  effect  a  vacant  space  within  Himself.  To  this  end  the 
Deity,  whose  Nature  is  approximately  expressed  by  describing 
Him  as  Light  filling  all  space,  formless,  limitless,  contracts  Him- 
self on  all  sides  from  a  point  within  Himself,  and  thus  effects  a 
quasi-vacant  space,  in  which  only  a  vestige  of  His  Light  remains ; 
and  into  this  circular  or  spherical  space  He  immits  His  Emana- 
tions, portions  of  His  Light  or  Nature ;  and  to  some  of  these, 
sexual  characteristics  are  symbolically  assigned. 

The  Infinite  first  limits  Himself  by  flowing  forth  in  the  shape 
of  IV ill,  of  determination  to  act.  This  Will  of  the  Deity,  or  the 
Deity  as  will,  is  Kcther,  or  the  Crowm,  the  first  Sephirah.  In  it 
are  included  all  other  Emanations.  This  is  a  philosophical  neces- 
sity. The  Infinite  does  not  first  will,  and  then,  as  a  sequence  to, 
or  consequence  of,  that  determination,  subsequently  perform.  To 
will  and  to  act  must  be,  with  Him,  not  only  simultaneous,  but  in 
reality  the  same.  Nor  does  He,  by  His  Omniscience,  learn  that  a 
particular  action  will  be  wise,  and  then,  in  consequence  of  being 
so  convinced,  first  determine  to  do  the  act,  and  then  do  it.  His 
Wisdom  and  His  Will,  also,  act  simultaneously ;  and,  with  Him, 
to  decide  that  it  was  wise  to  create,  was  to  create.  Thus  His  will 
contains  in  itself  all  the  Sephiroth.  This  will,  determining  Him 
to  the  exercise  of  intellection,  to  thought,  to  frame  the  Idea  of  the 
Universe,  caused  the  Power  in  Him  to  excite  the  intellectual 
Faculty  to  exercise,  and  tcra.y  that  Power.  Its  SELF,  which  had 
flowed  forth  from  Ainsoph  as  Will,  now  flows  forth  as  the  Genera- 
tive Power  to  beget  intellectual  action  in  the  Intellectual  Faculty, 
or  Intelligence,  Binah.  The  Act  itself,  the  Thought,  the  Intel- 
lection, producing  the  Idea,  is  Daath;  and  as  the  text  of  the 
Siphra  de  Z'cnintha  says,  The  Power  and  Faculty,  the  Generative 
and  Productive,  the  Active  and  Passive,  the  Will  and  Capacity, 
which  unite  to  produce  that  Act  of  reflection  or  Thought  or  In- 
tellection, are  always  in  conjunction.  As  is  elsewhere  said  in  the 
Kabalah,  both  of  them  are  contained  and  essentially  involved  in 
the  result.  And  the  Will,  as  Wisdom  or  Intellectual  Power,  and 
the  Capacity  or  Faculty,  are  really  the  Father  and  Mother  of  all 
that  is ;  for  to  the  creation  of  anything,  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
that  The  Infinite  should  form  for  Himself  and  in  Himself,  an 
idea  of  what  HE  willed  to  produce  or  create:  and,  as  there  is  no 
Time  with  Him,  to  will  was  to  create,  to  plan  was  to  will  and  to 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRIXCE  ADEPT.  767 

create;  and  in  the  Idea,  the  Universe  in  potence,  the  universal 
succession  of  things  was  included.  Thenceforward  all  was  merely 
evolution  and  development. 

Netsach  and  Hod, the  Seventh  and  Eighth  Sephiroth,are  usually 
called  in  the  Kabalah,  Victory  and  Glory.  Netsach  is  the  perfect 
Success,  which,  with  the  Deity,  to  Whom  the  Future  is  present, 
attends,  and  to  His  creatures  is  to  result,  from  the  plan  of  Equi- 
librium everywhere  adopted  by  Him.  It  is  the  reconciliation  of 
Light  and  Darkness,  Good  and  Evil,  Free-will  and  Necessity, 
God's  omnipotence  and  Man's  liberty ;  and  the  harmonious  issue 
and  result  of  all,  without  which  the  Universe  would  be  a  failure. 
It  is  the  inherent  Perfection  of  the  Deity,  manifested  in  His  Idea 
of  the  Universe,  and  in  all  the  departments  or  worlds,  spiritual, 
mental,  or  material,  of  that  Universe;  but  it  is  that  Perfection 
regarded  as  the  successful  result,  which  it  both  causes  or  produces 
and  is;  the  perfection  of  the  plan  being  its  success.  It  is  the 
prevailing  of  Wisdom  over  Accident ;  and  it,  in  turn,  both  pro- 
duces and  is  the  Glory  and  Laudation  of  the  Great  Infinite  Con- 
triver, whose  plan  is  thus  Successful  and  Victorious. 

From  these  two,  which  are  one, — from  the  excellence  and  per- 
fection of  the  Divine  Nature  and  Wisdom,  considered  as  Success 
and  Glory,  as  the  opposites  of  Failure  and  Mortification,  results 
what  the  Kabalah,  styling  it  Yesod,  Foundation  or  Basis,  charac- 
terizes as  the  Generative  member  of  the  Symbolical  human  figure 
by  which  the  ten  Sephiroth  are  represented,  and  from  this  flows 
Malakoth,  Empire,  Dominion,  or  Rule.  Yesod  is  the  Stability  and 
Permanence,  which  would,  in  ordinary  language,  be  said  to  result 
from  the  perfection  of  the  Idea  or  Intellectual  Universal,  out 
of  which  all  particulars  are  evolved ;  from  the  success  of  thai 
scheme,  and  the  consequent  Glory  or  Self-Satisfaction  of  the  Deity  ; 
but  which  Stability  and  Permanence  that  Perfection,  Success,  and 
Glory  really  Is ;  since  the  Deity,  infinitely  Wise,  and  to  Whom 
the  Past,  Present,  and  Future  were  and  always  will  be  one  Now, 
and  all  space  one  HERE,  had  not  to  await  the  operation  and  evolu- 
tion of  His  plan,  as  men  do  the  result  of  an  experiment,  in  order 
to  see  if  it  would  succeed,  and  so  to  determine  whether  it  should 
stand,  and  be  stable  and  permanent,  or  fall  and  be  temporary.  Its 
Perfection  was  \tsSucccss;  HisGlory,  its  permanence  and  stability: 
and  the  Attributes  of  Permanence  and  Stability  belong,  like  the 


768  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

others,  to  the  ^Universe,  material,  mental,  spiritual,  and  real,  be- 
cause and  as  they  belong  to  the  Infinite  Himself. 

This  Stability  and  Permanence  causes  continuance  and  gener- 
ates succession.  It  is  Perpetuity,  and  continuity  without  solution ; 
and  by  this  continuous  succession,  whereby  out  of  Death  comes 
new  Life,  out  of  dissolution  and  resolution  comes  reconstruc- 
tion, Necessity  and  Fatality  result  as  a  consequence :  that  is  to 
say,  the  absolute  control  and  dominion  (Malakoth)  of  The  Infinite 
Deity  over  all  that  He  produces,  and  over  chance  and  accident ; 
and  the  absolute  non-existence  in  the  Universe,  in  Time  and  in 
Space,  of  any  other  powers  or  influences  than  those  which,  pro- 
ceeding from  Him,  are  and  cannot  not  be  perfectly  submissive 
to  His  will.  This  results,  humanly  speaking;  but  in  reality,  the 
Perfection  of  the  plan,  which  is  its  success,  His  glory,  and  its 
stability,  is  also  His  Absolute  Autocracy,  and  the  utter  absence 
of  Chance,  Accident,  or  Antagonism.  And,  as  the  Infinite  Wisdom 
or  Absolute  Reason  rules  in  the  Divine  Nature  itself,  so  also  it  does 
in  its  Emanations,  and  in  the  worlds  or  systems  of  Spirit,  Soul,  and 
Matter;  in  each  of  which  there  is  as  little  Chance  or  Accident 
or  Unreasoning  Fate,  as  in  the  Divine  Nature  unmanifested. 

This  is  the  Kabalistic  theory  as  to  each  of  the  four  worlds ; — 
ist,  of  the  Divine  Nature,  or  Divinity  itself,  quantitatively  limited 
and  determined,  but  not  manifested  into  Entities,  which  is  the 
world  of  Emanation;  2d,  of  the  first  Entities,  that  is,  of  Spirits 
and  Angels,  which  is  the  world  of  Creation;  3d,  of  the  first  forms, 
souls,  or  psychical  natures,  which  is  the  world  of  Formation  or 
Fashioning;  and,  4th,  of  Matter  and  Bodies,  which  is  the  world  of 
Fabrication,  or,  as  it  were,  of  manufacture.  In  each  of  these  the 
Deity  is  present,  as,  in,  and  through  the  Ten  Sepjiiroth.  First  of 
these,  in  each,  is  Kether,  the  Crown,  ring,  or  circlet,  the  HEAD. 
Next,  in  that  Head,  as  the  two  Hemispheres  of  the  Brain,  are 
Hakemah  and  Binah,  and  their  result  and  progeny,  Daath.  These 
three  are  found  also  in  the  Spiritual  world,  and  are  universals  in 
the  psychical  and  material  world,  producing  the  lower  Sephiroth. 
Then  follow,  in  perfect  Equilibrium,  Law  and  Equity,  Justice 
and  Mercy,  the  Divine  Infinite  Nature  and  the  Human  Finite 
Nature,  Good  and  Evil,  Light  and  Darkness,  Benignity  and  Sever- 
ity, the  Male  and  the  Female  again,  as  Hakemah  and  Binah  are, 
mutually  tempering  each  other,  and  by  their  intimate  union  pro- 
ducing the  other  Sephiroth. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  769 

The  whole  Universe,  and  all  the  succes-sion  of  entities  and  events 
were  present  to  The  Infinite,  before  any  act  of  creation ;  and  His 
Benignity  and  Leniency,  tempering  and  qualifying  the  law  of 
rigorous  Justice  and  inflexible  Retribution,  enabled  Him  to  create: 
because,  but  for  it,  and  if  He  could  not  but  have  administered  the 
strict  and  stern  law  of  justice,  that  would  have  compelled  Him  to 
destroy,  immediately  after  its  inception,  the  Universe  He  purposed 
to  create,  and  so  would  have  prevented  its  creation.  This  Leniency, 
therefore,  was,  as  it  were,  the  very  essence  and  quintessence  of  the 
Permanence  and  Stability  of  the  plan  of  Creation,  and  part  of  the 
Very  Nature  of  the  Deity.  The  Kabalah,  therefore,  designates  it 
as  Light  and  Whiteness,  by  which  the  Very  Substance  of  Deity  is 
symbolized.  With  this  agree  Paul's  ideas  as  to  Law  and  Grace; 
for  Paul  had  studied  the  Kabalah  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel  the 
Rabbi. 

With  this  Benignity,  the  Autocracy  of  the  dominion  and  control 
of  the  Deity  is  imbued  and  interpenetrated.  The  former,  poured, 
as  it  were,  into  the  latter,  is  an  integral  and  essential  part  of  it, 
and  causes  it  to  give  birth  to  the  succession  and  continuance  of  the 
Universe.  For  Malakoth,  in  the  Kabalah,  is  female,  and  the  matrix 
or  womb  out  of  which  all  creation  is  born. 

86^"  The  Sephiroth  may  be  arranged  as  on  page  770. 

The  Kabalah  is  the  primitive  tradition,  and  its  entirety  rests  on 
the  single  dogma  of  Magism,  "the  visible  is  for  us  the  propor- 
tional measure  of  the  invisible."  The  Ancients,  observing  that 
equilibrium  is  in  physics  the  universal  law,  and  that  it  results  from 
the  apparent  opposition  of  two  forces,  concluded  from  the  physical 
to  the  metaphysical  equilibrium,  and  thought  that  in  God,  that 
is  to  say.  in  the  first  living  and  active  cause,  two  properties  neces- 
sary to  each  other,  should  be  recognized ;  stability  and  movement, 
necessity  and  liberty,  order  dictated  by  reason  and  the  self-rule 
of  Supreme  Will,  Justice,  and  Love,  and  consequently  Severity 
and  Grace,  Mercy  or  Benignity. 

The  idea  of  equilibrium  among  all  the  impersonations ;  of  the 
male  on  one  side,  and  the  female  on  the  other,  with  the  Supreme 
Will,  which  is  also  the  Absolute  Reason,  above  each  two,  holding 
the  balance,  is,  according  to  the  Kabalah,  the  foundation  of  all 
religions  and  all  sciences,  the  primary  and  immutable  idea  of  things. 
The  Sephiroth  are  a  triple  triangle  and  a  circle,  the  idea  of  the 
Ternary  explained  by  the  balance  and  multiplied  by  itself  in  the 


770 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

:  Kether  :  Crown. 
Will. 


Binah  :  /. 
Passive   capacity 
of  being-    impregnpted 
and  producing-  intellec- 
tion. 


Geburah  :  .'. 
Severity  jr  rig-id  Justice 


Glory 


Hod  :  /.Tin  ' 


:  Hakemah: 
Active    Potency 
of  begetting-  in- 
tellection. 


:  Daath  :  Intellection. 


[nity 

:  Gedulah  :  Benig- 
or  or  or 

Khased:    Mercy. 


Tephareth :  Beauty : 
the  Universal  Har- 
mony. 


:  Netsach  :  Vic- 
tory: or  Success. 


/.  DID1*  :  Yesud :  Foundation  : 
i.  e.,  Stability  and 
Permanency  of  things. 


.'.  JTO^D  :  Malakoth  :  Dominion  : 
Supremacy  and  absolute  control  of  the  Divine  Will  in  all  things. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  771 

domain  of  the  Ideal;  then  the  realization  of  this  Idea  in 
forms. 

Unity  can  only  be  manifested  by  the  Binary.  Unity  itself  and 
the  idea  of  Unity  are  already  two. 

The  human  unity  is  made  complete  by  the  right  and  left.  The 
primitive  man  was  of  both  sexes. 

The  Divinity,  one  in  its  essence,  has  two  essential  conditions  as 
fundamental  bases  of  its  existence — Necessity  and  Liberty. 

The  laws  of  the  Supreme  Reason  necessitate  and  regulate  liberty 
in  God,  Who  is  necessarily  reasonable  and  wise. 

Knowledge  supposes  the  binary.  An  object  known  is  indispen- 
sable to  the  being  that  knows. 

The  binary  is  the  generator  of  Society  and  the  law.  It  is  also 
the  number  of  the  gnosis,  a  word  adopted  in  lieu  of  Science,  and 
expressing  only  the  idea  of  cognizance  by  intuition.  It  is  Unity, 
multiplying  itself  by  itself  to  create ;  and  therefore  it  is  that  the 
Sacred  Symbols  make  Eve  issue  from  the  very  chest  of  Adam. 

Adam  is  the  human  Tetragram,  which  is  summed  up  in  the 
mysterious  Yod  of  the  Kabalah,  image  of  the  Kabalistic  Phallus. 
Add  to  this  Yod  [*»] ,  the  ternary  name  of  Eve,  and  you  form  the 
name  of  Jehova,  the  Divine  Tetragram,  the  transcendent  Kaba- 
listic and  magical  word : 

mrp 

Thus  it  is  that  Unity,  complete  in  the  fecundity  of  the  Ternary, 
forms,  with  it,  the  Quaternary,  which  is  the  key  of  all  numbers, 
movements,  and  forms. 

The  Square,  turning  upon  itself,  produces  the  circle  equal  to 
itself,  and  the  circular  movement  of  four  equal  angles  turning 
around  one  point,  is  the  quadrature  of  the  circle. 

The  Binary  serves  as  a  measure  for  Unity ;  and  the  relation  of 
equality  between  the  Above  and  the  Below,  forms  with  them  the 
Ternary. 

To  us,  Creation  is  Mechanism  :  to  the  Ancients  it  was  Genera- 
tion. The  world-producing  egg  figures  in  all  cosmogonies ;  and 
modern  science  has  discovered  that  all  animal  production  is  ovip- 
arous. From  this  idea  of  generation  came  the  reverence  every- 
where paid  the  image  of  generative  power,  which  formed  the 
Stauros  of  the  Gnostics,  and  the  philosophical  Cross  of  the 
Masons. 

Alcph  is  the  man:  Beth  is  the  woman.    One  is  the  Principle; 


772  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

l-:co  is  the  Word.  A.',  is  the  Active;  B.'.  is  the  Passive.  Unity  is 
l!oax,  and  the  Binary  is  Jachin. 

The  two  columns,  Boaz  and  Jachin,  explain  in  the  Kabalah 
all  the  mysteries  of  natural,  political,  and  religious  antago- 
nism. 

Woman  is  man's  creation ;  and  universal  creation  is  the  female 
of  the  First  Principle.  When  the  Principle  of  Existence  made 
Himself  Creator,  He  produced  by  emanation  an  ideal  Yod ;  and 
to  make  room  for  it  in  the  plenitude  of  the  uncreated  Light,  He 
had  to  hollow  out  a  pit  of  shadow,  equal  to  the  dimension  deter- 
mined by  His  creative  desire;  and  attributed  by  Him  to  the  ideal 
Yod  of  radiating  Light. 

The  nature  of  the  Active  Principle  is  to  diffuse :  of  the  Passive 
Principle,  to  collect  and  make  fruitful. 

Creation  is  the  habitation  of  the  Creator- Word.  To  create,  the 
Generative  Power  and  Productive  Capacity  must  unite,  the  Binary 
become  Unity  again  by  the  conjunction.  The  WORD  is  the  First- 
BEGOTTEN,  not  the  first  created  Son  of  God. 

SANCTA  SANCTIS,  we  repeat  again  ;  the  Holy  things  to  the  Holy, 
and  to  him  who  is  so,  the  mysteries  of  the  Kabalah  will  be  holy. 
Seek  and  ye  shall  find,  say  the  Scriptures :  knock  and  it  shall  be 
opened'  unto  you.  If  you  desire  to  find  and  to  gain  admission  to 
the  Sanctuary,  we  have  said  enough  to  show  you  the  way.  If  you 
do  not.  it  is  useless  for  us  to  say  more,  as  it  has  been  useless  to  say 
so  much. 

The  Hermetic  philosophers  also  drew  their  doctrines  from  the 
Kabalah ;  and  more  particularly  from  the  Treatise  Beth  Alohim 
or  Damns  Dei,  known  as  the  Pncnmatica  Kabalistica,  of  Rabbi 
Abraham  Cohen  Irira,  and  the  Treatise  De  Revolutionibus  Ani- 
iiianini  of  Rabbi  Jitz-chak  Lorja. 

This  philosophy  was  concealed  by  the  Alchemists  under  their 
Symbols,  and  in  the  jargon  of  a  rude  Chemistry, — a  jargon  incom- 
prehensible and  absurd  except  to  the  Initiates ;  but  the  key  to 
which  is  within  your  reach  ;  and  the  philosophy,  it  may  be,  worth 
studying.  The  labors  of  the  human  intellect  are  always  interest- 
ing and  instructive. 

To  be  always  rich,  always  young,  and  never  to  die :  such  has 
been  in  all  times  the  dream  of  the  Alchemists. 

To  change  into  gold,  lead,  mercury,  and  all  the  other  metals :  to 
pn^ess  the  universal  medicine  and  elixir  of  life :  such  is  the  prob- 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  773 

lem  to  be  resolved,  in  order  to  accomplish  this  desire  and  realize 
this  dream. 

Like  all  the  Mysteries  of  Magism,  the  Secrets  of  "the  Great 
Work"  have  a  threefold  signification  :  they  are  religious,  philo- 
sophical, and  natural. 

The  philosophal  gold,  in  religion,  is  the  Absolute  and  Supreme 
Reason :  in  philosophy,  it  is  the  Truth  ;  in  visible  nature,  the 
Sun ;  in  the  subterranean  and  mineral  world,  the  most  perfect  and 
pure  gold. 

It  is  for  this  that  the  pursuit  of  the  Great  Work  is  called  the 
Search  for  the  Absolute ;  and  the  work  itself,  the  work  of  the  Sun. 
All  the  masters  of  the  Science  admit  that  it  is  impossible  to  at- 
tain the  material  results,  unless  there  are  found  in  the  two  higher 
Degrees  all  the  analogies  of  the  universal  medicine  and  of  the  phi- 
losophal stone. 

Then,  they  say,  the  work  is  simple,  easy,  and  inexpensive; 
otherwise,  it  consumes  fruitlessly  the  fortune  and  lives  of  the 
seekers. 

The  universal  medicine  for  the  Soul  is  the  Supreme  Reason  and 
Absolute  Justice ;  for  the  mind,  mathematical  and  practical 
Truth  ;  for  the  body,  the  Quintessence,  a  combination  of  light  and 
gold. 

The  prima  materia  of  the  Great  Work,  in  the  Superior  World, 
is  enthusiasm  and  activity  ;  in  the  intermediate  world,  intelligence 
and  industry ;  in  the  lower  world,  labor :  and,  in  Science,  it  is  the 
Sulphur,  Mercury,  and  Salt,  which  by  turns  volatilized  and  fixed, 
compose  the  AZOTII  of  the  Sages. 

The  Sulphur  corresponds  with  the  elementary  form  of  the  Fire ; 
Mercury  with  the  Air  and  Water ;  and  Salt  with  the  Earth. 

The  Great  Work  is,  above  all  things,  the  creation  of  man  by 
himself;  that  is  to  say,  the  full  and  entire  conquest  which  he 
effects  of  his  faculties  and  his  future.  It  is,  above  all,  the  perfect 
emancipation  of  his  will,  which  assures  him  the  universal  empire 
of  Azoth,  and  the  domain  of  magnetism,  that  is,  complete  power 
over  the  universal  Magical  agent. 

This  Magical  agent,  which  the  Ancient  Hermetic  philosophers 
disguised  under  the  name  of  "Prima  Materia,"  determines  the 
forms  of  the  modifiable  Substance ;  and  the  Alchemists  said  that 
by  means  of  it  they  could  attain  the  transmutation  of  metals  and 
the  universal  medicine. 
50 


774  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

There  are  two  Hermetic  operations,  one  spiritual,  the  other  ma- 
terial, dependent  the  one  on  the  other. 

The  whole  Hermetic  Science  is  contained  in  the  dogma  of 
Hermes,  engraven  originally,  it  is  said,  on  a  tablet  of  emerald.  Its 
sentences  that  relate  to  operating  the  Great  Work  are  as  follows : 

"Thou  shalt  separate  the  earth  from  the  fire,  the  subtile  from 
the  gross,  gently,  with  much  industry. 

"It  ascends  from  earth  to  Heaven,  and  again  descends  to  earth, 
and  receives  the  force  of  things  above  and  below. 

"Thou  shalt  by  this  means  possess  the  glory  of  the  whole  world, 
and  therefor  all  obscurity  shall  flee  away  from  thee. 

"This  is  the  potent  force  of  all  force,  for  it  will  overcome  every- 
thing subtile,  and  penetrate  everything  solid. 

"So  the  world  was  created." 

All  the  Masters  in  Alchemy  who  have  written  of  the  Great 
Work,  have  employed  symbolic  and  figurative  expressions ;  being 
constrained  to  do  so,  as  well  to  repel  the  profane  from  a  work  that 
would  be  dangerous  for  them,  as  to  be  well  understood  by  Adepts 
in  revealing  to  them  the  whole  world  of  analogies  governed  by  the 
single  and  sovereign  dogma  of  Hermes. 

So,  in  their  language,  gold  and  silver  are  the  King  and  Queen, 
or  the  Sun  and  Moon  ;  Sulphur,  the  flying  Eagle ;  Mercury,  the 
Man-woman,  winged,  bearded,  mounted  on  a  cube,  and  crow-ned 
with  flames ;  Matter  or  Salt,  the  winged  Dragon  ;  the  Metals  in 
ebullition,  Lions  of  different  colors ;  and,  finally,  the  entire  work 
has  for  its  symbols  the  Pelican  and  the  Phoenix. 

The  Hermetic  Art  is,  therefore,  at  the  same  time  a  religion,  a 
philosophy,  and  a  natural  science.  As  a  religion,  it  is  that  of  the 
Ancient  Magi  and  the  Initiates  of  all  ages ;  as  a  philosophy,  we 
may  find  its  principles  in  the  school  of  Alexandria  and  the  theories 
of  Pythagoras ;  as  a  science,  we  must  inquire  for  its  processes  of 
Paracelsus,  Nicholas  Flamel,  and  Raymond  Lulle. 

The  Science  is  a  real  one  only  for  those  who  admit  and  under- 
stand the  philosophy  and  the  religion ;  and  its  process  will  suc- 
ceed only  for  the  Adept  who  has  attained  the  sovereignty  of  will, 
and  so  become  the  King  of  the  elementary  world  :  for  the  grand 
agent  of  the  operation  of  the  Sun,  is  that  force  described  in  the 
Symbol  of  Hermes,  of  the  table  of  emerald ;  it  is  the  universal 
magical  power;  the  spiritual,  fiery,  motive  power;  it  is  the  Od 
according  to  the  Hebrews,  and  the  Astral  light,  according  to  others. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT  775 

Therein  is  the  secret  fire,  living  and  philosophical,  of  which  all 
the  Hermetic  philosophers  speak  with  the  most  mysterious  re- 
serve :  the  Universal  Seed,  the  secret  whereof  they  kept,  and  which 
they  represented  only  under  the  figure  of  the  Caduceus  of  Hermes. 

This  is  the  grand  Hermetic  arcanum.  What  the  Adepts  call 
dead  matter  are  bodies  as  found  in  nature ;  living  matters  are 
substances  assimilated  and  magnetized  by  the  science  and  will  of 
the  operator. 

So  that  the  Great  Work  is  more  than  a  chemical  operation ;  it 
is  a  real  creation  of  the  human  word  initiated  into  the  power  of 
the  Word  of  God. 

The  creation  of  gold  in  the  Great  Work  is  effected  by  trans- 
mutation and  multiplication. 

Raymond  Lulle  says,  that  to  make  gold,  one  must  have  gold  and 
mercury ;  and  to  make  silver,  silver  and  mercury.  And  he  adds : 
"I  mean  by  mercury,  that  mineral  spirit  so  fine  and  pure  that  it 
giids  even  the  seed  of  gold,  and  silvers  that  of  silver."  He  meant 
by  this,  either  electricity,  or  Od,  the  astral  light. 

The  Salt  and  Sulphur  serve  in  the  work  only  to  prepare  the 
mercury,  and  it  is  to  the  mercury  especially  that  we  must  assimi- 
late, and,  as  it  were,  incorporate  with  it,  the  magnetic  agent. 
Paracelsus,  Lulle,  and  Flamel  alone  seem  to  havte  perfectly  kno\vn 
this  mystery. 

The  Great  Work  of  Hermes  is,  therefore,  an  operation  essen- 
tially magical,  and  the  highest  of  all,  for  it  supposes  the  Absolute 
in  Science  and  in  Will.  There  is  light  in  gold,  gold  in  light,  and 
light  in  all  things. 

The  disciples  of  Hermes,  before  promising  their  adepts  the  elixir 
of  long  life  or  the  powder  of  projection,  advised  them  to  seek  for 
the  Philosophal  Stone. 

The  Ancients  adored  the  Sun,  under  the  form  of  a  black  Stone, 
called  Elagabalus,  or  Heliogabalus.  The  faithful  are  promised,  in 
the  Apocalypse,  a  white  Stone. 

This  Stone,  say  the  Masters  in  Alchemy,  is  the  true  Salt  of  the 
philosophers,  which  enters  as  one-third  into  the  composition  of 
Azoth.  But  Azoth  is,  as  we  know,  the  name  of  the  grand  Hermetic 
Agent,  and  the  true  philosophical  Agent :  wherefore  they  repre- 
sent their  Salt  under  the  form  of  a  cubical  Stone. 

The  Philosophal  Stone  is  the  foundation  of  the  Absolute  phi- 
losophy, the  Supreme  and  unalterable  Reason.  Before  thinking  of 


776  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  Metallic  work,  we  must  be  firmly  fixed  on  the  Absolute  prin- 
ciples of  Wisdom ;  we  must  be  in  possession  of  this  Reason,  which 
is  the  touchstone  of  Truth.  A  man  who  is  the  slave  of  prejudices 
will  never  become  the  King  of  Nature  and  the  Master  of  trans- 
mutations. The  Philosophal  Stone,  therefore,  is  necessary  above 
all  things.  How  shall  it  be  found  ?  Hermes  tells  us,  in  his  "Table 
of  Emerald,"  we  must  separate  the  subtile  from  the  fixed,  with 
great  care  and  extreme  attention.  So  we  ought  to  separate  our 
certainties  from  our  beliefs,  and  make  perfectly  distinct  the  re- 
spective domains  of  science  and  faith ;  and  to  comprehend  that 
we  do  not  know  the  things  we  believe,  nor  believe  anything  that 
we  come  to  know ;  and  that  thus  the  essence  of  the  things  of  Faith 
are  the  unknown  and  indefinite,  while  it  is  precisely  the  contrary 
with  the  things  of  Science.  Whence  we  shall  conclude,  that 
Science  rests  on  reason  and  experience,  and  Faith  has  for  its  bases 
sentiment  and  reason. 

The  Sun  and  Moon  of  the  Alchemists  concur  in  perfecting  and 
giving  stability  to  the  Philosophal  Stone.  They  correspond  to  the 
two  columns  of  the  Temple,  Jachin  and  Boaz.  The  Sun  is  the 
hieroglyphical  sign  of  Truth,  because  it  is  the  source  of  Light ; 
and  the  rough  Stone  is  the  symbol  of  Stability.  Hence  the 
Mediaeval  Alchemists  indicated  the  Philosophal  Stone  as  the  first 
means  of  making  the  philosophical  gold,  that  is  to  say,  of  trans- 
forming all  the  vital  powers  figured  by  the  six  metals  into  Sun, 
that  is,  into  Truth  and  Light ;  which  is  the  first  and  indispensable 
operation  of  the  Great  Work,  which  leads  to  the  secondary  adapta- 
tion, and  enables  the  creators  of  the  spiritual  and  living  gold,  the 
possessors  of  the  true  philosophical  Salt,  Mercury,  and  Sulphur,  to 
discover,  by  the  analogies  of  Nature,  the  natural  and  palpable  gold. 

To  find  the  Philosophal  Stone,  is  to  have  discovered  the  Abso- 
lute, as  all  the  Masters  say.  But  the  Absolute  is  that  which  admits 
of  no  errors,  is  the  Fixed  from  the  Volatile,  is  the  Law  of  the 
Imagination,  is  the  very  necessity  of  Being,  is  the  immutable  Law 
of  Reason  and  Truth.  The  Absolute  is  that  which  IS. 

To  find  the  Absolute  in  the  Infinite,  in  the  Indefinite,  and  in 
the  Finite,  this  is  the  Magnum  Opus,  the  Great  Work  of  the 
Sages.  \\'.lch  Hermes  called  the  Work  of  the  Sun. 

To  find  the  immovable  bases  of  true  religious  Faith,  of  Philo- 
vphical  Truth,  and  of  Metallic  transmutation,  this  is  the  secret 
of  Hermes  in  its  entirety,  the  Philosophal  Stone. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OH   I'RFN'CE  ADEPT.  777 

This  stone  is  one  and  manifold  ;  it  is  decomposed  by  Analysis, 
and  re-compounded  by  Synthesis.  In  Analysis,  it  is  a  powder, 
the  powder  of  projection  of  the  Alchemists ;  before  Analysis,  and 
in  Synthesis,  it  is  a  stone. 

The  Philosophal  Stone,  say  the  Masters,  must  not  be  exposed 
to  the  atmosphere,  nor  to  the  gaze  of  the  Profane ;  but  it  must 
be  kept  concealed  and  carefully  preserved  in  the  most  secret  place 
of  the  laboratory,  and  the  possessor  must  always  carry  on  his 
person  the  key  of  the  place  where  it  is  kept. 

He  who  possesses  the  Grand  Arcanum  is  a  genuine  King,  and 
more  than  a  king,  for  he  is  inaccessible  to  all  fear  and  all 
empty  hopes.  In  all  maladies  of  soul  and  body,  a  single  particle 
from  the  precious  stone,  a  single  grain  of  the  divine  powder,  is 
more  than  sufficient  to  cure  him.  "Let  him  hear,  who  hath  ears 
to  hear !"  the  Master  said. 

The  Salt,  Sulphur,  and  Mercury  are  but  the  accessorial  elements 
and  passive  instruments  of  the  Great  Work.  All  depends,  as  we 
have  said,  on  the  internal  Magnet  of  Paracelsus.  The  entire 
work  consists  in  projection:  and  the  projection  is  perfectly  accom- 
plished by  the  effective  and  realizable  understanding  of  a  single 
word. 

There  is  but  a  single  important  operation  in  the  work ;  this 
consists  in  Sublimation,  which  is  nothing  else,  according  to  Geber 
than  the  elevation  of  dry  matter,  by  means  of  fire,  with  adhesion 
to  its  proper  vessel. 

He  who  desires  to  attain  to  the  understanding  of  the  Grand 
Word  and  the  possession  of  the  Great  Secret,  ought  carefully  to 
read  the  Hermetic  philosophers,  and  will  undoubtedly  attain  initia- 
tion, as  others  have  done ;  but  he  must  take,  for  the  key  of  their 
allegories,  the  single  dogma  of  Hermes,  contained  in  his  table  of 
Emerald,  and  follow,  to  class  his  acquisitions  of  knowledge  and 
direct  the  operation,  the  order  indicated  in  the  Kabalistic  alpha- 
bet of  the  Tarot. 

Raymond  Lulle  has  said  that,  to  make  gold,  we  must  first  have 
gold.  Nothing  is  made  out  of  nothing;  we  do  not  absolutely  cre- 
ate wealth  ;  we  increase  and  multiply  it.  Let  aspirants  to  science 
well  understand,  then,  that  neither  the.  juggler's  tricks  nor  miracles 
are  to  be  asked  of  the  adept.  The  Hermetic  science,  like  all  the 
real  sciences,  is  mathematically  demonstrable.  Its  results,  even 
material,  are  as  rigorous  as  that  of  a  correct  equation. 


~7  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

The  Hermetic  Gold  is  not  only  a  true  dogma,  a  light  without 
Shadow,  a  Truth  without  alloy  of  falsehood ;  it  is  also  a  material 
gold,  real,  pure,  the  most  precious  that  can  be  found  in  the  mines 
of  the  earth. 

But  the  living  gold,  the  living  sulphur,  or  the  true  fire  of  the 
philosophers,  is  to  be  sought  for  in  the  house  of  Mercury.  This  fire 
is  fed  by  the  air :  to  express  its  attractive  and  expansive  power,  no 
better  comparison  can  be  used  than  that  of  the  lightning,  which 
is  at  first  only  a  dry  and  earthly  exhalation,  united  to  the  moist 
vapor,  but  which,  by  self-exhalation,  takes  a  fiery  nature,  acts  on 
the  humidity  inherent  in  it,  which  it  attracts  to  itself  and  trans- 
mutes in  its  nature ;  after  which  it  precipitates  itself  rapidly 
toward  the  earth,  whither  it  is  attracted  by  a  fixed  nature  like  unto 
its  own. 

These  words,  in  form  enigmatic,  but  clear  at  bottom,  distinctly 
express  what  the  philosophers  mean  by  their  Mercury  fecundated 
by  Sulphur,  and  which  becomes  the  Master  and  regenerator  of  the 
Salt.  It  is  the  AZOTII,  the  universal  magnetic  force,  the  grand 
magical  agent,  the  Astral  light,  the  light  of  life,  fecundated  by  the 
mental  force,  the  intellectual  energy,  which  they  compare  to  sul- 
phur, on  account  of  its  affinities  with  the  Divine  fire. 

As  to  the  Salt,  it  is  Absolute  Matter.  Whatever  is  matter  con- 
tains salt;  and  all  salt  [nitre] may  be  converted  into  pure  gold  by 
the  combined  action  of  Sulphur  and  Mercury,  which  sometimes 
act  so  rapidly,  that  the  transmutation  may  be  effected  in  an  instant, 
in  an  hour,  without  fatigue  to  the  operator,  and  almost  without 
expense.  At  other  times,  and  according  to  the  more  refractory 
temper  of  the  atmospheric  media,  the  operation  requires  several 
days,  several  months,  and  sometimes  even  several  years. 

Two  primary  laws  exist  in  nature,  two  essential  laws,  which 
produce,  by  counterbalancing  each  other,  the  universal  equilibrium 
of  things.  These  are  fixedness  and  movement,  analogous,  in  phi- 
losophy, to  Truth  and  Fiction,  and,  in  Absolute  Conception,  to 
Necessity  and  Liberty,  which  are  the  very  essence  of  Deity.  The 
Hermetic  philosophers  gave  the  name  fixed  to  everything  ponder- 
able, to  everything  that  tends  by  its  nature  to  central  repose  and 
immobility ;  they  term  volatile  everything  that  more  naturally  and 
more  readily  obeys  the  law  of  movement ;  and  they  form  their  stone 
by  analysis,  that  is  to  say,  by  the  volatilization  of  the  Fixed,  and 
then  bv  synthesis,  that  is,  by  fixing  the  volatile,  which  they  effect 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  7/9 

by  applying  to  the  fixed,  which  they  call  their  salt,  the  sulphurated 
Mercury,  or  the  light  of  life,  directed  and  made  omnipotent  by  a 
Sovereign  Will.  Thus  they  master  entire  Nature,  and  their  stone 
is  found  wherever  there  is  salt,  which  is  the  reason  for  saying  that 
no  substance  is  foreign  to  the  Great  Work,  and  that  even  the  most 
despicable  and  apparently  vile  matters  may  be  changed  into  gold, 
which  is  true  in  this  sense,  that  they  all  contain  the  original  salt- 
principle,  represented  in  our  emblems  by  the  cubical  stone. 

To  know  how  to  extract  from  all  matter  the  pure  salt  concealed 
in  it,  is  to  have  the  Secret  of  the  Stone.  Wherefore  this  is  a  Sa- 
line stone,  which  the  Od  or  universal  astral  light  decomposes  or 
re-compounds :  it  is  single  and  manifold ;  for  it  may  be  dissolved 
like  ordinary  salt,  and  incorporated  with  other  substances. 
Obtained  by  analysis,  we  might  term  it  the  Universal  Sublimate: 
found  by  way  of  synthesis,  it  is  the  true  panacea  of  the  ancients, 
for  it  cures  all  maladies  of  soul  and  body,  and  has  been  styled, 
par-excellence,  the  medicine  of  all  nature.  When  one,  by  absolute 
initiation,  comes  to  control  the  forces  of  the  universal  agent,  he 
always  has  this  stone  at  his  disposal,  for  its  extraction  is  then  a 
simple  and  easy  operation,  very  distinct  from  the  metallic  projec- 
tion or  realization.  This  stone,  when  in  a  state  of  sublimation, 
must  not  be  exposed  to  contact  with  the  atmospheric  air,  which 
might  partially  dissolve  it  and  deprive  it  of  its  virtue ;  nor  could 
its  emanations  be  inhaled  without  danger.  The  Sage  prefers  to 
preserve  it  in  its  natural  envelopes,  assured  as  he  is  of  extracting 
it  by  a  single  effort  of  his  will,  and  a  single  application  of  the 
Universal  Agent  to  the  envelopes,  which  the  Kabalists  call  cortices, 
the  shells,  bark,  or  integuments. 

Hieroglyphically  to  express  this  law  of  prudence,  they  gave 
their  Mercury,  personified  in  Egypt  as  Hermanubis,  a  dog's  head  : 
and  to  their  Sulphur,  represented  by  the  Baphomet  of  the  Temple, 
that  goat's  head  which  brought  into  such  disrepute  the  occult 
Mediaeval  associations. 

Let  us  listen  for  a  few  moments  to  the  Alchemists  themselves, 
and  endeavor  to  learn  the  hidden  meaning  of  their  mysterious 
words. 

The  RITUAL  of  the  Degree  of  Scottish  Elder  MASTER,  and 
Knight  of  Saint  Andrew,  being  the  fourth  Degree  of  Ramsay,  it  is 
said  upon  the  title-page,  or  of  the  Reformed  or  Rectified  Rite  of 
Dresden,  has  these  passages : 


7«O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

"O  how  great  and  glorious  is  the  presence  of  the  Almighty  God 
which  gloriously  shines  from  between  the  Cherubim ! 

"How  adorable  and  astonishing  are  the  rays  of  that  glorious 
Light,  that  sends  forth  its  bright  and  brilliant  beams  from  the 
Holy  Ark  of  Alliance  and  Covenant ! 

"Let  us  with  the  deepest  veneration  and  devotion  adore  the 
great  Source  of  Life,  that  Glorious  Spirit  Who  is  the  Most 
Merciful  and  Beneficent  Ruler  of  the  Universe  and  of  all  the 
creatures  it  contains ! 

'The  secret  knowledge  of  the  Grand  Scottish  Master  relates  to 
the  combination  and  transmutation  of  different  substances  ;  where- 
of that  you  may  obtain  a  clear  idea  and  proper  understanding, 
you  are  to  know  that  all  matter  and  all  material  substances  are 
composed  of  combinations  of  three  several  substances,  extracted 
from  the  four  elements,  which  three  substances  in  combination 
are,  .^Q^.,  Salt,  /\>  Sulphur,  and  A  ,  Spirit.  The 

first  v  of  these  ~t~  produces  Solidi- *—(~\  f  ,,,\  ty,  the  second 
Softness,  and  the  third  the  Spiritual,  vaporous  particles.  These 
three  compound  substances  work  potently  together;  and  therein 
consists  the  true  process  for  the  transmutation  of  metals. 

"To  these  three  substances  allude  the  three  golden  basins,  in 
the  first  of  which  was  engraved  the  letter  M.'.,  in  the  second, 
the  letter  G.'.,  and  in  the  third  nothing.  The  first,  M.'.,  is  the 
initial  letter  of  the  Hebrew  word  Malakh,  which  signifies  Salt;  and 
the  second,  G.'.,  of  the  Hebrew  word  Geparaith,  which  signifies 
Sulphur;  and  as  there  is  no  word  in  Hebrew  to  express  the 
vaporous  and  intangible  Spirit,  there  is  no  letter  in  the  third 
basin. 

"With  these  three  principal  substances  you  may  effect  the  trans- 
mutation of  metals,  which  must  be  done  by  means  of  the  five 
points  or  rules  of  the  Scottish  Mastership. 

"The  first  Master's  point  shows  us  the  Brazen  Sea,  wherein 
must  always  be  rain-water;  and  out  of  this  rain-water  the 
Scottish  Masters  extract  the  first  substance,  which  is  Salt ;  which 
salt  must  afterward  undergo  a  ser en-fold  manipulation  and 
purification,  before  it  will  be  properly  prepared.  This  seven- 
fold purification  is  symbolized  by  the  Seven  Steps  of  Solomon's 
Temple,  which  symbol  is  furnished  us  by  the  first  point  or  rule  of 
the  Scottish  Masters. 

"After  preparing  the  first  substance,  you  are  to  extract  the 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  781 

second,  Sulphur,  out  of  the  purest  gold,  to  which  must  then  be 
added  the  purified  or  celestial  Salt.  They  are  to  be  mixed  as  the 
Art  directs,  and  then  placed  in  a  vessel  in  the  form  of  a  SHIP,  in 
which  it  is  to  remain,  as  the  Ark  of  Noah  was  afloat,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  days,  being  brought  to  the  first  damp,  warm  degree  of 
fire,  that  it  may  putrefy  and  produce  the  mineral  fermentation. 
This  is  the  second  point  or  rule  of  the  Scottish  Masters." 

If  you  reflect,  my  Brother,  that  it  was  impossible  for  any  one  to 
imagine  that  either  common  salt  or  nitre  could  be  extracted  from 
rain-water,  or  sulphur  from  pure  gold,  you  will  no  doubt  suspect 
that  some  secret  meaning  was  concealed  in  these  words. 

The  Kabalah  considers  the  immaterial  part  of  man  as  threefold, 
consisting  of  NEPHESCH,  RUACH,  and  NESCHAMAH,  Psyche,  Spir- 
it its,  and  Mens,  or  Soul,  Spirit,  and  Intellect.  There  are  Seven 
Holy  Palaces,  Seven  Heavens  and  Seven  Thrones ;  and  Souls  are 
purified  by  ascending  through  Seven  Spheres.  A  Ship,  in  Hebrew, 
is  Ani;  and  the  same  word  means  /,  Me,  or  Myself. 

The  RITUAL  continues : 

"Multiplying  the  substance  thus  obtained,  is  the  third  operation, 
which  is  done  by  adding  to  them  the  animate,  volatile  Spirit; 
which  is  clone  by  means  of  the  water  of  the  Celestial  Salt,  as  well 
as  by  the  Salt,  which  must  daily  be  added  to  it  very  carefully,  and 
strictly  observing  to  put  neither  too  much  nor  too  little ;  inasmuch 
as,  if  you  add  too  much,  you  will  destroy  that  growing  and  multi- 
plying substance ;  and  if  too  little,  it  will  be  self-consumed  and 
destroyed,  and  shrink  away,  not  having  sufficient  substantiality 
for  its  preservation.  This  third  point  or  rule  of  the  Scottish 
Masters  gives  us  the  emblem  of  the  building  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel,  used  by  our  Scottish  Masters,  because  by  irregularity  an>l 
want  of  due  proportion  and  harmony  that  work  was  stopped  ;  and 
the  workmen  could  proceed  no  further. 

"Next  comes  the  fourth  operation,  represented  by  the  Cubical 
Stone,  whose  faces  and  angles  are  all  equal.  As  soon  as  the  work 
is  brought  to  the  necessary  point  of  multiplication,  it  is  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  third  Degree  of  Fire,  wherein  it  will  receive  the  duo 
proportion  of  the  strength  and  substance  of  the  metallic  particles 
of  the  Cubical  Stone;  and  this  is  the  fourth  point  or  rule  of  the 
Scottish  Masters. 

"Finally,  we  come  to  the  fifth  and  last  operation,  indicated  to 
us  by  the  Flaming  Star.  After  the  work  has  become  a  duly-propor- 


782  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

tioned  substance,  it  is  to  be  subjected  to  the  fourth  and  strongest 
Degree  of  fire,  wherein  it  must  remain  three  times  twenty-seven 
hours ;  until  it  is  thoroughly  glowing,  by  which  means  it  becomes 
a  bright  and  shining  tincture,  wherewith  the  lighter  metals  may 
be  changed,  by  the  use  of  one  part  to  a  thousand  of  the  metal. 
Wherefore  this  Flaming  Star  shows  us  the  fifth  and  last  point  of 
the  Scottish  Masters. 

"You  should  pass  practically  through  the  five  points  or  rules 
of  the  Master,  and  by  the  use  of  one  part  to  a  thousand,  trans- 
mute and  ennoble  metals.  You  may  then  in  reality  say  that  your 
age  is  a  thousand  years." 

In  the  oration  of  the  Degree,  the  following  hints  are  given  as  to 
its  true  meaning : 

"The  three  divisions  of  the  Temple,  the  Outer  Court,  Sanctuary, 
and  Holy  of  Holies,  signify  the  three  Principles  of  our  Holy  Order, 
which  direct  to  the  knowledge  of  morality,  and  teach  those  most 
practical  virtues  that  ought  to  be  practised  by  mankind.  Therefore 
the  Seven  Steps  which  lead  up  to  the  Outer  Court  of  the  Temple, 
are  the  emblem  of  the  Seven-fold  Light  which  we  need  to  possess, 
before  we  can  arrive  at  the  height  of  knowledge,  in  which  consist 
the  ultimate  limits  of  our  order. 

"In  the  Brazen  Sea  we  are  symbolically  to  purify  ourselves 
from  all  pollutions,  all  faults  and  wrongful  actions,  as  well  those 
committed  through  error  of  judgment  and  mistaken  opinion,  as 
those  intentionally  done ;  inasmuch  as  they  equally  prevent  us 
from  arriving  at  the  knowledge  of  True  Wisdom.  We  must  thor- 
oughly cleanse  and  purify  our  hearts  to  their  inmost  recesses,  before 
we  can  of  right  contemplate  that  Flaming  Star,  which  is  the 
emblem  of  the  Divine  and  Glorious  Shekinah,  or  presence  of  God ; 
before  we  may  dare  approach  the  Throne  of  Supreme  Wisdom." 

In  the  Degree  of  The  True  Mason  \Le  J"rai  Mafon],  styled  in 
the  title-page  of  its  Ritual  the  23d  Degree  of  Masonry,  or  the 
12th  of  the  5th  class,  the  Tracing-board  displays  a  luminous  Tri- 
angle, with  a  great  Yod  in  the  centre. 

"The  Triangle,"  says  the  Ritual,  "represents  one  God  in  three 
Persons ;  and  the  great  Yod  is  the  initial  letter  of  the  last  word. 

"The  Dark  Circle  represents  the  Chaos,  which  in  the  beginning 
God  created. 

"The  Cross  within  the  Circle,  the  Light  by  means  whereof  He 
developed  the  Chaos. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  783 

"The  Square,  the  four  Elements  into  which  ifc  was  resolved. 

"The  Triangle,  again,  the  three  Principles  [Salt,  Sulphur,  and 
Mercury],  which  the  intermingling  of  the  elements  produced. 

"God  creates;  Nature  produces;  Art  multiplies.  God  created 
Chaos ;  Nature  produced,  it ;  God,  Nature,  and  Art,  have  per- 
fected it. 

"The  Altar  of  Perfumes  indicates  the  Fire  that  is  to  be  applied 
to  Nature.  The  two  toivers  are  the  two  furnaces,  moist  and  dry, 
in  which  it  is  to  be  worked.  The  bowl  is  the  mould  of  oak  that 
is  to  inclose  the  philosophal  egg. 

"The  two  figures  surmounted  by  a  Cross  are  the  two  vases, 
Nature  and  Art,  in  which  is  to  be  consummated  the  double  mar- 
riage of  the  white  woman  with  the  red  Servitor,  from  which  mar- 
riage will  spring  a  most  Potent  King. 

"Chaos  means  universal  matter,  formless,  but  susceptible  of  all 
forms.  Form  is  the  Light  inclosed  in  the  seeds  of  all  species ;  and 
its  home  is  in  the  Universal  Spirit. 

"To  work  on  universal  matter,  use  the  internal  and  external 
fire :  the  four  elements  result,  the  Principia  Principiornm  and 
Inincdiata;  Fire,  Air,  Water,  Earth.  There  are  four  qualities  of 
these  elements — the  warm  and  dry,  the  cold  and  moist.  Two  ap- 
pertain to  each  element :  The  dry  and  cold,  to  the  Earth ;  the  cold 
and  moist,  to  Water ;  the  moist  and  warm,  to  the  Air ;  and  the 
warm  and  dry,  to  Fire  :  whereby  the  Fire  connects  with  the  Earth  : 
all  the  elements,  as  Hermes  said,  moving  in  circles. 

"From  the  mixture  of  the  four  Elements  and  of  their  four 
qualities,  result  the  three  Principles, — Mercury,  Sulphur,  and  Salt. 
These  are  the  philosophical,  not  the  vulgar. 

"The  philosophical  Mercury  is  a  Water  and  SPIRIT,  which  dis- 
solves and  sublimates  the  Sun;  the  philosophical  Sulphur,  a  fire 
and  a  Son.,  which  mollifies  and  colors  it;  the  philosophical  Salt, 
an  J'.artli  and  a  HODY,  which  coagulates  and  fixes  it;  and  the 
whole  is  done  in  the  bosom  of  the  Air. 

"From  these  three  Principles  result  the  four  Elements  dupli- 
cated, or  the  Grand  Elements,  Mercury,  Sulphur,  Salt,  and  Glass; 
two  of  which  are  volatile. — the  Water  [Mercury]  and  the  Air 
|  Sulphur),  which  is  oil:  for  all  substances  liquid  in  their  nature 
avoid  fire,  which  takes  from  the  one  [water]  and  burns  the  other 
(oil]  ;  but  the  other  two  are  dry  and  solid,  to  wit,  the  Salt,  wherein 
Fire  is  contained,  and  the  pure  Earth,  which  is  the  Glafs;  on 


784  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

both  of  which  the  Fire  has  no  other  action  than  to  melt  and 
refine  them,  unless  one  makes  use  of  the  liquid  alkali;  for,  just  as 
each  element  consists  of  two  qualities,  so  these  great  duplicated 
Elements  partake,  each  of  two  of  the  simple  elements,  or,  more 
properly  speaking,  of  all  the  four,  according  to  the  greater  or  less 
degree  of  each, — the  Mercury  partaking  more  of  the  Water,  to 
which  it  is  assigned  ;  the  Oil  or  Sulphur,  more  of  the  Air ;  the 
Salt,  of  the  Fire ;  and  the  Glass,  of  the  Earth ;  which  is  found, 
pure  and  clear,  in  the  centre  of  all  the  elementary  composites, 
and  is  the  last  to  disengage  itself  from  the  others. 

"The  four  Elements  and  three  Principles  reside  in  all  the  Com- 
pounds, Animal,  Vegetable,  and  Mineral ;  but  more  potently  in 
some  than  in  others. 

"The  Fire  gives  them  Movement ;  the  Air,  Sensation ;  the 
Water,  Nutriment ;  and  the  Earth,  Subsistence. 

"The  four  duplicated  Elements  engender  THE  STONE,  if  one  is 
careful  enough  to  supply  them  with  the  proper  quantity  of  fire, 
and  to  combine  them  according  to  their  natural  weight.  Ten 
parts  of  Air  make  one  of  Water ;  ten  of  Water,  one  of  Earth  ;  and 
ten  of  Earth,  one  of  Fire ;  the  whole  by  the  Active  Symbol  of  the 
one,  and  the  Passive  Symbol  of  the  other,  whereby  the  conversion 
of  the  Elements  is  effected." 

The  Allusion  of  the  Ritual,  here,  is  obviously  to  the  four  Worlds 
of  the  Kabalah.  The  ten  Sephiroth  of  the  world  Briah  proceed 
from  Malakoth,  the  last  of  the  ten  Emanations  of  the  world  Azi- 
luth ;  the  ten  Sephiroth  of  the  world  Yezirah,  from  Malakoth  of 
Briah  ;  and  the  ten  of  the  world  Asiah,  from  Malakoth  of  Yezirah. 
The  Pass-word  of  the  Degree  is  given  as  Metralon,  which  is  a  cor- 
ruption of  METATRON,  the  Cherub,  who  and  Sandalphon  are  in 
the  Kabalah  the  Chief  of  the  Angels.  The  Active  and  Passive 
Symbols  are  the  Male  and  Female. 

The  Ritual  continues : 

"It  is  thereby  evident  that,  in  the  Great  Work,  we  must  employ 
ten  parts  of  philosophical  Mercury  to  one  of  Sun  or  Moon. 

"This  is  attained  by  Solution  and  Coagulation.  These  words 
mean  that  we  must  dissolve  the  body  and  coagulate  the  spirit ; 
which  operations  are  effected  by  the  moist  and  dry  bath. 

"Of  colors,  black  is  the  Earth ;  zvhitc,  the  Water;  blue,  the  Air : 
and  red ,  the  Fire ;  wherein  also  are  involved  very  great  secrets 
and  mysteries. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  785 

"The  apparatus  employed  in  The  Croat  Work'  consists  of  the 
Moist  bath,  the  Dry  bath,  the  Vases  of  Xature  and  Art,  the  bowl 
of  oak,  Intum  sapicntia,  the  Seal  of  Hermes,  the  tube,  the  phys- 
ical lamp,  and  the  iron  rod. 

"The  work  is  perfected  in  seventeen  philosophical  months,  ac- 
cording to  the  mixture  of  ingredients.  The  benefits  reaped  from 
it  are  of  two  kinds — one  affecting  the  soul,  and  the  other  the  body. 
Tlic  former  consist  in  knowing  God,  Nature,  and  oitrsclf ;  and 
those  to  the  body  are  wealth  and  health. 

"The  Initiate  traverses  Heaven  and  Earth.  Heaven  is  the 
World  manifest  to  the  Intelligence,  subdivided  into  Paradise  and 
Hell ;  Earth  is  the  World  manifest  to  the  Senses,  also  subdivided 
into  the  Celestial  and  that  of  the  Elements. 

"There  are  Sciences  specially  connected  with  each  of  these. 
The  one  is  ordinary  and  common;  the  other,  mystic  and  secret. 
The  World  cognizable  by  the  Intellect  has  the  Hermetic  Theology 
and  the  Kabalah ;  the  Celestial  Astrology ;  and  that  of  the  Ele- 
ments, Chemistry,  which  by  its  decompositions  and  separations, 
effected  by  fire,  reveals  all  the  most  hidden  secrets  of  Nature,  in 
the  three  kinds  of  Compound  Substances.  This  last  science  is 
styled  'Hermetic,'  or  'The  operating  of  the  Great  Work.' ' 

The  Ritual  of  the  Degree  of  Kabalistic  and  Hermetic  Rose  ^> 
has  these  passages : 

"The  true  Philosophy,  known  and  practised  by  Solomon,  is  the 
basis  on  which  Masonry  is  founded. 

"Our  Ancient  Masons  have  concealed  from  us  the  most  im- 
portant point  of  this  Divine  Art,  under  hieroglyphical  characters, 
which  are  but  enigmas  and  parables,  to  all  the  Senseless,  the 
Wicked,  and  the  Ambitious. 

"He  will  be  supremely  fortunate,  who  shall,  by  arduous  labor, 
discover  this  sacred  place  of  deposite,  wherein  all  naked  the  sub- 
lime Truth  is  hidden ;  for  he  may  be  assured  that  he  has  found 
the  True  Light,  the  True  Felicity,  the  True  Heavenly  Good.  Then 
may  it  truly  be  said  that  he  is  one  of  the  True  Elect ;  for  it  is  the 
only  real  and  most  Sublime  Science  of  all  those  to  which  a  mortal 
can  aspire:  his  days  will  be  prolonged,  and  his  soul  freed  of  all 
vices  and  corruption;  into  which"  (it  is  added,  to  mislead,  as  if 
from  fear  too  much  would  be  disclosed),  "the  human  race  is  often 
led  by  indigence" 


786  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

As  the  symbolism  of  the  Hall  and  the  language  of  the  ritual 
mutually  explain  each  other,  it  should  be  noted  here,  that  in  this 
Degree  the  columns  of  the  hall,  12  in  number,  are  white  variegated 
with  black  and  red.  The  hangings  are  black,  and  over  that  crimson. 
'  Over  the  throne  is  a  great  Eagle,  in  gold, -on  a  black  ground. 
In  the  centre  of  the  Canopy  the  Blazing  Star  in  gold,  with  the 
letter  Yod  in  its  centre.  On  the  right  and  left  of  the  throne  are 
the  Sun  in  gold  and  the  Moon  in  silver.  The  throne  is  ascended 
to  by  three  Steps.  The  hall  and  ante-room  are  each  lighted  by 
ten  lights,  and  a  single  one  at  the  entrance.  The  colors,  black, 
white,  and  crimson  appear  in  the  clothing;  and  the  Key  and 
Balance  are  among  the  symbols. 

The  duty  of  the  Second  Grand  Prior,  says  the  Ritual,  is  "to 
see  if  the  Chapter  is  hermetically  sealed ;  whether  the  materials 
are  ready,  and  the  elements  ;  whether  the  Black  gives  place  to  the 
White,  and  the  White  to  the  Red." 

"Be  laborious,"  it  says,  "like  the  Star,  and  procure  the  light  of 
the  Sages,  and  hide  yourself  from  the  Stupid  Profane  and  the 
Ambitious,  and  be  like  the  Owl,  which  sees  only  by  night,  and 
hides  itself  from  treacherous  curiosity." 

"The  Sun,  on  entering  each  of  his  houses,  should  be  received 
there  by  the  four  elements,  which  you  must  be  careful  to  invite 
to  accompany  you,  that  they  may  aid  you  in  your  undertaking ; 
for  without  them  the  House  would  be  melancholy :  wherefore  you 
will  give  him  to  feast  upon  the  four  elements. 

"When  he  shall  have  visited  his  twelve  houses,  and  seen  you 
attentive  there  to  receive  him,  you  will  become  one  of  his  chiefest 
favorites,  and  he  will  allow  you  to  share  all  his  gifts.  Matter 
will  then  no  longer  have  power  over  you ;  you  will,  so  to  say, 
be  no  longer  a  dweller  on  the  earth ;  but  after  certain  periods 
you  will  give  back  to  it  a  body  which  is  its  own,  to  take  in  its 
stead  one  altogether  Spiritual.  Matter  is  then  deemed  to  be  dead 
to  the  world. 

"Therefore  it  must  be  re-vivified,  and  made  to  be  born  again 
from  its  ashes,  which  you  will  effect  by  virtue  of  the  vegetation  of 
the  Tree  of  Life,  represented  to  us  by  the  branch  of  acacia. 
Whoever  shall  learn  to  comprehend  and  execute  this  great  work, 
will  know  great  things,  say  the  Sages  of  the  work ;  but  when- 
ever you  depart  from  the  centre  of  the  Square  and  the  Compass 
you  will  no  longer  be  able  to  work  with  success. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRINCE  ADEPT.  787 

"Another  Jewel  is  necessary  for  yon,  and  in  certain  undertak- 
ings cannot  be  dispensed  with.  It  is  what  is  termed  the  Kaba- 
listic  pantacle  .  .  .  This  carries  with  it  the  power  of  commanding 
the  spi.'its  of  the  elements.  It  is  necessary  for  you  to  know  how 
to  use  it,  and  that  you  will  learn  by  perseverance  if  you  are*  a 
lover  of  the  science  of  our  predecessors  the  Sages. 

"A  great  Black  Eagle,  the  King  of  Birds.  He  alone  it  is  that 
can  fire  the  Sun,  material  in  its  nature,  that  has  no  form,  and  yet 
by  its  form  develops  color.  The  black  is  a  complete  harbinger 
of  the  work  :  it  changes  color  and  assumes  a  natural  form,  out 
whereof  will  emerge  a  brilliant  Sun. 

"The  birth  of  the  Sun  is  always  announced  by  its  Star,  repre- 
sented by  the  Blazing  Star,  which  you  will  know  by  its  fiery 
color ;  and  it  is  followed  in  its  course  by  the  silvery  lustre  of  the 
Moon. 

"A  rough  Ashlar  is  the  shapeless  stone  which  is  to  be  prepared 
in  order  to  commence  the  philosophical  work  ;  and  to  be  developed, 
in  order  to  change  its  form  from  triangular  to  cubic,  after  the 
separation  from  it  of  its  Salt,  Sulphur,  and  Mercury,  by  the  aid  of 
the  Square,  Level,  Plumb,  and  Balance,  and  all  the  other  Masonic 
implements  u'hich  u'c  use  symbolically. 

"Here  we  put  them  to  philosophical  use,  to  constitute  a  well- 
proportioned  edifice,  through  which  you  are  to  make  pass  the 
crude  material,  analogous  to  a  candidate  commencing  his  initia- 
tion into  our  Mysteries.  When  we  build  we  must  observe  all  the 
rules  and  proportions ;  for  otherwise  the  Spirit  of  Life  cannot 
lodge  therein.  So  you  will  build  the  great  tower,  in  which  is  to 
burn  the  fire  of  the  Sages,  or,  in  other  words,  the  fire  of  Heaven ; 
as  also  the  Sea  of  the  Sages,  in  which  the  Sun  and  Moon  are  to 
bathe.  That  is  the  basin  of  Purification,  in  which  will  be  the 
water  of  Cekstial  Grace,  water  that  doth  not  soil  the  hands,  but 
purifies  all  leprous  bodies. 

"Let  us  labor  to  instruct  our  Brother,  to  the  end  that  by  his 
toils  he  may  succeed  in  discovering  the  principle  of  life  contained 
in  the  profundity  of  matter,  and  known  by  the  name  of  Alka- 
hest. 

"The  most  potent  of  the  names  of  Deity  is  ADONAI.  Its  power 
is  to  put  the  Universe  in  movement :  and  the  Knights  who  shall 
be  fortunate  enough  to  possess  it,  with  weight  and  measure,  shall 
have  at  their  disposition  all  the  potences  that  inhabit  it,  the  El/" 


788  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

ments,  and  the  cognizance  of  all  the  virtues  and  sciences  that  man 
is  capable  of  knowing.  By  its  power  they  would  succeed  in  dis- 
covering the  primary  metai  of  the  Sun,  which  holds  within  itself 
the  Principle  of  the  germ,  and  wherewith  we  can  put  in  alliance 
the  six  other  metals,  each  of  which  contains  the  principles  and 
primitive  seed  of  the  grand  philosophical  work. 

"The  six  other  nietals  are  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus,  Mer- 
cury, and  Luna ;  vulgarly  known  as  Lead,  Tin,  Iron,  Copper, 
Quicksilver,  and  Silver.  Gold  is  not  included ;  because  it  is  not  in 
its  nature  a  metal.  It  is  all  Spirit  and  incorruptible ;  wherefore  it 
is  the  emblem  of  the  Sun,  which  presides  over  the  Light. 

"The  vivifying  Spirit,  called  Alkahest,  has  in  itself  the  genera- 
tive virtue  of  producing  the  triangular  Cubical  Stone,  and  contains 
in  itself  all  the  virtues  to  render  men  happy  in  this  wrorld  and  in 
that  to  come.  To  arrive  at  the  composition  of  that  Alkahest,  we 
begin  by  laboring  at  the  science  of  the  union  of  the  four  Elements 
which  are  to  be  educed  from  the  three  Kingdoms  of  Nature,  Min- 
eral, Vegetable,  and  Animal ;  the  rule,  measure,  weight,  and  equi- 
poise whereof  have  each  their  key.  We  then  employ  in  one  work 
the  animals,  vegetables,  and  minerals,  each  in  his  season,  which 
make  the  space  of  the  Houses  of  the  Sun,  where  they  have  all  the 
virtues  required. 

"Something  from  each  of  the  three  Kingdoms  of  Nature  is 
assigned  to  each  Celestial  House,  to  the  end  that  everything  may 
be  done  in  accordance  with  sound  philosophical  rules ;  and  that 
everything  may  be  thoroughly  purified  in  its  proper  time  and  place 
in  order  to  be  presented  at  the  wedding-table  of  the  Spouse  and 
the  six  virgins  who  hold  the  mystic  shovel,  without  a  common  fire, 
but  with  an  elementary  fire,  that  comes  primarily  by  attraction, 
and  by  digestion  in  the  philosophical  bed  lighted  by  the  four 
elements. 

"At  the  banquet  of  the  Spouses,  the  viands,  being  thoroughly 
purified,  are  served  in  Salt,  Sulphur,  Spirit,  and  Oil ;  a  sufficient 
quantity  thereof  is  taken  every  month,  and  therewith  is  com- 
pounded, by  means  of  the  Balance  of  Solomon,  the  Alkahest,  tc 
serve  the  Spouses,  when  they  are  laid  on  the  nuptial  bed.  there  to 
engender  their  embryo,  producing  for  the  human  race  immense 
treasures,  that  will  last  as  long  as  the  world  endures. 

"Few  are  capable  of  engaging  in  this  great  work.  Only  the 
true  Free-Masons  may  of  right  aspire  to  it ;  and  even  of  them, 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN, 


PRINCE  ADEPT. 


7*9 


very  few  are  worthy  to  attain  it,  because  most  of  them  are  ignorant 
of  the  Clavicules  and  their  contents,  and  of  the  1'antacle  of  Solo- 
mon, which  teaches  how  to  labor  at  the  great  work. 

"The  weight  raised  by  Solomon  with  his  balance  was  I,  2,  3,  4, 
5  ;  which  contains  25  times  unity,  2  multiplied  by  2 ;  3  multiplied 
by  3;  4  multiplied  by  4;  5  multiplied  by  5,  and  once  9;  these 
numbers  thus  involving  the  squares  of  5  and  2,  the  cube  of  2,  the 
square  of  the  square  of  2,  and  the  square  of  3." 

Thus  far  the  Ritual,  in  the  numbers  mentioned  by  it,  is  an  allu- 
sion to  the  47th  problem  of  Euclid,  a  symbol  of  Blue  Masonry, 
entirely  out  of  place  there,  and  its  meaning  unknown.  The  base 
of  the  right-angled  triangle  being  3,  and  the  perpendicular  4,  the 
hypothenuse  is  5.,  by  the  rule  that  the  sum  of  the  squares  of  the  two 
former  equals  the  square  of  the  latter, — 3  X  3  being  9  ;  and  4X4, 
16;  and  9  -|-  16  being  25,  the  square  of  5.  The  triangle  contains 
in  its  sides  the  numbers  i,  2,  and  3.  The  Perpendicular  is  the 
Male ;  the  Base,  the  Female ;  the  Hypothenuse,  the  product  of 
the  two. 


To  fix  the  volatile,  in  the  Hermetic  language,  means  to  mate- 
rialize the  spirit ;  to  volatilize  the  fixed  is  to  spiritualize  matter. 
To  separate  the  subtile  from  the  gross,  in  the  first  operation, 


790  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

which  is  wholly  internal,  is  to  free  our  soul  from  all  prejudice 
and  all  vice.  This  is  effected  by  the  use  of  the  philosophical 
SALT,  that  is  to  say,  of  WISDOM  ;  of  MERCURY,  that  is  to  say,  of 
personal  aptitude  and  labor;  and  of  SULPHUR,  which  represents 
the  vital  energy,  and  the  ardor  of  the  will.  Thus  we  succeed  in 
changing  into  spiritual  gold  such  things  even  as  are  of  least  value, 
and  even  the  foul  things  of  the  earth. 

It  is  in  this  sense  we  are  to  understand  the  parables  of  the  Her- 
metic philosophers  and  the  prophets  of  Alchemy ;  but  in  their 
works,  as  in  the  Great  Work,  we  must  skillfully  separate  the  sub- 
tile from  the  gross,  the  mystic  from  the  positive,  allegory  from 
theory.  If  you  would  read  them  with  pleasure  and  understand- 
ingly,  you  must  first  understand  them  allegorically  in  their  entirety 
and  then  descend  from  allegories  to  realities  by  way  of  the  corre- 
spondences or  analogies  indicated  in  the  single  dogma : 

"What  is  above  is  like  what  is  below ;  and  what  is  below  is  like 
what  is  above." 

The  treatise  "Minerva  Mnndi,"  attributed  to  Hermes  Tris- 
megistus,  contains,  under  the  most  poetical  and  profound  allego- 
ries, the  dogma  of  the  self-creation  of  beings,  or  of  the  law  of 
creation  that  results  from  the  accord  of  two  forces,  these  which 
the  Alchemists  called  the  Fixed  and  the  Volatile,  and  which  are, 
.in  the  Absolute,  Necessity  and  Liberty. 

When  the  Masters  in  Alchemy  say  that  it  needs  but  little  time 
and  expense  to  accomplish  the  works  of  Science,  when  they  affirm, 
above  all,  that  but  a  single  vessel  is  necessary,  when  they  speak 
of  the  Great  and  Single  furnace,  which  all  can  use,  which  is 
within  the  reach  of  all  the  world,  and  which  men  possess  with- 
out knowing  it,  they  allude  to  the  philosophical  and  moral  Alchemy. 
In  fact,  a  strong  and  determined  will  can,  in  a  little  while,  attain 
complete  independence;  and  we  all  possess  that  chemical  instru- 
ment, the  great  and  single  athanor  or  furnace,  which  serve^  to  sep- 
arate the  subtile  from  the  gross,  and  the  fixed  from  the  volatile. 
This  instrument,  complete  as  the  world,  and  accurate  as  the  math- 
ematics themselves,  is  designated  by  the  Sages  under  the  emblem 
of  the  Pentagram  or  Star  with  five  points,  the  absolute  sign  of 
human  intelligence. 

The  end  and  perfection  of  the  Great  Work  is  expressed,  in 
alchemy,  by  a  triangle  surmounted  by  a  cross :  and  the  letter  Tau, 
n,  the  last  of  the  Sacred  alphabet,  has  the  same  meaning. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT.  79! 

The  "elementary  fire,"  that  comes  primarily  by  attraction,  is 
evidently  Electricity  or  the  Electric  Force,  primarily  developed 
as  magnetism,  and  in  which  is  perhaps  the  secret  of  life  or  the 
vital  force. 

Paracelsus,  the  great  Reformer  in  medicine,  discovered  magnet- 
ism long  before  Mesmer,  and  pushed  to  its  last  consequences  this 
luminous  discovery,  or  rather  this  initiation  into  the  magic  of  the 
ancients,  who  understood  the  grand  magical  agent  better  than  we 
do,  and  did  not  regard  the  Astral  Light,  Azoth,  the  universal  mag- 
netism of  the  Sages,  as  an  animal  and  particular  fluid,  emanating 
only  from  certain  special  beings. 

The  four  Elements,  the  four  symbolic  animals,  and  the  re-dupli- 
cated Principles  correspond  with  each  other,  and  are  thus  arranged 
by  the  Hermetic  Masons : 

AZOTH. 

The  Eagle. 
AIR. 


M  H 


The  Air  and  Earth  represent  the  Male  Principle ;  and  the  Fire 
and  \Yater  belong  to  the  Female  Principle. 

To  these  four  forms  correspond  the  four  following  philosophical 
ideas. 

Spirit:  Matter:  Movement:  Repose. 

Alchemy  reduces  these  four  things  to  three : 

The  Absolute  :  the  Fixed :  the  Volatile. 

Reason :  Necessity :  Liberty :  are  the  synonyms  of  these 
three  words. 

As  all  the  great  Mysteries  of  God  and  the  Universe  are  thus 
hidden  in  the  Ternary,  it  everywhere  appears  in  Masonry  and  in 
the  Hermetic  Philosophy  under  its  mask  of  Alchemy.  It  even 


792  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

appears  where  Masons  do  not  suspect  it ;  to  teach  the  doctrine  of 
the  equilibrium  of  Contraries,  and  the  resultant  Harmony. 

The  double  triangle  of  Solomon  is  explained  by  Saint  John  in 
a  remarkable  manner :  There  are,  he  says,  three  witnesses  in 
Heaven, — the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  three 
witnesses  on  earth, — the  breath,  water,  and  blood.  He  thus  agrees 
with  the  Masters  of  the  Hermetic  Philosophy,  who  give  to  their 
Sulphur  the  name  of  Ether,  to  their  Mercury  the  name  of  philo- 
sophical water,  to  their  Salt  that  of  blood  of  the  dragon,  or  men- 
struum of  the  earth.  The  blood,  or  Salt,  corresponds  by  opposi- 
tion with  the  Father ;  the  Azothic,  or  Mercurial  water,  with  the 
Word,  or  Logos ;  and  the  breath,  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  the 
things  of  High  Symbolism  can  be  well  understood  only  by  the 
true  children  of  Science. 

Alchemy  has  its  Symbolic  Triad  of  Salt,  Sulphur,  and  Mer- 
cury,— man  consisting,  according  to  the  Hermetic  philosophers, 
of  Body,  Soul,  and  Spirit.  The  Dove,  the  Raven,  and  the  Phoenix 
are  striking  Symbols  of  Good  and  Evil,  Light  and  Darkness,  and 
the  Beauty  resulting  from  the  equilibrium  of  the  two. 

If  you  would  understand  the  true  secrets  of  Alchemy,  you 
must  study  the  works  of  the  Masters  with  patience  and  assiduity. 
Every  word  is  often  an  enigma ;  and  to  him  who  reads  in  haste, 
the  whole  will  seem  absurd.  Even  when  they  seem  to  teach  that 
the  Great  Work  is  the  purification  of  the  Soul,  and  so  to  deal  only 
with  morals,  they  most  conceal  their  meaning,  and  deceive  all  but 
the  Initiates. 

Yod  [c  or  "*]  is  termed  in  the  Kabalah  the  opife.v,  zvorkman  of 
the  Deity.  It  is,  says  the  Porta  C&lorum,  single  and  primal,  like 
one,  wnich  is  the  first  among  numbers;  and  like  a  point,  the  first 
before  all  bodies.  Moved  lengthwise,  it  produces  a  line,  which  is 
Vau,  and  this  moved  sidewise  produces  a  superficies,  which  is  Da- 
leth.  Thus  Yau  [l]  becomes  Daleth  [l];  for  movement  tends 
from  right  to  left ;  and  all  communication  is  from  above  to  below. 
The  plenitude  of  Yod,  that  is,  the  name  of  this  letter,  spelled,  is 
TV,  Y-O-D.  Vau  [which  represents  6]  and  Daleth  [4]  are  10 ; 
like  Yod,  their  principle. 

Yod,  says  the  Siphra  de  Zeniutha,  is  the  Symbol  of  Wisdom 
and  of  the  Father. 

The  Principle  called  Father,  says  the  Idra  Siita,  is  compre- 
hended in  Yod,  which  flows  downward  from  the  Holy  influence 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR   PRIXCE  ADEPT.  793 

wherefore  Yod  is  the  most  occult  of  all  the  letters ;  for  he  is  the 
beginning  and  end  of  all  things.  The  Supernal  Wisdom  is  Yod; 
and  all  things  are  included  in  Yod,  who  is  therefore  called  Father 
of  Fathers,  or  the  Generator  of  the  Universal.  The  Principle  of  all 
things  is  called  the  House  of  all  things  :  wherefore  Yfxl  is  the  begin- 
ning and  end  of  all  things;  as  it  is  written:  "Thou  hast  made  all 
things  in  Wisdom."  For  The  All  is  termed  Wisdom  ;  and  in  it  The 
All  is  contained  ;  and  the  summary  of  all  things  is  the  Holy  Xame. 
Yod,  says  the  Siplirc  de  Zcniittha,  signifying  the  Father,  ap- 
proaches the  letter  He,  which  is  the  Mother;  and  by  the  combina- 
tion of  these  two  is  denoted  that  luminous  influence  wherewith 
Binah  is  imbued  by  the  Supernal  Wisdom. 

In  the  name  in"1,  says  the  same,  are  included  the  Father,  Mother, 
and  Microprosopos,  their  issue.  He,  impregnated  by  Vau,  pro- 
duced Microprosopos,  or  Seir  Anpin. 

Wisdom,  Hakemah,  is  the  Principle  of  all  things :  it  is  the 
Father  of  Fathers,  and  in  it  are  the  beginning  and  end  of  all 
things.  Microprosopos,  the  second  Universal,  is  the  issue  of 
Wisdom,  the  Father,  and  Binah,  the  Mother,  and  is  composed  of 
the  six  Numerations,  Geburah,  Gedulah,  and  Tephareth,  Netsach, 
Hod,  and  Yesod  ;  is  represented  under  the  form  of  a  man,  and  said 
to  have  at  first  occupied  the  place  afterward  filled  by  the  world 
Briah  [of  Creation],  but  afterward  to  have  been  raised  to  the 
Aziluthic  sphere,  and  received  Wisdom,  Intelligence,  and  Cogni- 
tion [Daath]  from  the  Supernal  Wisdom  and  Intellectuality. 

Yau,  in  the  tri-literal  word,  denotes  these  six  members  of  Mi- 
croprosopos. For  this  latter  is  formed  after  the  fashion  of  Ma- 
croprosopos,  but  without  Kether,  the  will,  which  remains  in  the 
first  prototype  or  Universal ;  though  invested  with  a  portion  of 
the  Divine  Intellectual  Power  and  Capacity.  The  first  Universal 
does  not  use  the  first  person,  and  is  called  in  the  third  person,  N'~, 
HUA,  HE  :  but  the  second  Universal  speaks  in  the  first  person, 
using-  the  word  ^S,  AXI,  I. 

The  IDRA  RAP.PA.  or  Synodus  Magna,  one  of  the  books  of  the 
Sohar,  says  : 

The  Eldest  of  the  Fldest  [the  Absolute  Deity]  is  in  Microproso- 
pos. All  things  arc  one:  all  was.  all  is,  all  will  be:  there  neither 
will  be,  nor  is.  nor  has  been,  mutation. 

But  He  conformed  Himself,  by  the  formings,  into  a  form  that 
contains  all  forms,  in  a  form  which  comprehends  all  genera. 


794  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

This  form  is  in  the  likeness  of  His  form ;  and  is  not  that  form 
but  its  analogue :  wherefore  the  human  form  is  the  form  of  all 
above  and  below,  which  are  included  in  it :  and  because  it  em- 
braces all  above  and  below.  The  Most  Holy  so  took  form,  and  so 
Microprosopos  was  configured.  All  things  are  equally  one,  in  each 
of  the  two  Universals ;  but  in  the  second  His  ways  are  divided, 
and  judgment  is  on  our  side,  and  on  the  side  that  looks  toward 
us,  also,  they  differ. 

These  Secrets  are  made  known  only  to  the  reapers  in  the  Holy 
Field. 

The  Most  Holy  Ancient  is  not  called  ATHAH,  Thou,  but  HUA, 
He :  but  in  Microprosopos,  where  is  the  beginning  of  things,  He 
has  the  name  ATHAH,  and  also  AB,  Father.  From  Him  is  the 
beginning,  and  He  is  called  Thou,  and  is  the  Father  of  Fathers. 
He  issues  from  the  Non-Ens ;  and  therefore  is  beyond  cogni- 
tion. 

Wisdom  is  the  Principle  of  the  Universe,  and  from  it  thirty-two 
ways  diverge :  and  in  them  the  law  is  contained,  in  twenty-two 
letters  and  ten  words.  Wisdom  is  the  Father  of  Fathers,  and  in 
this  Wisdom  is  found  the  Beginning  and  the  End  :  wherefore  there 
is  a  wisdom  in  each  Universal,  one  above,  the  other  below. 

The  Commentary  of  Rabbi  Chajun  Vital,  on  the  Siphra  de 
Zenintha,  says  :  At  the  beginning  of  emanation,  Microprosopos 
issued  from  the  Father,  and  was  intermingled  with  the  Mother, 
under  the  mysteries  of  the  letter  H  [He],  resolved  in  VI,  that  is, 
Daleth  and  Vau ;  by  which  Yau  is  denoted  Microprosopos  :  because 
Vau  is  six,  and  he  is  constituted  of  the  six  parts  that  follow  Hake- 
mah  and  Binah.  Arid,  according  to  this  conception,  the  Father 
is  called  Father  of  Fathers,  because  from  Him  these  Fathers  pro- 
ceed, Benignity,  Severity,  and  Beauty.  Microprosopos  was  then 
like  the  letter  Van  in  the  letter  He,  because  He  had  no  head  ; 
but  when  He  was  now  born,  three  brains  were  constituted  for 
Him,  by  the  flow  of  Divine  Light  from  above. 

And  as  the  world  of  restitution  [after  the  vessels  of  the  Sephi- 
roth  below  Binah  had  been  broken,  that  from  the  fragments  evil 
might  be  created]  is  instituted  after  the  fashion  of  the  Balance, 
so  also  is  it  formed  throughout  in  the  human  form.  But  Mala- 
koth,  Regnum,  is  a  complete  and  separate  person,  behind  Micro- 
prosopos, and  in  conjunction  with  him,  and  the  two  are  called 
man. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR  PRINCE  ADEPT. 

The  first  world  [of  Inanity]  could  not  continue  and  did  not 
subsist,  because  it  had  no  human  conformation  nor  the  system  of 
the  Balance,  the  Sephiroth  being  points,  one  below  the  other. 
The  first  Adam  [Microprosopos,  as  distinguished  from  Macropro- 
sopos,  the  first  Occult  Adam]  was  the  beginning,  wherein  the  ten 
Numerations  proceeded  forth  from  potence  into  act. 

Microprosopos  is  the  second  garment  or  interposed  medium, 
with  respect  to  the  Elder  Most  Holy,  who  is  the  name  Tctragram- 
maton ;  and  he  is  called  Alohim  ;  because  the  former  is  Absolute 
Commiseration ;  while  in  Macroprosopos  his  lights  have  the  nature 
of  Severities,  with  respect  to  the  elder  Universal ;  though  they  are 
Commiseration,  with  respect  to  the  lights  of  Malakoth  and  the 
three  lower  worlds. 

All  the  conformations  of  Macroprosopos  come  from  the  first 
Adam  ;  who,  to  interpose  a  second  covering,  caused  a  single  spark- 
to  issue  from  the  sphere  of  Severity,  of  whose  five  letters  is  gener- 
ated the  name  Alohim.  With  this  issued  from  the  brain  a  most 
subtle  air,  which  takes  its  place  on  the  right  hand,  while  the  spark 
of  fire  is  on  the  left.  Thus  the  white  and  red  do  not  intermix,  that 
is,  the  Air  and  Fire,  which  are  Mercy  and  Judgment. 

Microprosopos  is  the  Tree  of  the  Knowledge  of  Good  and  Evil, 
his  Severities  being  the  Evil. 

REGNUM,  to  which  is  given  the  name  of  Word  of  The  Lord, 
superinvests  Heaven,  as  the  six  members  of  the  Degree  Tephareth 
are  called,  and  these  become  and  are  constituted  by  that  superior 
vestiture.  For  every  conformation  and  constitution  is  effected 
by  means  of  veiling,  because  occultation  here  is  the  same  as  mani- 
festation, the  excess  of  light  being  veiled,  so  that,  diminished  in 
intensity  and  degree,  it  may  be  received  by  those  below.  Those 
six  members  conceived  of  as  contained  in  Btnah,  are  said  to  be  in 
the  World  of  Creation  ;  as  in  Tephareth,  in  that  of  Formation  :  and 
as  in  Malakoth,  in  that  of  Fabrication. 

Before  the  institution  of  equilibrium,  face  was  not  toward  face : 
Microprosopos  and  his  wife  issuing  forth  back  to  back,  and  yet 
cohering.  So  above ;  before  the  prior  Adam  was  conformed  into 
male  and  female,  and  the  state  of  equilibrium  established,  the 
Father  and  Mother  were  not  face  to  face.  For  the  Father  denotes 
the  most  perfect  Love;  and  the  Mother  the  most  perfect  Rigor. 
And  the  seven  supernal  sons  who  proceeded  from  her.  from  Binah, 
who  brought  forth  seven,  were  all  most  perfect  rigors,  having  no 


796  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

connection  with  a  root  in  the  Most  Holy  Ancient;  that  is,  they 
were  all  dead,  destroyed,  shattered  ;  but  they  were  placed  in  equi- 
librium, in  the  equipoise  of  the  Occult  Wisdom,  when  it  was  con- 
formed into  male  and  female,  Rigor  and  Love,  and  they  were  then 
restored,  and  there  was  given  them  a  root  above. 

The  Father  is  Love  and  Mercy,  and  with  a  pure  and  subtle  Aur 
or  Benignity  impregnates  the  Mother,  who  is  Rigor  and  Severity 
of  Judgments ;  and  the  product  is  the  brain  of  Microprosopos. 

It  was  determined,  says  the  Introduction  to  the  Book  Sohar,  by 
the  Deity,  to  create  Good  and  Evil  in  the  world,  according  to  what 
is  said  in  Isaiah,  "ivho  makes  the  Light  and  creates  the  Evil"  But 
the  Evil  was  at  first  occult,  and  could  not  be  generated  and  brought 
forth,  except  by  the  sinning  of  the  First  Adam.  Wherefore  He 
determined  that  the  numerations  first  emanated,  from  Benignity 
downward,  should  be  destroyed  and  shattered  by  the  excessive 
influx  of  His  Light;  His  intention  being  to  create  of  them  the 
worlds  of  Evils.  But  the  first  three  were  to  remain  and  subsist, 
that  among  the  fragments  should  be  neither  Will,  Intellectual 
Tower,  nor  the  Capacity  of  Intellection  of  the  Divinity.  The  last 
reven  numerations  were  points,  like  the  first  three,  each  subsisting 
independently,  unsustained  by  companionship ;  which  was  the 
cause  of  their  dying  and  being  shattered. 

'  There  was  then  no  Love  between  them,  but  only  a  two-fold 
Fear ;  Wisdom,  for  example,  fearing  lest  it  should  ascend  again  to 
its  Source  in  Kether ;  and  also  lest  it  should  descend  into  Binah. 
Hence  there  was  no  union  between  any  two,  except  Hakemah  and 
Binah,  and  this  imperfect,  with  averted  faces.  This  is  the  mean- 
ing of  the  saying,  that  the  world  was  created  by  Judgment,  which 
is  fear.  And  so  that  world  could  not  subsist,  and  the  Seven  Kings 
were  dethroned,  until  the  attribute  of  Compassion  was  adjoined 
to  it,  and  then  restoration  took  place.  Thence  came  Love  and 
I'nion,  and  six  of  the  parts  were  united  into  one  person  ;  for  Love 
is  the  attribute  of  Compassion  or  Mercy. 

Binah  produced  the  Seven  Kings,  not  successively,  but  all  to- 
gether. The  Seventh  is  Regnum,  called  a  stone,  the  corner-stone, 
because  on  it  are  builded  the  palaces  of  the  three  lower  worlds. 

The  first  six  were  shattered  into  fragments ;  but  Regnum  was 
crushed  into  a  formless  mass,  lest  the  malignant  demons  created 
from  the  fragments  of  the  others  should  receive  bodies  from  it, 
since  from  it  came  bodies  and  vitality  [Nephesch]. 


KNIGHT  OF  THE  SUN,  OR    PRINCE   ADEPT.  797 

From  the  fragments  of  the  vessels  came  all  Kvils ;  judgments, 
turbid  waters,  impurities,  the  Serpent,  and  Adam  Belial  [Baal]. 
But  their  internal  light  re-ascended  to  Binah,  and  then  flowed 
down  again  into  the.  worlds  Briah  and  Yezirah,  there  to  form 
vestiges  of  the  Seven  Numerations.  The  Sparks  of  the  great  In- 
fluence of  the  shattered  vases  descending  into  the  four  spiritual 
elements,  Fire,  Air,  Water,  and  Earth,  and  thence  into  the  inan- 
imate, vegetable,  living,  and  speaking  kingdoms,  became  Souls. 

Selecting  the  suitable  from  the  unsuitable  lights,  and  separat- 
ing the  good  from  the  evil,  the  Deity  first  restored  the  universal- 
ity of  the  Seven  Kings  of  the  World  Aziluth,  and  afterward  the 
three  other  Worlds. 

And  though  in  them  were  both  good  and  evil,  still  this  evil 
did  not  develop  itself  in  act,  since  the  Severities  remained,  though 
mitigated ;  some  portion  of  them  being  necessary  to  prevent  the 
fragments  of  the  integuments  from  ascending.  These  were  also 
left,  because  connection  of  two  is  necessary  to  generation.  And 
this  necessity  for  the  existence  of  Severity  is  the  mystery  of  the 
pleasure  and  warmth  of  the  generative  appetite ;  and  thence  Love 
between  husband  and  wife. 

If  the  Deity,  says  the  Introduction,  had  not  created  worlds  and 
then  destroyed  them,  there  could  have  been  no  evil  in  the  world, 
but  all  things  must  have  been  good.  There  would  have  been 
neither  reward  nor  punishment  in  the  world.  There  would  have 
been  no  merit  in  righteousness,  for  the  Good  is  known  by  the  evil, 
nor  would  there  have  been  fruitfulness  or  multiplication  in  the 
world.  If  all  carnal  concupiscence  were  enchained  for  three  days 
in  the  mouth  of  the  great  abyss,  the  egg  of  one  of  the  days  would 
be  wanting  to  the  sick  man.  In  time  to  come  it  will  be  called 
Laban  [i;*? — cuhite\,  because  it  will  be  whitened  of  its  impurity, 
and  will  return  to  the  realm  Israel,  and  they  will  pray  the  Lord 
to  give  them  the  appetite  of  carnal  concupiscence,  for  the  beget- 
ting of  children. 

The  intention  of  God  was,  when  He  created  the  world,  that  His 
creatures  should  recognize  His  existence.  Therefore  He  created 
evils,  to  afflict  them  withal  when  they  should  sin,  and  Light  and 
Blessing  to  reward  the  just.  And  therefore  man  necessarily  has 
free-will  and  election,  since  Good  and'Evil  are  in  the  World. 

And  these  kings  died,  says  the  Commentary,  because  the  con- 
dition of  equilibrium  did  not  yet  exist,  nor  was  Adam  Kadmon 


798  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

formed  male  and  female.  They  were  not  in  contact  with  what 
was  alive :  nor  had  any  root  in  Adam  Kadmon ;  nor  was  Wisdom 
which  outflowed  from  Him,  their  root,  nor  did  they  connect  with 
it.  For  all  these  were  pure  mercies  and  most  simple  Love ;  but 
those  were  rigorous  judgments.  Whence  face  looked  not  toward 
face;  nor  the  Father  toward  the  Mother,  because  from  her  pro- 
ceeded judgments.  Nor  Macroprosopos  toward  Microprosopos. 
And  Regnum,  the  last  numeration,  was  empty  and  inane.  It  has 
nothing  of  itself;  and,  as  it  were,  was  nothing,  receiving  nothing 
from  them.  Its  need  was,  to  receive  Love  from  the  Male ;  for  it 
is  mere  rigor  and  judgment ;  and  the  Love  and  Rigor  must  tem- 
per each  other,  to  produce  creation,  and  its  multitudes  above  and 
below.  For  it  was  made  to  be  inhabited ;  and  when  rigorous 
judgments  rule  in  it,  it  is  inane  because  its  processes  cannot  be 
carried  on. 

Wherefore  the  Balance  must  needs  be  instituted,  that  there  might 
be  a  root  above,  so  that  judgments  might  be  restored  and  tempered, 
and  live  and  not  again  die.  And  Seven  Conformations  descend ; 
and  all  things  become  in  equilibrium,  and  the  needle  of  the  Balance 
is  the  root  above. 

In  the  world  Yezirah,  says  the  Pneumatica  Kabalistica,*  de- 
notes Kether;  H*1,  Hakemah  and  Binah;  and  liT,  Gedulah,  Geburah, 
and  Tephareth ;  and  thus  Yau  is  Beauty  and  Harmony.  The 
Man  is  Hakemah ;  the  Eagle,  Binah ;  the  Lion,  Gedulah ;  and  the 
Ox,  Geburah.  And  the  mysterious  circle  is  thus  formed  by  the 
Sohar  and  all  the  Kabalists :  Michael  and  the  face  of  the  Lion 
are  on  the  South,  and  the  right  hand,  with  the  letter  \  Yod,  and 
Water ;  Gabriel  and  the  face  of  the  Ox,  on  the  Xorth.  and  left 
hand,  with  the  first  n  of  the  Tetragrammaton  and  Fire ;  Uriel  and 
the  face  of  the  Eagle,  on  the  East  and  forward,  with  1  and  Air; 
and  Raphael  and  the  face  of  the  Man,  on  the  West,  and  backward 
with  the  last  H  and  Earth.  In  the  same  order,  the  four  letters  rep- 
resent the  four  worlds. 

Rabbi  Schimeon  Ben  Jochai  says  that  the  four  animals  of  the 
Mysterious  Chariot,  whose  wheels  are  Xetsach  and  Hod.  are  Gedu- 
lah. whose  face  is  the  Lion's :  Geburah.  with  that  of  the  Ox ; 
Tephareth,  with  that  of  the  Eagle  ;  and  Malakoth.  with  that  of  the 
Man. 

The  Seven  lower  Sephiroth,  says  the  sLsch  Mesarcph,  will  rep- 
resent Seven  Metals:  Gedulah  and  Geburah,  Silver  and  Gold: 


KNIGHT  OF  Till-:  SUN,  OR    I'KIXCE  ADEPT.  79$ 

Tephareth,  Iron;  Xctsach  and  Hod,  Tin  and  Copper;  Yesod, 
Lead;  and  Malakoth  will  be  the  metallic  Woman  and  Morn  of  the 
Sages,  the  field  wherein  are  to  be  sowed  the  Seeds  of  the  Secret 
Minerals,  to  wit,  the  Water  of  Gold  ;  but  in  these  such  mysteries 
are  concealed  as  no  tongue  can  utter. 

The  word  DEX,  Amas,  is  composed  of  che  initials  of  the  three 
Hebrew  words  that  signify  Air,  Water,  and  Fire ;  by  which,  say 
the  Kabalists,  are  denoted  Benignity,  Judicial  Rigor,  and  Mercy 
or  Compassion  mediating  between  them. 

Malakoth,  says  the  Apparatus,  is  called  Haikal,  Temple  or 
Palace,  because  it  is  the  Palace  of  the  Degree  Tephareth,  which 
is  concealed  and  contained  in  it,  and  Haikal  denotes  the  place  in 
which  all  things  are  contained. 

For  the  better  understanding  of  the  Kabalah,  remember  that 
Kether,  or  the  Crown,  is  treated  of  as  a  person,  composed  of  the 
ten  Numerations,  and  as  such  termed  Arik  Anpin,  or  Macro- 
prosopos : 

That  Hakemah  is  a  person,  and  termed  Abba,  or  Father: 

That  Binah  is  a  person,  and  termed  Mother,  Imma: 

That  Tephareth,  including  all  the  Numerations  from  Khased 
or  Gedulah  to  Yesod,  is  a  person,  called  Seir  Anpin,  or  Micro- 
prosopos.  These  Numerations  are  six  in  number,  and  are  repre- 
sented by  the  interlaced  triangle,  or  the  Seal  of  Solomon. 

And  Malakoth  is  a  person,  and  called  the  wife  of  Micropro- 
sopos.  Vau  represents  the  Beauty  or  Harmony,  consisting  of  the 
six  parts  which  constitute  Seir  Anpin. 

The  wife,  Malakoth,  is  said  to  be  behind  the  husband,  Seir,  and 
to  have  no  other  cognition  of  him.  And  this  is  thus  explained : 
That  every  cognizable  object  is  to  be  known  in  two  ways  :  a  priori, 
which  is  when  it  is  known  by  means  of  its  cause,  or  of  itself ;  or, 
a  posteriori  when  it  is  known  by  its  effects.  The  most  nearly  per- 
fect mode  of  cognition  is,  when  the  intellect  knows  the  thing  itself, 
in  itself,  and  through  itself.  But  if  it  knows  the  thing  by  its  simili- 
tude or  idea,  or  species  separate  from  it,  or  by  its  effects  and 
operations,  the  cognition  is  much  feebler  and  more  imperfect. 
And  it  is  thus  only  that  Regnum,  the  wife  of  Seir,  knows  her 
husband,  until  face  is  turned  to  face,  when  they  unite,  and  she 
has  the  more  nearly  perfect  knowledge.  For  then  the  Deity,  as 
limited  and  manifested  in  Seir  and  the  Universe  are  one. 

Yau  is  Teyhareth,    considered    as    the    Unitv    in    which    ar< 


MORALS  ANT>  DOf.MA. 

the  six  members,  of  which  itself  is  one.  Tephareth,  Beauty,  is 
the  column  which  supports  the  world,  symbolized  by  the  column 
of  the  junior  Warden  in  the  Blue  Lodges.  The  world  was  first 
created  by  Judgment :  and  as  it  could  not  so  subsist,  Mercy  was 
conjoined  with  Judgment,  and  the  Divine  Mercies  sustain  the 
Universe. 

God,  says  the  Idra  Sitta,  formed  all  things  in  the  form  of  male 
and  female,  since  otherwise  the  continuance  of  things  was  im- 
possible. The  All-embracing  Wisdom,  issuing  and  shining  from 
the  Most  Holy  Ancient,  shines  not  otherwise  than  as  male  and 
female.  Wisdom  as  the  Father,  Intelligence  the  Mother,  are  in 
equilibrium  as  male  and  female,  and  they  are  conjoined,  and 
one  shines  in  the  other.  Then  they  generate,  and  are  expanded  in 
the  Truth.  Then  the  two  are  the  Perfection  of  all  things,  when 
they  are  coupled ;  and  when  the  Son  is  in  them,  the  summary  of 
all  things  is  in  one. 

These  things  are  intrusted  only  to  the  Holy  Superiors,  who  have 
entered  and  gone  out  and  known  the  ways  of  the  Most  Holy 
God,  so  as  not  to  err  in  them,  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left. 
For  these  things  are  hidden ;  and  the  lofty  Holinesses  shine  in 
them,  as  light  flows  from  the  splendor  of  a  lamp. 

These  things  are  committed  only  to  those  who  have  entered 
and  not  withdrawn ;  for  he  who  has  not  done  so  had  better  never 
have  been  born. 

All  things  are  comprehended  in  the  letters  Vau  and  He;  and 
all  are  one  system ;  and  these  are  the  letters,  fi  3  T  2  H,  Tabunah, 
Intelligence. 


XXIX. 

GRAND  SCOTTISH  KNIGHT  OF  ST. 
ANDREW. 

A  MIRACULOUS  tradition,  something  like  that  connected  with 
the  labarum  of  Constantine,  hallows  the  Ancient  Cross  of  St. 
Andrew.  Hungus,  who  in  the  ninth  century  reigned  over  the 
Picts  in  Scotland,  is  said  to  have  seen  in  a  vision,  on  the  night 
before  a  battle,  the  Apostle  Saint  Andrew,  who  promised  him  the 
victory;  and  for  an  assured  token  thereof,  he  told  him  that  there 
should  appear  over  the  Pictish  host,  in  the  air,  such  a  fashioned 
cross  as  he  had  suffered  upon.  Hungus,  awakened,  looking  up  at 
the  sky,  saw  the  promised  cross,  as  did  all  of  both  armies ;  and 
Hungus  and  the  Picts,  after  rendering  thanks  to  the  Apostle  for 
their  victory,  and  making  their  offerings  with  humble  devotion, 
vowed  that  from  thenceforth,  as  well  they  as  their  posterity,  in 
time  of  war,  would  wear  a  cross  of  St.  Andrew  for  their  badge 
and  cognizance. 

John  Leslie,  Bishop  of  Ross,  says  that  this  cross  appeared  to 
Achaius,  King  of  the  Scots,  and  Hungus,  King  of  the  Picts,  the 
night  before  the  battle  was  fought  betwixt  them  and  Athelstane, 
King  of  England,  as  they  were  on  their  knees  at  prayer. 

Every  cross  of  Knighthood  is  a  symbol  of  the  nine  qualities  of 
a  Knight  of  St.  Andrew  of  Scotland ;  for  every  order  of  chivalry 
required  of  its  votaries  the  same  virtues  and  the  same  excellencies. 

Humility,  Patience,  and  Self-denial  are  the  three  essential  qual- 
ities of  a  Knight  of  St.  Andrew  of  Scotland.  The  Cross,  sancti- 
fied by  the  blood  of  the  holy  ones  who  have  died  upon  it;  the 
801 


802  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Cross,  which  Jesus  of  Nazareth  bore,  fainting,  along  the  streets  of 
Jerusalem  and  up  to  Calvary,  upon  which  He  cried,  "Not  My 
will,  O  Father !  but  Thine  be  done,"  is  an  unmistakable  and  elo- 
quent symbol  of  these  three  virtues.  He  suffered  upon  it,  because 
He  consorted  with  and  taught  the  poor  and  lowly,  and  found  His 
disciples  among  the  fishermen  of  Galilee  and  the  despised  publi- 
cans. His  life  was  one  of  Humility,  Patience,  and  Self-denial. 

The  Hospitallers  and  Templars  took  upon  themselves  vows  of 
obedience,  poverty,  and  chastity.  The  Lamb,  which  became  the 
device  of  the  Seal  of  the  Order  of  the  Poor  Fellow  Soldiery  of  the 
Temple  of  Solomon,  conveyed  the  same  lessons  of  humility  and 
self-denial  as  the  original  device  of  two  Knights  riding  a  single 
horse.  The  Grand  Commander  warned  every  candidate  not  to  be 
induced  to  enter  the  Order  by  a  vain  hope  of  enjoying  earthly 
pomp  and  splendor.  He  told  him  that  he  would  have  to  endure 
many  things,  sorely  against  his  inclinations ;  and  that  he  would 
be  compelled  to  give  up  his  own  will,  and  submit  entirely  to  that 
of  his  superiors.  ^ 

The  religious  Houses  of  the  Hospitallers,  despoiled  by  Henry 
the  Eighth's  worthy  daughter,  Elizabeth,  because  they  would  not 
take  the  oath  to  maintain  her  supremacy,  had  been  Alms-houses, 
and  Dispensaries,  and  Foundling-asyla,  relieving  the  State  of 
many  orphan  and  outcast  children,  and  ministering  to  their  neces- 
sities. God's  ravens  in  the  wilderness,  bread  and  flesh  in  the  morn- 
ing, bread  and  flesh  in  the  evening.  They  had  been  Inns  to  the 
wayfaring  man,  who  heard  from  afar  the  sound  of  the  Vesper-bell, 
inviting  him  to  repose  and  devotion  at  once,  and  who  might  sing 
his  matins  with  the  Morning  Star,  and  go  on  his  way  rejoicing. 
And  the  Knights  were  no  less  distinguished  by  bravery  in  battle, 
than  by  tenderness  and  zeal  in  their  ministrations  to  the  sick  and 
dyii:^. 

The  Knights  of  St.  Andrew  vowed  to  defend  all  orphans,  maid- 
ens, and  \vidows  of  good  family,  and  wherever  they  heard  of  mur- 
derers, robbers,  or  masterful  thieves  who  oppressed  the  people,  to 
bring  them  to  the  laws,  to  the  best  of  their  power. 

"If  fortune  fail  you,"  so  ran  the  vows  of  Rouge-Croix,  "in 
clivers  lands  or  countries  wherever  you  go  or  ride  that  you  find 
any  gentleman  of  name  and  arms,  which  hath  lost  goods,  in  wor- 
ship and  Knighthood,  in  the  King's  service,  or  in  any  other  place 
fif  worship,  and  is  fallen  into  poverty,  YOU  shall  aid,  and  support, 


GRAND  SCOTTISH   KNIGHT  OF  ST.   ANDREW.  803 

and  succor  him,  in  that  you  may;  and  he  ask  of  you  your  goods 
to  his  sustenance,  you  shall  give  him  part  of  such  goods  as  God 
hath  sent  you  to  your  power,  and  as  you  may  bear." 

Thus  CHARITY  and  GENEROSITY  are  even  more  essential  quali- 
ties of  a  true  and  gentle  Knight,  and  have  been  so  in  all  ages ;  and 
so  also  hath  CLEMENCY.  It  is  a  mark  of  a  noble  nature  to  spare 
the  conquered.  Valor  is  then  best  tempered,  when  it  can  turn 
out  a  stern  fortitude  into  the  mild  strains  of  pity,  which  never 
shines  more  brightly  than  when  she  is  clad  in  steel.  A  martial 
man,  compassionate,  shall  conquer  both  in  peace  and  war ;  and  by 
a  twofold  way,  get  victory  with  honor.  The  most  famed  men  in 
the  world  have  had  in  them  bofh  courage  and  compassion.  An 
enemy  reconciled  hath  a  greater  value  than  the  long  train  of  cap- 
tives of  a  Roman  triumph. 

VIRTUE,  TRUTH,  and  HONOR  are  the  three  MOST  essential  qual- 
ities of  a  Knight  of  St.  Andrew.  "Ye  shall  love  God  above  all 
things,  and  be  steadfast  in  the  Faith,"  it  was  said  to  the  Knights, 
in  their  charge,  ''and  ye  shall  be  true  unto  your  Sovereign  Lord, 
and  true  to  your  word  and  promise.  Also,  ye  shall  sit  in  no  place 
where  that  any  judgment  should  be  given  wrongfully  against  any 
body,  to  your  knowledge." 

The  law  hath  not  power  to  strike  the  virtuous,  nor  can  fortune 
subvert  the  wise.  Virtue  and  Wisdom,  only,  perfect  and  defend 
man.  Virtue's  garment  is  a  sanctuary  so  sacred,  that  even  Princes 
dare  not  strike  the  man  that  is  thus  robed.  It  is  the  livery  of  the 
King  of  Heaven.  It  protects  us  when  we  are  unarmed  ;  and  is 
an  armor  that  we  cannot  lose,  unless  we  be  false  to  ourselves.  It 
is  the  tenure  by  which  we  hold  of  Heaven,  without  which  we  are 
but  outlaws,  that  cannot  claim  protection.  Nor  is  there  wisdom 
without  virtue,  but  only  a  cunning  way  of  procuring  our  own 
undoing. 

Peace  is  nigh 

Where  Wisdom's  voice  has  found  a  listening  heart. 
Amid  the  howl  of  more  than  winter  storms, 
The  halcyon  hears  the  voice  of  vernal  hours, 
Already  on  the  wing. 

Sir  Launcelot  thought  no  chivalry  equal  to  that  of  Virtue. 
This  word  means  not  continence  only,  but  cliieflv  manliness,  and 
so  includes  what  in  the  old  English  was  called  soit/i'rancc,  that 
patient  endurance  which  is  like  the  emerald,  ever  green  and  llou- 


804  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

ering;  and  also  that  other  virtue,  droicture,  uprightness,  a  virtue 
so  strong  and  so  puissant,  that  by  means  of  it  all  earthly  things 
almost  attain  to  be  unchangeable.  Even  our  swords  are  formed 
to  remind  us  of  the  Cross,  ?nd  you  and  any  other  of  us  may  live 
to  show  how  much  men  bear  and  do  not  die;  for  this  world  is  a 
place  of  sorrow  and  tears,  of  great  evils  and  a  constant  calamity, 
and  if  we  would  win  true  honor  in  it,  we  must  permit  no  virtue 
of  a  Knight  to  become  unfamiliar  to  us,  as  men's  friends,  coldly 
entreated  and  not  greatly  valued,  become  mere  ordinary  acquaint- 
ances. 

We  must  not  view  with  impatience  or  anger  those  who  injure 
us ;  for  it  is  very  inconsistent  with  philosophy,  and  particularly 
with  the  Divine  Wisdom  that  should  govern  every  Prince  Adept, 
to  betray  any  great  concern  about  the  evils  which  the  world, 
which  the  vulgar,  whether  in  robes  or  tatters,  can  inflict  upon  the 
brave.  The  favor  of  God  and  the  love  of  our  Brethren  rest  upon 
a  basis  which  the  strength  of  malice  cannot  overthrow ;  and  with 
these  and  a  generous  temper  and  noble  equanimity,  we  have  every- 
thing. To  be  consistent  with  our  professions  as  Masons,  to  retain 
the  dignity  of  our  nature,  the  consciousness  of  our  own  honor, 
the  spirit  of  the  high  chivalry  that  is  our  boast,  we  must  disdain 
the  evils  that  are  only  material  and  bodily,  and  therefore  can  be 
no  bigger  than  a  blow  or  a  cozenage,  than  a  wound  or  a  dream. 

Look  to  the  ancient  days,  Sir  E ,  for  excellent  examples 

of  VIRTUE,  TRUTH,  and  HONOR,  and  imitate  with  a  noble  emula- 
tion the  Ancient  Knights,  the  first  Hospitallers  and  Templars, 
and  Bayard,  and  Sydney,  and  Saint  Louis ;  in  the  words  of 
Pliny  to  his  friend  Maximus,  Revere  the  ancient  glory,  and  that 
old  age  which  in  man  is  venerable,  in  cities  sacred.  Honor  anti- 
quity and  great  deeds,  and  detract  nothing  from  the  dignity  and 
liberty  of  any  one.  If  those  who  now  pretend  to  be  the  great  and 
mighty,  the  learned  and  wise  of  the  world,  shall  agree  in  condem- 
ning the  memory  of  the  heroic  Knights  of  former  ages,  and  in 
charging  with  folly  us  who  think  that  they  should  be  held  in 
eternal  remembrance,  and  that  we  should  defend  them  from  an 
evil  hearing,  do  you  remember  that  if  these  who  now  claim  to 
rule  and  teach  the  world  should  condemn  or  scorn  your  poor  tri- 
bute of  fidelity,  still  it  is  for  you  to  bear  therewith  modestly,  and 
yet  not  to  be  ashamed,  since  a  day  will  come  when  these  who  now 
scorn  those  who  were  of  infinitely  higher  and  finer  natures  thai1 


GRAND  SCOTTISH   KNIGHT  OF  ST.   ANDREW.  805 

they  are,  will  be  pronounced  to  have  lived  poor  and  pitiful  lives, 
and  the  world  will  make  haste  to  forget  them. 

But  neither  must  you  believe  that,  even  in  this  very  different 
age,  of  commerce  and  trade,  of  the  vast  riches  of  many,  and  the 
poverty  of  thousands,  of  thriving  towns  and  tenement  houses 
swarming  with  paupers,  of  churches  with  rented  pews,  and 
theatres,  opera-houses,  custom-houses,  and  banks,  of  steam  and 
telegraph,  of  shops  and  commercial  palaces,  of  manufactories  and 
trades-unions,  the  Gold-room  and  the  Stock  Exchange,  of  news- 
papers, elections,  Congresses,  and  Legislatures,  of  the  frightful 
struggle  for  wealth  and  the  constant  wrangle  for  place  and  power, 
of  the  worship  paid  to  the  children  of  mammon,  and  covetousness 
of  official  station,  there  are  no  men  of  the  antique  stamp  for  you 
to  revere,  no  heroic  and  knightly  souls,  that  preserve  their  noble- 
ness and  equanimity  in  the  chaos  of  conflicting  passions,  of  ambi- 
tion and  baseness  that  welters  around  them. 

It  is  quite  true  that  Government  tends  always  to  become  a  con- 
spiracy against  liberty ;  or,  where  votes  give  place,  to  fall  habitu- 
ally into  such  hands  that  little  which  is  noble  or  chivalric  is  found 
among  those  who  rule  and  lead  the  people.  It  is  true  that  men, 
in  this  present  age,  become  distinguished  for  other  things,  and 
may  have  name  and  fame,  and  flatterers  and  lacqueys,  and  the  ob- 
lation of  flattery,  who  would,  .in  a  knightly  age,  have  been  despised 
for  the  want  in  them  of  all  true  gentility  and  courage ;  and  that 
such  men  are  as  likely  as  any  to  be  voted  for  by  the  multitude,  who 
rarely  love  or  discern  or  receive  truth  ;  who  run  after  fortune, 
hating  what  is  oppressed,  and  ready  to  worship  the  prosperous ; 
who  love  accusation  and  hate  apologies ;  and  who  are  always  glad 
to  hear  and  ready  to  believe  evil  of  those  who  care  not  for  their 
favor  and  seek  not  their  applause. 

But  no  country  can  ever  be  wholly  without  men  of  the  old  he- 
roic strain  and  stamp,  whose  word  no  man  will  dare  to  doubt, 
whose  virtue  shines  resplendent  in  all  calamities  and  reverses  and 
amid  all  temptations,  and  whose  honor  scintillates  and  glitters  as 
purely  and  perfectly  as  the  diamond — men  who  are  not  wholly  the 
slaves  of  the  material  occupations  and  pleasures  of  life,  wholly 
engrossed  in  trade,  in  the  breeding  of  cattle,  in  the  framing  and 
enforcing  of  revenue  regulations,  in  the  chicanery  of  the  law,  the 
objects  of  political  envy,  in  the  base  trade  of  the  lower  literature, 
or  in  the  heartless,  hollow  vanities  of  an  eternal  dissipation.  Every 


806  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

generation,  in  every  country,  will  bequeath  to  those  who  succeed 
it  splendid  examples  and  great  images  of  the  dead,  to  be  admired 
and  imitated ;  there  were  such  among  the  Romans,  under  the 
basest  Emperors ;  such  in  England  when  the  Long  Parliament 
ruled,  such  in  France  during  its  Saturnalia  of  irreligion  and  mur- 
der, and  some  such  have  made  the  annals  of  America  illustrious. 

When  things  tend  to  that  state  and  condition  in  which,  in  any 
country  under  the  sun,  the  management  of  its  affairs  and  the  cus- 
toms of  its  people  shall  require  men  to  entertain  a  disbelief  in  the 
virtue  and  honor  of  those  who  make  and  those  who  are  charged 
to  execute  the  laws ;  when  there  shall  be  everywhere  a  spirit  of 
suspicion  and  scorn  of  all  who  hold  or  seek  office,  or  have  amassed 
wealth ;  when  falsehood  shall  no  longer  dishonor  a  man,  and  oaths 
give  no  assurance  of  true  testimony,  and  one  man  hardly  expect 
another  to  keep  faith  with  him,  or  to  utter  his  real  sentiments,  or 
to  be  true  to  any  party  or  to  any  cause  when  another  approaches 
him  \vith  a  bribe ;  when  no  one  shall  expect  what  he  says  to  be 
printed  without  additions,  perversions,  and  misrepresentations ; 
when  public  misfortunes  shall  be  turned  to  private  profit,  the  press 
pander  to  licentiousness,  the  pulpit  ring  with  political  harangues, 
long  prayers  to  God,  eloquently  delivered  to  admiring  auditors, 
be  written  out  for  publication,  like  poems  and  political  speeches ; 
when  the  uprightness  of  judges  shall, be  doubted,  and  the  honesty 
of  legislators  be  a  standing  jest;  then  men  may  come  to  doubt 
whether  the  old  days  were  not  better  than  the  new,  the  Monastery 
than  the  Opera  Bouffe,  the  little  chapel  than  the  drinking-saloon, 
the  Convents  than  the  buildings  as  large  as  they,  without  their 
antiquity,  without  their  beauty,  without  their  holiness,  true 
Acherusian  Temples,  where  the  passer-by  hears  from  within  the 
never-ceasing  din  and  clang  and  clashing  of  machinery,  and  where, 
when  the  bell  rings,  it  is  to  call  wretches  to  their  work  and  not 
to  their  prayers ;  where,  says  an  animated  writer,  they  keep  up  a 
perennial  laudation  of  the  Devil,  before  furnaces  which  are  never 
suffered  to  cool. 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  whatever  withdraws  us  from  the 
power  of  our  senses,  whatever  makes  the  Past,  the  Distant,  or  the 
Future,  predominate  over  the  Present,  advances  us  in  the  dignity 
of  thinking  beings.  The  modern  rivals  of  the  German  Spa,  with 
their  flaunting  pretences  and  cheap  finery,  their  follies  and  frivoli- 
ties, their  chronicles  of  dances  and  inelegant  feasts,  and  their  bul- 


CRAND  SCOTTISH    KNIGHT  OF  ST.   ANDREW.  807 

letins  of  women's  names  and  dresses,  are  poor  substitutes  for  the 
Monastery  and  Church  which  our  ancestors  would  have  built  in 
the  deep  sequestered  valleys,  shut  up  between  rugged  mountains 
and  forests  of  sombre  pine ;  and  a  man  of  meditative  temper, 
learned,  and  of  poetic  feeling,  would  be  glad  if  he  could  exchange 
the  showy  hotel,  amid  the  roar  and  tumult  of  the  city,  or  the  pre- 
tentious tavern  of  the  country-town,  for  one  old  humble  Monas- 
tery by  the  wayside,  where  he  could  refresh  himself  and  his  horse 
without  having  to  fear  either  pride,  impertinence,  or  knavery,  or 
to  pay  for  pomp,  glitter,  and  gaudy  ornamentation  ;  then  where 
he  could  make  his  orisons  in  a  church  which  resounded  with  divine 
harmony,  and  there  were  no  pews  for  wealth  to  isolate  itself 
within ;  where  he  could  behold  the  poor  happy  and  edified  and 
strengthened  with  the  thoughts  of  Heaven ;  where  he  could  then 
converse  with  learned  and  holy  and  gentle  men,  and  before  he 
took  his  departure  could  exalt  and  calm  his  spirits  by  hearing 
the  evening  song. 

Even  Free-Masonry  has  so  multiplied  its  members  that  its  obli- 
gations are  less  regarded  than  the  simple  promises  which  men 
make  to  one  another  upon  the  streets  and  in  the  markets.  It 
clamors  for  public  notice  and  courts  notoriety  by  scores  of  injudi- 
cious journals  ;  it  wrangles  in  these, or, incorporated  by  law,  carries 
its  controversies  into  the  Courts.  Its  elections  are,  in  some  Orients, 
conducted  with  all  the  heat  and  eagerness,  the  office-seeking  and 
management  of  political  struggles  for  place.  And  an  empty  pomp, 
with  semi-military  dress  and  drill,  of  peaceful  citizens,  glittering 
with  painted  banners,  plumes,  and  jewels,  gaudy  and  ostentatious, 
commends  to  the  public  favor  and  female  admiration  an  Order 
that  challenges  comparison  with  the  noble  Knights,  the  heroic 
soldiery  encased  in  steel  and  mail,  stern  despisers  of  clanger  and 
death,  who  made  themselves  immortal  memories,  and  won  Jerusa- 
lem from  the  infidels  and  fought  at  Acre  and  Ascalon.  and  were 
the  bulwark  of  Christendom  against  the  Saracenic  legions  that 
swarmed  after  the  green  banner  of  the  Prophet  Mohammed. 

If  you.  Sir  E would  be  respectable  as  a  Knight,  and  not 

a  mere  tinselled  pretender  and  Knight  of  straw,  you  must  prac- 
tise, and  be  diligent  and  ardent  in  the  practice  of,  the  virtues  you 
have  professed  in  this  Degree.  How  can  a  Mason  vow  to  be  toler- 
ant, and  straightway  denounce  another  for  hig  political  opinions? 
How  vow  to  be  zealous  and  constant  in  the  service  of  the  Order, 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  be  as  useless  to  it  as  if  he  were  dead  and  buried  ?  What  does 
the  symbolism  of  the  Compass  and  Square  profit  him,  if  his  sen- 
sual appetite-s  and  baser  passions  are  not  governed  by,  but  domi- 
neer over  his  moral  sense  and  reason,  the  animal  over  the  divine, 
the  earthly  over  the  spiritual,  both  points  of  the  compass  remain- 
ing below  the  Square?  What  a  hideous  mockery  to  call  one 
"Brother,"  whom  he  maligns  to  the  Profane,  lends  money  unto 
at  usury,  defrauds  in  trade,  or  plunders  at  law  by  chicanery? 

VIRTUE,  TRUTH,  HONOR! — possessing  these  and  never  proving 
false  to  your  vows,  you  will  be  worthy  to  call  yourself  a  Knight, 
to  whom  Sir  John  Chandos  might,  if  living,  give  his  hand,  and 
whom  St.  Louis  and  Falkland,  Tancred  and  Baldassar  Castiglione 
would  recognize  as  worthy  of  their  friendship. 

Chivalry,  a  noble  Spaniard  said,  is  a  religious  Order,  and  there 
are  Knights  m  the  fraternity  of  Saints  in  Heaven.  Therefore  do 
you  here,  and  for  all  time  to  come,  lay  aside  all  uncharitable  and 
repining  feeling;  be  proof  henceforward  against  the  suggestions 
of  undisciplined  passion  and  inhuman  zeal ;  learn  to  hate  the  vices 
and  not  the  vicious ;  be  content  with  the  discharge  of  the  duties 
which  your  Masonic  and  Knightly  professions  require ;  be  gov- 
erned by  the  old  principles  of  honor  and  chivalry,  and  reverence 
with  constancy  that  Truth  which  is  as  sacred  and  immutable  as 
God  Himself.  And  above  all,  remember  always,  that  jealousy  is 
not  our  life,  nor  disputation  our  end,  nor  disunion  our  health,  nor 
revenge  our  happiness;  but  loving-kindness  is  all  these,  greater 
than  Hope,  greater  than  Faith,  which  can  remove  mountains, 
properly  the  only  thing  which  God  requires  of  us,  and  in  the  pos- 
session of  which  lies  the  fulfillment  of  all  our  duties. 

[By  III.'.  Bro.'.  Rev.'.  W.  W.  Lord,  32°.] 

We  are  constrained  to  confess  it  to  be  true,  that  men,  in  this 
Age  of  Iron,  worship  gods  of  wood  and  iron  and  brass,  the  work 
of  their  own  hands.  The  Steam-Engine  is  the  pre-eminent  god 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  whose  idolaters  are  everywhere,  and 
those,  who  wield  its  tremendous  power  securely  account  them- 
selves gods,  everywhere  in  the  civilized  world. 

Others  confess  it  everywhere,  and  we  must  confess  here,  how  re- 
luctantly soever,  that  the  age  which  we  represent  is  narrowed  and 
not  enlarged  by  its  discoveries,  and  has  lost  a  larger  world  than  it 


,  GRAND  SCOTTISH   KNIGHT  OF  ST.   A  \DREW.  &X) 

has  gained.    If  we  cannot  go  as  far  as  the  satirist  who  says  that 
our  self-adored  century 

• its  broad  clown's  back  turns  broadly  on  the  glory  of  the  stars, 

we  can  go  with  him  when  he  adds, 

We  are  gods  by  our  own  reckoning,  and  may  as  well  shut  up  our  temples 
And  wield  on  amidst  the  incense-steam,  the  thunder  of  our  cars  : 
For  we  throw  out  acclamations  of  self-thanking,  self-admiring, 
With,  at  every  step,  "  Run  faster,  O  the  wondrous,  wondrous  agef 
Little  heeding  if  our  souls  are  wrought  as  nobly  as  our  iron, 
Or  if  angels  will  commend  us  at  the  goal  of  pilgrimage. 

Deceived  by  their  increased  but  still  very  imperfect  knowledge 
and  limited  mastery  of  the  brute  forces  of  nature,  men  imagine 
that  they  have  discovered  the  secrets  of  Divine  Wisdom,  and  do 
not  hesitate,  in  their  own  thoughts,  to  put  human  prudence  in  the 
place  of  the  Divine.  Destruction  was  denounced  by  the  Prophets 
against  Tyre  and  Sidon,  Babylon,  and  Damascus,  and  Jerusalem, 
as  a  consequence  of  the  sins  of  their  people ;  but  if  fire  now  con- 
sumes or  earthquake  shatters  or  the  tornado  crushes  a  great  city, 
those  are  scoffed  at  as  fanatics  and  sneered  at  for  indulging  in 
cant,  or  rebuked  for  Pharisaic  uncharitableness,  who  venture  to 
believe  and  say  that  there  are  divine  retribution  and  God's  judg- 
ment in  the  ruin  wrought  by  His  mighty  agencies. 

Science,  wandering  in  error,  struggles  to  remove  God's  Provi- 
dence to  a  distance  from  us  and  the  material  Universe,  and  to  sub- 
stitute for  its  supervision  and  care  and  constant  overseeing,  what 
it  calls  Forces — Forces  of  Nature — Forces  of  Matter.  It  will  not 
see  that  the  Forces  of  Nature  are  the  varied  actions  of  God.  Hence 
it  becomes  antagonistic  to  all  Religion,  and  to  all  the  old  Faith 
that  has  from  the  beginning  illuminated  human  souls  and  consti- 
tuted their  consciousness  of  their  own  dignity,  their  divine  origin, 
and  their  immortality ;  that  Faith  which  is  the  Light  by  which 
the  human  soul  is  enabled,  as  it  were,  to  see  itself. 

It  is  not  one  religion  only,  but  the  basis  of  all  religions,  the 
Truth  that  is  in  all  religions,  even  the  religious  creed  of  Masonry, 
that  is  in  danger.  For  all  religions  have  owed  all  of  life  that  they 
have  had,  and  their  very  being,  to  the  foundation  on  which  they 
were  reared;  the  proposition,  deemed  undeniable  and  an  axiom,  that 
the  Providence  of  God  rules  directly  in  all  the  affairs  and  changes 
of  material  things.  The  Science  of  the  age  has  its  hands  upon 


8lO  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

the  pillars  of  the  Temple,  and  rocks  it  to  its  foundation.  As  yet 
its  destructive  efforts  have  but  torn  from  the  ancient  structure  the 
worm-eaten  fret-work  of  superstition,  and  shaken  down  some  inco- 
herent additions — owl-inhabited  turrets  of  ignorance,  and  massive 
props  that  supported  nothing.  The  structure  itself  will  be  over- 
thrown, when,  in  the  vivid  language  of  a  living  writer,  "Human 
reason  leaps  into  the  throne  of  God  and  waves  her  torch  over  the 
ruins  of  the  Universe." 

Science  deals  only  with  phenomena,  and  is  but  charlatanism 
when  it  babbles  about  the  powers  or  causes  that  produce  these,  or 
what  the  things  are,  in  essence,  of  which  it  gives  us  merely  the 
names.  It  no  more  knows  what  Light  or  Sound  or  Perfume  is, 
than  the  Aryan  cattle-herders  did,  when  they  counted  the  Dawn 
and  Fire,  Flame  and  Light  and  Heat  as  gods.  And  that  Atheistic 
Science  is  not  even  half-science,  which  ascribes  the  Universe  and 
its  powers  and  forces  to  a  system  of  natural  laws  or  to  an  inherent 
energy  of  Nature,  or  to  causes  unknown,  existing  and  operating 
independently  of  a  Divine  and  Supra-natural  power. 

That  theory  would  be  greatly  fortified,  if  science  were  always 
capable  of  protecting  life  and  property,  and,  with  anything  like 
the  certainty  of  which  it  boasts,  securing  human  interests  even 
against  the  destructive  agencies  that  man  himself  develops  in  his 
endeavors  to  subserve  them.  Fire,  the  fourth  enement,  as  the  old 
philosophers  deemed  it,  is  his  most  useful  and  abject  servant.  Why 
cannot  man  prevent  his  ever  breaking  that  ancient  indenture,  old 
as  Prometheus,  old  as  Adam  ?  Why  c~-i  he  not  be  certain  that  at 
any  moment  his  terrible  subject  may  not  break  forth  and  tower 
up  into  his  master,  tyrant,  destroyer?  It  is  because  it  also  is  a 
power  of  nature ;  which,  in  ultimate  trial  of  forces,  is  always  supe- 
rior to  man.  It  is  also  because,  in  a  different  sense  from  that  in 
which  it  is  the  servant  of  man,  it  is  the  servant  of  Him  Who 
makes  His  ministers  a  flame  of  fire,  and  Who  is  over  nature,  as 
nature  is  over  man. 

There  are  powers  of  nature  which  man  does  not  even  attempt 
to  check  or  control.  Naples  does  nothing  against  Vesuvius.  Val- 
paraiso only  trembles  with  the  trembling  earth  before  the  coming 
earthquake.  The  sixty  thousand  people  who  went  down  alive  into 
the  grave  when  Lisbon  buried  her  population  under  both  earth  and 
sea  had  no  knowledge  of  the  causes,  and  no  possible  control  over 
the  power,  that  effected  their  destruction. 


GRAND  SCOTTISH  KNIGHT  OF  ST.  ANDREW.  8ll 

But  here  the  servant,  and,  in  a  sense,  the  creature  of  man,  the 
drudge  of  kitchen  and  factory,  the  humble  slave  of  the  lamp,  en- 
gaged in  his  most  servile  employment,  appearing  as  a  little  point 
of  flame,  or  perhaps  a  feeble  spark,  suddenly  snaps  his  brittle 
chain,  breaks  from  his  prison,  and  leaps  with  destructive  fury,  as 
if  from  the  very  bosom  of  Hell,  upon  the  doomed  dwellings  of  fifty 
thousand  human  beings,  each  of  whom,  but  a  moment  before, 
conceived  himself  his  master.  And  those  daring  fire-brigades, 
with  their  water-artillery,  his  conquerors,  it  seemed',  upon  so  many 
midnight  fields,  stand  paralyzed  in  the  presence  of  their  conqueror. 

In  other  matters  relative  to  human  safety  and  interests  we  have 
observed  how  confident  science  becomes  upon  the  strength  of  some 
slight  success  in  the  war  of  man  with  nature,  and  how  much 
inclined  to  put  itself  in  the  place  of  Providence,  which,  by  the 
very  force  of  the  term,  is  the  only  absolute  science.  Near  the  be- 
ginning of  this  century,  for  instance,  medical  and  sanitary  science 
had  made,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  great  and  wonderful  prog- 
ress. The  great  plague  which  wasted  Europe  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  reappeared  in  the  seventeenth,  had 
been  identified  with  a  disease  which  yields  to  enlightened  treat- 
ment, and  its  ancient  virulence  was  attributed  to  ignorance  of 
hygiene,  and  the  filthy  habits  of  a  former  age.  Another  fatal  and 
disfiguring  scourge  had  to  a  great  extent  been  checked  by  the  dis- 
covery of  vaccination.  From  Sangrado  to  Sydenham,  from  Para- 
celsus to  Jenner,  the  healing  art  had  indeed  taken  a  long  stride. 
The  Faculty  might  be  excused  had  it  then  said,  "Man  is  mortal, 
disease  will  be  often  fatal ;  but  there  shall  be  no  more  unresisted 
and  unnecessary  slaughter  by  infectious  disease,  no  more  general 
carnage,  no  more  carnivals  of  terror  and  high  festivals  of  death." 

The  conceited  boast  would  hardly  have  died  upon  the  lip,  when, 
from  the  mysterious  depths  of  remotest  India  a  spectre  stalked 
forth,  or  rather  a  monster  crept,  more  fearful  than  human  eye  had 
ever  yet  beheld.  And  not  with  surer  instinct  does  the  tiger  of  the 
jungles,  where  this  terrible  pestilence  was  born,  catch  the  scent  of 
blood  upon  the  air,  than  did  this  invisible  Destroyer,  this  fearful 
agent  of  Almighty  Power,  this  tremendous  Consequence  of  some 
Sufficient  Cause,  scent  the  tainted  atmosphere  of  Europe  and  turn 
Westward  his  devastating  march.  The  millions  of  dead  left  in  his 
path  through  Asia  proved  nothing.  They  were  unarmed,  igno- 
rant, defenceless,  unaided  by  science,  undefended  by  art.  The 


8l2  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

cholera  was  to  them  inscrutable  and  irresistible  as  Azrael,  the 
Angel  of  Death. 

But  it  came  to  Europe  and  swept  the  halls  of  science  as  it  had 
swept  the  Indian  village  and  the  Persian  khan.  It  leaped  as  noise- 
lessly and  descended  as  destructively  upon  the  population  of  many 
a  high-towered,  wide-paved,  purified,  and  disinfected  city  of  the 
West  as  upon  the  Pariahs  of  Tan j  ore  and  the  filthy  streets  of 
Stamboul.  In  Vienna,  Paris,  London,  the  scenes  of  the  great 
plague  were  re-enacted. 

The  sick  man  started  in  his  bed, 

The  watcher  leaped  upon  the  floor, 
At  the  cry,  Bring  out  your  dead, 

The  cart  is  at  the  door ! 

Was  this  the  judgment  of  Almighty  God?  He  would  be  bold 
who  should  say  that  it  was ;  he  would  be  bolder  who  should  say  it 
was  not.  To  Paris,  at  least,  that  European  Babylon,  how  often 
have  the  further  words  of  the  prophet  to  the  daughter  of  the  Chal- 
dseans,  the  lady  of  kingdoms,  been  fulfilled?  "Thy  wisdom  and 
thy  knowledge  have  perverted  thee,  and  thou  hast  said  in  thy 
heart  I  am  and  none  else  beside  me.  Therefore  shall  evil  come 
upon  thee ;  thou  shalt  not  know  whence  it  riseth ;  and  mischief 
shall  fall  upon  thee ;  thou  shalt  not  be  able  to  put  it  off ;  desolation 
shall  come  upon  thee  suddenly." 

And  as  to  London — it  looked  like  judgment,  if  it  be  true  that 
the  Asiatic  cholera  had  its  origin  in  English  avarice  and  cruelty, 
as  they  suppose  who  trace  it  to  the  tax  which  Warren  Hastings, 
when  Governor-General  of  India,  imposed  on  salt,  thus  cutting 
off  its  use  from  millions  of  the  vegetable-eating  races  of  the  East : 
just  as  that  disease  whose  spectral  shadow  lies  always  upon  Amer- 
ica's threshold,  originated  in  the  avarice  and  cruelty  of  the  slave- 
trade,  translating  the  African  coast  fever  to  the  congenial  climate 
of  the  We"st  Indies  and  Southern  America — the  yellow  fever  of  the 
former,  and  the  i-omito  negro  of  the  latter. 

But  we  should  be  slow  to  make  inferences  from  our  petty  hu- 
man logic  to  the  ethics  of  the  Almighty.  Whatever  the  cruelty 
of  the  slave-trade,  or  the  severity  of  slavery  on  the  continents  or 
islands  of  America,  we  should  still,  in  regard  to  its  supposed  con- 
sequences, be  wiser,  perhaps,  to  say  with  that  great  and  simple 
Casuist  Who  gave  the  world  the  Christian  religion  :  "Suppose  ye 
that  these  Galileans  were  sinners  above  all  the  Galileans  because 


GfcANt)  SCOTTISH  KNIGHT  OF  ST.  ANDREW.  813 

they  suffered  such  things?  or  those  eighteen  upon  whom  the 
tower  of  Siloani  fell  and  slew  them,  think  ye  that  they  were  sin- 
ners above  all  the  men  that  dwelt  in  Jerusalem  ?" 

Retribution  bars  retaliation,  even  in  words.  A  city  shattered, 
burned,  destroyed,  desolate,  a  land  wasted,  humiliated,  made  a 
desert  and  a  wilderness,  or  wearing  the  thorny  crown  of  humilia- 
tion and  subjugation,  is  invested  with  the  sacred  prerogatives  and 
immunities  of  the  dead.  The  base  human  revenge  of  exultation 
at  its  fall  and  ruin  should  shrink  back  abashed  in  the  presence  of 
the  infinite  Divine  chastisement.  "Forgiveness  is  wiser  than  re- 
venge," our  Freemasonry  teaches  us,  "and  it  is  better  to  love  than 
to  hate."  Let  him  who  sees  in  great  calamities  the  hand  of  God, 
be  silent,  and  fear  His  judgments. 

Men  are  great  or  small  in  stature  as  it  pleases  God.  But  their 
nature  is  great  or  small  as  it  pleases  themselves.  Men  are  not 
born,  some  with  great  souls  and  some  with  little  souls.  One  by 
taking  thought  cannot  add  to  his  stature,  but  he  can  enlarge  his 
soul.  By  an  act  of  the  will  he  can  make  himself  a  moral  giant, 
or  dwarf  himself  to  a  pigmy. 

There  are  two  natures  in  man,  the  higher  and  the  lower,  the 
great  and  the  mean,  the  noble  and  the  ignoble ;  and  he  can  and 
must,  by  his  own  voluntary  act,  identify  himself  with  the  one  or 
with  the  other.  Freemasonry  is  continual  effort  to  exalt  the  no- 
bler nature  over  the  ignoble,  the  spiritual  over  the  material,  the 
divine  in  man  over  the  human.  In  this  great  effort  and  purpose 
the  chivalric  Degrees  concur  and  co-operate  with  those  that  teach 
the  magnificent  lessons  of  morality  and  philosophy.  Magnanim- 
ity, mercy,  clemency,  a  forgiving  temper,  are  virtues  indispensable 
to  the  character  of  a  perfect  Knight.  When  the  low  and  evil 
principle  in  our  nature  says,  "Do  not  give  ;  reserve  your  beneficence 
for  impoverished  friends,  or  at  least  unobjectionable  strangers. 
Do  not  bestow  it  on  successful  enemies, — friends  only  in  virtue, 
of  our  misfortunes,"  the  diviner  principle  whose  voice  spake  by  the 
despised  Galilean  says,  "Do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  for  if  ye 
love  them  (only)  who  love  you,  what  reward  have  you?  Do  not 
publicans  and  sinners  the  same"- — that  is.  the  tax-gatherers  and 
wicked  oppressors,  armed  Romans  and  renegade  Jews,  whom  ye 
count  your  enemies  ? 


XXX. 
KNIGHT     KADOSH. 

WE  often  profit  more  by  our  enemies  than  by  our  friends.  "We 
support  ourselves  only  on  that  which  resists,"  and  owe  our  success 
to  opposition.  The  best  friends  of  Masonry  in  America  were  the 
Anti-Masons  of  1826,  and  at  the  same  time  they  were  its  worst 
enemies.  Men  are  but  the  automata  of  Providence,  and  it  uses 
the  demagogue,  the  fanatic,  and  the  knave,  a  common  trinity  in 
Republics,  as  its  tools  and  instruments  to  effect  that  of  which  they 
do  not  dream,  and  which  they  imagine  themselves  commissioned 
to  prevent. 

The  Anti-Masons,  traitors  and  perjurers  some,  and  some  mere 
political  knaves,  purified  Masonry  by  persecution,  and  so  proved 
to  be  its  benefactors ;  for  that  which  is  persecuted,  grows.  To 
them  its  present  popularity  is  due,  the  cheapening  of  its  Degrees, 
the  invasion  of  its  Lodges,  that  are  no  longer  Sanctuaries,  by 
the  multitude ;  its  pomp  and  pageantry  and  overdone  display. 

An  hundred  years  ago  it  had  become  known  that  the  BHp  were 
the  Templars  under  a  veil,  and  therefore  the  Degree  was  proscribed, 
and,  ceasing  to  be  worked,  became  a  mere  brief  and  formal  cere- 
mony, under  another  name.  Now,  from  the  tomb  in  which  after 
his  murders  he  rotted,  Clement  the  Fifth  howls  against  the  suc- 
cessors of  his  victims,  in  the  Allocution  of  Pio  Nono  against  the 
Free-Masons.  The  ghosts  of  the  dead  Templars  haunt  the  Vati- 
814 


KNIGHT  KADOSH.  815 

can  and  disturb  the  slumbers  of  the  paralyzed  Papacy,  which, 
dreading  the  dead,  shrieks  out  its  excommunications  and  impotent 
anathemas  against  the  living.  It  is  a  declaration  of  war,  and  was 
needed  to  arouse  apathy  and  inertness  to  action. 

An  enemy  of  the  Templars  shall  tell  us  the  secret  of  this  Papal 
hostility  against  an  Order  that  has  existed  for  centuries  in  despite 
of  its  anathemas,  and  has  its  Sanctuaries  and  Asyla  even  in  Rome. 

It  will  be  easy,  as  we  read,  to  separate  the  false  from  the  true, 
the  audacious  conjectures  from  the  simple  facts. 

"A  power  that  ruled  without  antagonism  and  without  concur- 
rence, and  consequently  without  control,  proved  fatal  to  the  Sacer- 
dotal Royalties ;  while  the  Republics,  on  the  other  hand,  had  per- 
ished by  the  conflict  of  liberties  and  franchises,  which,  in  the 
absence  of  all  duty  hierarchically  sanctioned  and  enforced,  had 
soon  become  mere  tyrannies,  rivals  one  of  the  other.  To  find  a 
stable  medium  between  these  two  abysses,  the  idea  of  the  Chris- 
tian Hierophants  was  to  create  a  society  devoted  to  abnegation  by 
solemn  vows,  protected  by  severe  regulations ;  which  should  be  re- 
cruited by  initiation,  and  which,  sole  depositary  of  the  great  reli- 
gious and  social  secrets,  should  make  Kings  and  Pontiffs,  without 
exposing  it  to  the  corruptions  of  Power.  In  that  was  the  secret 
of  that  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  which,  without  being  of  this 
world,  would  govern  all  its  grandeurs. 

"This  idea  presided  at  the  foundation  of  the  great  religious 
orders,  so  often  at  war  with  the  secular  authorities,  ecclesiastical 
or  civil.  Its  realization  was  also  the  dream  of  the  dissident  sects 
of  Gnostics  or  Illuminati  who  pretended  to  connect  their  faith 
with  the  primitive  tradition  of  the  Christianity  of  Saint  John.  It 
at  length  became  a  menace  for  the  Church  and  Society,  when  a 
rich  and  dissolute  Order,  initiated  in  the  mysterious  doctrines  of 
the  Kabalah,  seemed  disposed  to  turn  against  legitimate  authority 
the  conservative  principle  of  Hierarchy,  and  threatened  the  entire 
world  with  an  immense  revolution. 

''The  Templars,  whose  history  is  so  imperfectly  known,  were 
those  terrible  conspirators.  In  1118,  nine  Knights  Crusaders  in 
the  East,  among  whom  were  Geoffroi  de  Saint-Omer  and  Hugues 
de  Payens,  consecrated  themselves  to  religion,  and  took  an  oath 
between  the  hands  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  a  See 
always  secretly  or  openly  hostile  to  that  of  Rome  from  the  time 
of  Photius.  The  avowed  object  of  the  Templars  was  to -protect 


8l6  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

the  Christians  who  came  to  visit  the  Holy  Places :  their  secret 
object  was  the  re-building  of  the  Temple  of  Solomon  on  the  model 
prophesied  by  Ezekiel. 

"This  re-building-,  formally  predicted  by  the  Judaiizing  Mystics 
of  the  earlier  ages,  had  become  the  secret  dream  of  the  Patriarchs 
of  the  Orient.  The  Temple  of  Solomon,  re-built  and  consecrated 
to  the  Catholic  worship  would  become,  in  effect,  the  Metropolis  of 
the  Universe ;  the  East  would  prevail  over  the  West,  and  the  Pa- 
triarchs of  Constantinople  would  possess  themselves  of  the  Papal 
powe". 

"T?ie  Templars,  or  Poor  Fellou^Soldiery  of  the  Holy  House  of 
the  Temple  intended  to  be  re-built,  took  as  their  models,  in  the 
Bible,  the  Warrior-Masons  of  Zorobabel,  who  worked,  holding  the 
sword  in  one  hand  and  the  trowel  in  the  other.  Therefore  it  was 
that  the  Sword  and  the  Trowel  were  the  insignia  of  the  Templars, 
who  subsequently,  as  will  be  seen,  concealed  themselves  under  the 
name  of  Brethren  Masons.  [This  name,  Frcres  Masons  in  the 
French,  adopted  by  way  of  secret  reference  to  the  Builders  of  the 
Second  Temple,  was  corrupted  in  English  into  Free-~\la.sons,  as 
Pythagore  de  Crotone  was  into  Peter  Gower  of  Groton  in  England. 
K  hair  urn  or  Khur-um,  (a  name  mis-rendered  into  Hiram)  from 
,  an  artificer  in  brass  and  other  metals,  became  the  Chief  Builder 
of  the  Haikal  Kadosh,  the  Holy  House,  of  the  Temple,  the  '/sooc 
AO[JLOZ\  and  the  words  Bonai  and  Banaim  yet  appear  in  the  Ma- 
sonic Degrees,  meaning  Builder  and  Builders.] 

"The  trowel  of  the  Templars  is  quadruple,  and  the  triangular 
plates  of  it  are  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  making  the  Kaba- 
listic  pantacle  known  by  the  name  of  the  Cross  of  the  East.  The 
Knight  of  the  East,  and  the  Knight  of  the  East  and 'West,  have 
in  their  titles  secret  allusions  to  the  Templars  of  whom  they  were 
at  first  the  successors. 

"The  secret  thought  of  Hugues  de  Payens,  in  founding  his 
Order,  was  not  exactly  to  serve  the  ambition  of  the  Patriarchs  of 
Constantinople.  There  existed  at  that  period  in  the  East  a  Sect 
of  Johannite  Christians,  who  claimed  to  be  the  only  true  Initiates 
into  the  real  mysteries  of  the  religion  of  the  Saviour.  They  pre- 
tended to  know  the  real  history  of  YESUS  the  ANOINTED,  and, 
adopting  in  part  the  Jewish  traditions  and  the  tales  of  the  Tal- 
mud, they  held  that  the  facts  recounted  in  the  Evangels  are  but 
allegories,  the  key  of  which  Saint  John  gives,  in  saying  that  the 


KNIGHT  KADOSH.  817 

world  might  be  filled  with  the  books  that  could  be  written  upon 
the  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus  Christ ;  words  which,  they  thought, 
would  be  only  a  ridiculous  exaggeration,  if  he  were  not  speaking 
of  an  allegory  and  a  legend,  that  might  be  varied  and  prolonged 
to  infinity. 

'The  Johannites  ascribed  to  Saint  John  the  foundation  of  their 
Secret  Church,  and  the  Grand  Pontiffs  of  the  Sect  assumed  the 
title  of  Christos,  Anointed,  or  Consecrated,  and  claimed  to  have 
succeeded  one  another  from  Saint  John  by  an  uninterrupted  suc- 
cession of  pontifical  powers.  He  who,  at  the  period  of  the  found- 
ation of  the  Order  of  the  Temple,  claimed  these  imaginary  pre- 
rogatives, was  named  THEOCLET  ;  he  knew  HUGUES  DE  PAYENS, 
he  initiated  him  into  the  Mysteries  and  hopes  of  his  pretended 
church,  he  seduced  him  by  the  notions  of  Sovereign  Priesthood 
and  Supreme  royalty,  and  finally  designated  him  as  his  successor. 

"Thus  the  Order  of  Knights  of  the  Temple  was  at  its  very  ori- 
gin devoted  to  the  cause  of  opposition  to  the  tiara  of  Rome  and 
the  crowns  of  Kings,  and  the  Apostolate  of  Kabalistic  Gnosticism 
was  vested  in  its  chiefs.  For  Saint  John  himself  was  the  Father 
of  the  Gnostics,  and  the  current  translation  of  his  polemic  against 
the  heretical  of  his  Sect  and  the  pagans  who  denied  that  Christ 
was  the  Word,  is  throughout  a  misrepresentation,  or  misunder- 
standing at  least,  of  the  whole  Spirit  of  that  Evangel. 

"The  tendencies  and  tenets  of  the  Order  were  enveloped  in  pro- 
found mystery,  and  it  externally  professed  the  most  perfect  ortho- 
doxy. The  Chiefs  alone  knew  the  aim  of  the  Order :  the  Subal- 
terns followed  them  without  distrust. 

"To  acquire  influence  and  wealth,  then  to  intrigue,  and  at  need 
to  fight,  to  establish  the  Johannite  or  Gnostic  and  Kabalistic 
dogma,  were  the  object  and  means  proposed  to  the  initiated  P>reth- 
ren.  The  Papacy  and  the  rival  monarchies,  they  said  to  them, 
are  sold  and  bought  in  these  days,  become  corrupt,  and  to-morrow, 
perhaps,  will  destroy  each  other.  All  that  will  become  the  heri- 
tage of  the  Temple :  the  World  will  soon  come  to  us  for  its  Sov- 
ereigns and  Pontiffs.  We  shall  constitute  the  equilibrium  of  the 
Universe,  and  be  rulers  over  the  Masters  of  the  World. 

"The  Templars,  like  all  other  Secret  Orders  and  Associations, 
had  two  doctrines,  one  concealed 'and  reserved  for  the  Masters, 
which  was  Tohannism  ;  the  other  public,  which  was  the  Roman 
Catholic.  Thus  they  deceived  the  adversaries  whom  they  sought 


8l8  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

to  supplant.  Hence  Free-Masonry,  vulgarly  imagined  to  have  be- 
gun with  the  Dionysian  Architects  or  the  German  Stone- workers, 
adopted  Saint  John  the  Evangelist  as  one  of  its  patrons,  associat- 
ing with  him,  in  order  not  to  arouse  the  suspicions  of  Rome,  Saint 
John  the  Baptist,  and  thus  covertly  proclaiming  itself  the  child 
of  the  Kabalah  and  Essenism  together." 

[For  the  Johannism  of  the  Adepts  was  the  Kabalah  of  the 
earlier  Gnostics,  degenerating  afterward  into  those  heretical  forms 
which  Gnosticism  developed,  so  that  even  Manes  had  his  followers 
among  them.  Many  adopted  his  doctrines  of  the  two  Principles, 
the  recollection  of  which  is  perpetuated  by  the  handle  of  the  dag- 
ger and  the  tesselated  pavement  or  floor  of  the  Lodge,  stupidly 
called  "fhc  Indented  Tessel,"  and  represented  by  great  hanging 
tassels,  when  it  really  means  a  tcsserated  floor  (from  the  Latin 
tessera)  of  white  and  black  lozenges,  with  a  necessarily  denticu- 
lated or  indented  border  or  edging.  And  wherever,  in  the  higher 
Degrees,  the  two  colors  white  and  black,  are  in  juxtaposition,  the 
two  Principles  of  Zoroaster  and  Manes  are  alluded  to.  With  oth- 
ers the  doctrine  became  a  mystic  Pantheism,  descended  from  that 
of  the  Brahmins,  and  even  pushed  to  an  idolatry  of  Nature  and 
hatred  of  every  revealed  dogma.  > 

[To  all  this  the  absurd  reading  of  the  established  Church,  tak- 
ing literally  the  figurative,  allegorical,  and  mythical  language  of  a 
collection  of  Oriental  books  of  different  ages,  directly  and  inevi- 
tably led.  The  same  result  long  after  followed  the  folly  of  regard- 
ing the  Hebrew  books  as  if  they  had  been  written  by  the  unimagi- 
native, hard,  practical  intellect  of  the  England  of  James  the  First 
and  the  bigoted  stolidity  of  Scottish  Presbyterianism.] 

"The  better  to  succeed  and  win  partisans,  the  Templars  sympa- 
thized with  regrets  for  dethroned  creeds  and  encouraged  the  hopes 
of  new  worships,  promising  to  all  liberty  of  conscience  and  a  new 
orthodoxy  that  should  be  the  synthesis  of  all  the  persecuted  creeds." 

[  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  men  of  intellect  adored  a  monstrous 
idol  called  Baphomet,  or  recognized  Mahomet  as  an  inspired 
prophet.  Their  symbolism,  invented  ages  before,  to  conceal  what 
it  was  dangerous  to  avow,  was  of  course  misunderstood  by  those 
who  were  not  adepts,  and  to  their  enemies  seemed  to  be  pantheis- 
tic. The  calf  of  gold,  made  by  Aaron  for  the  Israelites, was  but  one  of 
the  oxen  under  the  laver  of  bronze,  and  the  Karobim  on  the  Pro- 
pitiatory, misunderstood.  The  symbols  of  the  wise  always  become 


KNIGHT  KADOSH.  819 

the  idols  of  the  ignorant  multitude.  What  the  Chiefs  of  the 
Order  really  believed  and  taught,  is  indicated  to  the  Adepts  by  the 
hints  contained  in  the  high  Degrees  of  Free-Masonry,  and  by  the 
symbols  which  only  the  Adepts  understand. 

[The  Blue  Degrees  are  but  the  outer  court  or  portico  of  the 
Temple.  Part  of  the  symbols  are  displayed  there  to  the  Initiate, 
but  he  is  intentionally  misled  by  false  interpretations.  It  is  not 
intended  that  he  shall  understand  them ;  but  it  is  intended  that 
he  shall  imagine  he  understands  them.  Their  true  explication  is 
reserved  for  the  Adepts,  the  Princes  of  Masonry.  The  whole  body 
of  the  Royal  and  Sacerdotal  Art  was  hidden  so  carefully,  centuries 
since,  in  the  High  Degrees,  as  that  it  is  even  yet  impossible  to 
solve  many  of  the  enigmas  which  they  contain.  It  is  well  enough 
for  the  mass  of  those  called  Masons,  to  imagine  that  all  is  con- 
tained in  the  Blue  Degrees ;  and  whoso  attempts  to  undeceive 
them  will  labor  in  vain,  and  without  any  true  reward  violate  his 
obligations  as  an  Adept.  Masonry  is  the  veritable  Sphinx,  buried 
to  the  head  in  the  sands  heaped  round  it  by  the  ages.] 

"The  seeds  of  decay  were  sown  in  the  Order  of  the  Temple  at 
its  origin.  Hypocrisy  is  a  mortal  disease.  It  had  conceived  a 
great  work  which  it  was  incapable  of  executing,  because  it  knew 
neither  humility  nor  personal  abnegation,  because  Rome  was  then 
invincible,  and  because  the  later  Chiefs  of  the  Order  did  not  com- 
prehend its  mission.  Moreover,  the  Templars  were  in  general 
uneducated,  and  capable  only  of  wielding  the  sword,  with  no  qual- 
ifications for  governing,  and  at  need  enchaining,  that  queen  of  the 
world  called  Opinion."  [The  doctrines  of  the  Chiefs  would,  if  ex- 
pounded to  the  masses,  have  seemed  to  them  the  babblings  of 
folly.  The  symbols  of  the  wise  are  the  idols  of  the  vulgar,  or  else 
as  meaningless  as  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt  to  the  nomadic 
Arabs.  There  must  always  be  a  common-place  interpretation  for 
the  mass  of  Initiates,  of  the  symbols  that  are  eloquent  to  the 
Adepts.] 

"Hugues  de  Payens  himself  had  not  that  keen  and  far-sighted 
intellect  nor  that  grandeur  of  purpose  which  afterward  distin- 
guished the  military  founder  of  another  soldiery  that  became 
formidable  to  kings.  The  Templars  were  unintelligent  and  there- 
fore unsuccessful  Jesuits. 

"Their  watchword  was,  to  become  wealthy,  in  order  to  buy  the 
world.  They  became  so,  am*  'n  1312  they  possessed  in  Europe 


82O  MORALS  ANt>  0OGMA. 

alone  more  than  nine  thousand  seignories.  Riches  were  the  shoal 
on  which  they  were  wrecked.  They  became  insolent,  and  un- 
wisely showed  their  contempt  for  the  religious  and  social  institu- 
tions which  they  aimed  to  overthrow.  Their  ambition  was  fatal 
to  them.  Their  projects  were  divined  and  prevented.  [Rome, 
more  intolerant  of  heresy  than  of  vice  and  crime,  came  to  fear  the 
Order,  and  fear  is  always  cruel.  It  has  always  deemed  philosoph- 
ical truth  the  most  dangerous  of  heresies,  and  has  never  been  at  a 
loss  for  a  false  accusation,  by  means  of  which  to  crush  free 
thought.]  Pope  Clement  V.  and  King  Philip  le  Bel  gave  the  sig- 
nal to  Europe,  and  the  Templars,  taken  as  it  were  in  an  immense 
net,  were  arrested,  disarmed,  and  cast  into  prison.  Never  was  a 
Coup  d'  Etat  accomplished  with  a  more  formidable  concert  of 
action.  The  whole  world  was  struck  with  stupor,  and  eagerly 
waited  for  the  strange  revelations  of  a  process  that  was  to  echo 
through  so  many  ages. 

"It  was  impossible  to  unfold  to  the  people  the  conspiracy  of  the 
Templars  against  the  Thrones  and  the  Tiara.  It  was  impossible 
to  expose  to  them  the  doctrines  of  the  Chiefs  of  the  Order.  [This 
would  have  been  to  initiate  the  multitude  into  the  secrets  of  the 
Masters,  and  to  have  uplifted  the  veil  of  Isis.  Recourse  was  there- 
fore had  to  the  charge  of  magic,  and  denouncers  and  false  wit- 
nesses were  easily  found.  When  the  temporal  and  spiritual  tyr- 
annies unite  to  crush  a  victim  they  never  want  for  serviceable  in- 
struments.] The  Templars  were  gravely  accused  of  spitting  upon 
Christ  and  denying  God  at  their  receptions,  of  gross  obscenities, 
conversations  with  female  devils,  and  the  worship  of  a  monstrous 
idol. 

"The  end  of  the  drama  is  well  known,  and  how  Jacques  de 
Molai  and  his  fellows  perished  in  the  flames.  But  before  his  exe- 
cution, the  Chief  of  the  doomed  Order  organized  and  instituted 
what  afterward  came  to  be  called  the  Occult,  Hermetic,  or  Scot- 
tish Masonry.  In  the  gloom  of  his  prison,  the  Grand  Master  cre- 
ated four  Metropolitan  Lodges,  at  Naples  for  the  East,  at  Edinburg 
for  the  \Yest,  at  Stockholm  for  the  North,  and  at  Paris  for  the 
South."  [The  initials  of  his  name.  JV.  B.'.  M.'.  found  in  the  same 
order  in  the  first  three  Degrees,  are  but  one  of  the  many  internal 
and  cogent  proofs  that  such  was  the  origin  of  modern  Free-Ma- 
sonry. The  legend  of  Osiris  was  revived  and  adopted,  to  symbolize 
the  destruction  of  the  Order,  and  the  resurrection  of  Khurum, 


KNlGllt  KADOStt.  82! 

slain  in  the  body  of  the  Temple,  of  KIIURUM  ABAI,  the  Master, 
as  the  martyr  of  fidelity  to  obligation,  of  Truth  and  Conscience, 
prophesied  the  restoration  to  life  of  the  buried  association.) 

"The  Pope  and  the  King  soon  after  perished  in  a  strange  and 
sudden  manner.  Squin  de  Florian,  the  chief  deno.uncer  of  the 
Order,  died  assassinated.  In  breaking  the  sword  of  the  Templars, 
they  made  of  it  a  poniard ;  and  their  proscribed  trowels  thence- 
forward  built  only  tombs." 

[The  Order  disappeared  at  once.  Its  estates  and  wealth  were 
confiscated,  and  it  seemed  to  have  ceased  to  exist.  Nevertheless  it 
lived,  under  other  names  and  governed  by  unknown  Chiefs,  reveal- 
ing itself  only  to  those  who,  in  passing  through  a  series  of  De- 
grees, had  proven  themselves  worthy  to  be  entrusted  with  the 
dangerous  Secret.  The  modern  Orders  that  style  themselves 
Templars  have  assumed  a  name  to  which  they  have  not  the  shadow 
of  a  title.] 

"The  Successors  of  the  Ancient  Adepts  Rose-Croix,  abandoning 
by  degrees  the  austere  and  hierarchical  Science  of  their  Ancestors 
in  initiation,  became  a  Mystic  Sect,  united  with  many  of  the  Tem- 
plars, the  dogmas  of  the  two  intermingling,  and  believed  them- 
selves to  be  the  sole  depositaries  of  the  secrets  of  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John,  seeing  in  its  recitals  an  allegorical  series  of  rites  proper  to 
complete  the  initiation. 

"The  Initiates,  in  fact,  thought  in  the  eighteenth  century  that 
their  time  had  arrived,  some  to  found  a  new  Hierarchy,  others  to 
overturn  all  authority,  and  to  press  down  all  the  summits  of  the 
Social  Order  under  the  level  of  Equality." 

The  mystical  meanings  of  the  Rose  as  a  Symbol  are  to  be 
looked  for  in  the  Kabalistic  Commentaries  on  the  Canticles. 

The  Rose  was  for  the  Initiates  the  living  and  blooming  symbol 
of  the  revelation  of  the  harmonies  of  being.  It  was  the  emblem 
of  beauty,  life,  love,  and  pleasure.  Flamel,  or  the  Book  of  the 
Jew  Abraham,  made  it  the  hieroglyphical  sign  of  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  great  Work.  Such  is  the  key  of  the  Roman  de  la 
Rose.  The  Conquest  of  the  Rose  was  the  problem  propounded  to 
Science  by  Initiation,  while  Religion  was  laboring  to  prepare  and 
establish  the  universal  triumph,  exclusive  and  definitive,  of  the 
Cross. 

To  unite  the  Rose  to  the  Cross,  was  the  problem  proposed  by 
the  High  Initiation  ;  and  in  fact  the  Occult  philosophy  being  the 


822  MORALS   AND   DOGMA. 

Universal  Synthesis,  ought  to  explain  all  the  phenomena  of  Being. 
Religion,  considered  solely  as  a  physiological  fact,  is  the  revelation 
and  satisfaction  of  a  necessity  of  souls.  Its  existence  is  a  scien- 
tific fact ;  to  deny  it,  would  be  to  deny  humanity  itself. 

The  Rose-Croix  Adepts  respected  the  dominant,  hierarchical, 
and  revealed  religion.  Consequently  they  could  no  more  be  the 
enemies  of  the  Papacy  than  of  legitimate  Monarchy ;  and  if  they 
conspired  against  the  Popes  and  Kings,  it  was  because  they  con- 
sidered them  personally  as  apostates  from  duty  and  supreme 
favorers  of  anarchy. 

What,  in  fact,  is  a  despot,  spiritual  or  temporal,  but  a  crowned 
anarchist  ? 

One  of  the  magnificent  pantacles  that  express  the  esoteric  and 
unutterable  part  of  Science,  is  a  Rose  of  Light,  in  the  centre  of 
which  a  human  form  extends  its  arms  in  the  form  of  a  cross. 

Commentaries  and  studies  have  been  multiplied  upon  the  Divine 
Comedy,  the  work  of  DANTE,  and  yet  no  one,  so  far  as  we  know, 
has  pointed  out  its  especial  character.  The  work  of  the  great 
Ghibellin  is  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  Papacy,  by  bold  reve- 
lation of  the.  Mysteries.  The  Epic  of  Dante  is  Johannite  and 
Gnostic,  an  audacious  application,  like  that  of  the  Apocalypse,  of 
the  figures  and  numbers  of  the  Kabalah  to  the  Christian  dogmas, 
and  a  secret  negation  of  every  thing  absolute  in  these  dogmas. 
His  journey  through  the  supernatural  worlds  is  accomplished  like 
the  initiation  into  the  Mysteries  of  Eleusis  and  Thebes.  He 
escapes  from  that  gulf  of  Hell  over  the  gate  of  which  the  sentence 
of  despair  was  written,  by  reversing  the  positions  of  his  head  and 
feet,  that  is  to  say,  by  accepting  the  direct  opposite  of  the  Catholic 
dogma;  and  then  he  leascends  to  the  light,  by  using  the  Devil 
himself  as  a  monstrous  ladder.  Faust  ascends  to  Heaven,  by  step- 
ping on  the  head  of  the  vanquished  Mephistopheles.  Hell  is  im- 
passable for  those  only  who  know  not  howT  to  turn  back  from  it. 
We  free  ourselves  from  its  bondage  by  audacity. 

His  Hell  is  but  a  negative  Purgatory.  His  Heaven  is  composed 
of  a  series  of  Kabalistic  circles,  divided  by  a  cross,  like  the  Panta- 
cle  of  Ezekiel.  In  the  centre  of  this  cross  blooms  a  rose,  and  we 
see  the  symbol  of  the  Adepts  of  the  Rose-Croix  for  the  first  time 
publicly  expounded  and  almost  categorically  explained. 

For  the  first  time,  because  Guillaume  de  Lorris,  who  died  in 
1260,  five  years  before  the  birth  of  Alighieri,  had  not  completed 


KNIGHT  KADOSH.  823 

t 

his  Roman  de  la  Rose,  which  was  continued  by  Chopinel,  a  half 
century  afterward.  One  is  astonished  to  discover  that  the  Roman 
de  la  Rose  and  the  Divina  Commedia  are  two  opposite  forms  of 
one  and  the  same  work,  initiation  into  independence  of  spirit,  a 
satire  on  all  contemporary  institutions,  and  the  allegorical  formula 
of  the  great  Secrets  of  the  Society  of  the  Roses-Croix. 

The  important  manifestations  of  Occultism  coincide  with  the 
period  of  the  fall  of  the  Templars ;  since  Jean  de  Mcung  or  Chop- 
inel, contemporary  of  the  old  age  of  Dante,  flourished  during  the 
best  years  of  his  life  at  the  Court  of  Philippe  le  Bel.  The  Roman 
de  la  Rose  is  the  Epic  of  old  France.  It  is  a  profound  book,  under 
the  form  of  levity,  a  revelation  as  learned  as  that  of  Apuleius,  of 
the  Mysteries  of  Occultism.  The  Rose  of  Flamel,  that  of  Jean 
de  Meung,  and  that  of  Dante,  grew  on  the  same  stem. 

Swedenborg's  system  was  nothing  else  than  the  Kabalah,  minus 
the  principle  of  the  Hierarchy.  It  is  the  Temple,  without  the 
keystone  and  the  foundation. 

Cagliostro  was  the  Agent  of  the  Templars,  and  therefore 
wrote  to  the  Free-Masons  of  London  that  the  time  had  come  to 
begin  the  work  of  re-building  the  Temple  of  the  Eternal.  He  had 
introduced  into  Masonry  a  new  Rite  called  the  Egyptian,  and  en- 
deavored to  resuscitate  the  mysterious  worship  of  Isis.  The  three 
letters  L.'.  P.'.D.'.on  his  seal,  were  the  initials  of  the  words  "Lilia 
pedibus  dcstrnc;"  tread  under  foot  the  Lilies  [of  France],  and  a 
Masonic  medal  of  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth  century  ha» 
upon  it  a  sword  cutting  off  the  stalk  of  a  lily,  and  the  words 
"ialein  dabit  nltio  mcsscm,"  such  harvest  revenge  will  give. 

A  Lodge  inaugurated  under  the  auspices  of  Rousseau,  the 
fanatic  of  Geneva,  became  the  centre  of  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment in  France,  and  a  Prince  of  the  blood-royal  went  thither  to 
swear  the  destruction  of  the  successors  of  Philippe  le  Bel  on  the 
tomb  of  Jacques  de  Molai.  The  registers  of  the  Order  of  Tem- 
plars attest  that  the  Regent,  the  Due  d'  Orleans,  was  Grand  Master 
of  that  formidable  Secret  Society,  and  that  his  successors  were 
the  Due  de  Maine,  the  Prince  of  Bourbon-Conde,  and  the  Due  de 
Cosse-Brissac. 

The  Templars  compromitted  the  King ;  they  saved  him  from 
the  rage  of  the  People,  to  exasperate  that  rage  and  bring  on  the 
catastrophe  prepared  for  centuries ;  it  was  a  scaffold  that  the  ven- 
geance of  the  Templars  demanded.  The  secret  movers  of  the 


824  MORALS   AND  DOGMA. 

French  Revolution  had  sworn  to  overturn  the  Throne  and  the 
Altar  upon  the  Tomb  of  Jacques  de  Molai.  When  Louis  XVI. 
was  executed,  half  the  work  was  done;  and  thenceforward  the 
Army  of  the  Temple  was  to  direct  all  its  efforts  against  the  Pope. 
Jacques  de  Molai  and  his  companions  were  perhaps  martyrs,  but 
their  avengers  dishonored  their  memory.  Royalty  was  regenerated 
on  the  scaffold  of  Louis  XVI.,  the  Church  triumphed  in  the  cap- 
tivity of  Pius  VI.,  carried  a  prisoner  to  Valence,  and  dying  of 
fatigue  and  sorrow,  but  the  successors  of  the  Ancient  Knights  of 
the  Temple  perished,  overwhelmed  in  their  fatal  victory. 


MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 


CONSISTORY. 


XXXI. 

GRAND  INSPECTOR  INQUISITOR 
COMMANDER. 

[Inspector  Inquisitor.] 

To  hear  patiently,  to  weigh  deliberately  and  dispassionately, 
and  to  decide  impartially ; — these  are  the  chief  duties  of  a  Judge. 
After  the  lessons  you  have  received,  I  need  not  further  enlarge 
upon  them.  You  will  be  ever  eloquently  reminded  of  them  by 
the  furniture  upon  our  Altar,  and  the  decorations  of  the  Tri- 
bunal. 

The  Holy  Bible  will  remind  you  of  your  obligation;  and  that 
as  you  judge  here  below,  so  you  will  be  yourself  judged  hereafter. 
by  One  who  has  not  to  submit,  like  an  earthly  judge,  to  the  sad 
necessity  of  inferring  the  motives,  intentions,  and  purposes  of 
men  [of  which  all  crime  essentially  consists]  from  the  uncertain 
and  often  unsafe  testimony  of  their  acts  and  words ;  as  men  in 
thick  darkness  grope  their  way,  with  hands  outstretched  before 
them :  but  before  Whom  every  thought,  feeling,  impulse,  and  in- 
tention of  every  soul  that  now  is,  or  ever  was,  or  ever  will  be  on 
earth,  is,  and  ever  will  be  through  the  whole  infinite  duration  of 
eternity,  present  and  visible. 

825 


£26  M6&ALS  ANt>  DO6MA. 

The  Square  and  Compass,  the  Plumb  and  Level,  are  well  known 
to  you  as  a  Mason.  Upon  you  as  a  Judge,  they  peculiarly  incul- 
cate uprightness,  impartiality,  careful  consideration  of  facts  and 
circumstances,  accuracy  in  judgment,  and  uniformity  in  decision. 
As  a  Judge,  too,  you  are  to  bring  up  square  work  and  square  work 
only.  Like  a  temple  erected  by  the  plumb,  you  are  to  lean  neither 
to  one  side  nor  the  other.  Like  a  building  well  squared  and  levelled, 
you  are  to  be  firm  and  steadfast  in  your  convictions  of  right  and 
justice.  Like  the  circle  swept  with  the  compasses,  you  are  to  be 
true.  In  the  scales  of  justice  you  are  to  weigh  the  facts  and  the 
law  alone,  nor  place  in  either  scale  personal  friendship  or  personal 
dislike,  neither  fear  nor  favor :  and  when  reformation  is  no  longer 
to  be  hoped  for,  you  are  to  smite  relentlessly  with  the  sword  o: 
justice. 

The  peculiar  and  principal  symbol  of  this  Degree  is  the  Tetractys 
of  Pythagoras,  suspended  in  the  East,  where  ordinarily  the 
sacred  word  or  letter  glitters,  like  it.  representing  the  Deity.  Its 
nine  external  points  form  the  -triangle,  the  chief  symbol  in  Ma- 
sonry, with  many  of  the  meanings  of  which  you  are  familiar. 

To  us,  its  three  sides  represent  the  three  principal  attributes  of 
the  Deity,  which  created,  and  now,  as  ever,  support,  uphold,  and 
guide  the  Universe  in  its  eternal  movement ;  the  three  supports  of 
the  Masonic  Temple,  itself  an  emblem  of  the  Universe  : — Wisdom, 
or  the  Infinite  Divine  Intelligence;  Strength,  or  Power,  the  Infi- 
nite Divine  Will ;  and  Beauty,  or  the  Infinite  Divine  Harmony, 
the  Eternal  Law,  by  virtue  of  which  the  infinite  myriads  of  suns 
and  worlds  flash  ever  onward  in  their  ceaseless  revolutions,  with- 
out clash  or  conflict,  in  the  Infinite  of  space,  and  change  and 
movement  are  the  law  of  all  created  existences. 

To  us,  as  Masonic  Judges,  the  triangle  figures  forth  the  Pyra- 
mids, which,  planted  firmly  as  the  everlasting  hills,  and  accurately 
adjusted  to  the  four  cardinal  points,  defiant  of  all  assaults  of  men 
and  time,  teach  us  to  stand  firm  and  unshaken  as  they,  when  our 
feet  are  planted  upon  the  solid  truth. 

It  includes  a  multitude  of  geometrical  figures,  all  having  a  deep 
significance  to  Masons.  The  triple  triangle  is  peculiarly  sacred, 
having  ever  been  among  all  nations  a  symbol  of  the  Deity.  Pro- 
longing all  the  external  lines  of  the  Hexagon,  which  also  it  in- 
cludes, we  have  six  smaller  triangles,  whose  bases  cut  each  other 
in  the  central  point  of  the  Tetractys,  itself  always  the  symbol  of 


OR  A  N  D  I N  S  PECTOK  I  X  Q  U I S I  TO  R  CO  M  M  A  X  DER.  82; 

the  generative  power  of  the  Universe,  the  Sun,  Brahma,  Osiris, 
Apollo,  Bel,  and  the  Deity  Himself.  Thus,  too,  we  form  twelve 
still  smaller  triangles,  three  times  three  of  which  compose  the  Te- 
tractys  itself. 

I  refrain  from  enumerating  all  the  figures  that  you  may  trace 
within  it :  but  one  may  not  be  passed  unnoticed.  The  Hexagon 
itself  faintly  images  to  us  a  cube,  not  visible  at  the  first  glance, 
and  therefore  the  fit  emblem  of  that  faith  in  things  invisible,  most 
essential  to  salvation.  The  first  perfect  solid,  and  reminding  you 
of  the  cubical  stone  that  sweated  blood,  and  of  that  deposited  by 
Enoch,  it  teaches  justice,  accuracy,  and  consistency. 

The  infinite  divisibility  of  the  triangle  teaches  the  infinity  of 
the  Universe,  of  time,  of  space,  and  of  the  Deity,  as  do  the  lines 
that,  diverging  from  the  common  centre,  ever  increase  their  dis- 
tance from  each  other  as  they  arc  infinitely  prolonged.  As  they 
may  be  infinite  in  number,  so  are  the  attributes  of  Deity  infinite ; 
and  as  they  emanate  from  one  centre  and  are  projected  into  space, 
so  the  whole  Universe  has  emanated  from  God. 

Remember  also,  my  Brother,  that  you  have  other  duties  to  per- 
form than  those  of  a  judge.  You  are  to  inquire  into  and  scruti- 
nize carefully  the  work  of  the  subordinate  Bodies  in  Masonry. 
You  are  to  see  that  recipients  of  the  higher  Degrees  are  not  unne- 
cessarily multiplied ;  that  improper  persons  are  carefully  excluded 
from  membership,  and  that  in  their  life  and  conversation  Masons 
bear  testimony  to  the  excellence  of  our  doctrines  and  the  incalcu- 
lable value  of  the  institution  itself.  You  are  to  inquire  also  into 
your  own  heart  and  conduct,  and  keep  careful  watch  over  yourself, 
that  you  go  not  astray.  If  you  harbor  ill-will  and  jealousy,  if  you 
are  hospitable  to  intolerance  and  bigotry,  and  churlish  to  gentle- 
ness and  kind  affections,  opening  wide  your  heart  to  one  and  clos- 
ing its  portals  to  the  other,  it  is  time  for  you  to  set  in  order  your 
own  temple,  or  else  you  wear  in  vain  the  name  and  insignia  of  a 
Mason,  while  yet  uninvested  with  the  Masonic  nature. 

Everywhere  in  the  world  there  is  a  natural  la\v,  that  is,  a  con- 
stant mode  of  action,  which  seems  to  belong  to  the  nature  of 
things,  to  the  constitution  of  the  Universe.  This  fact  is  universal, 
In  different  departments  we  call  this  mode  of  action  by  different 
names,  as  the  law  of  Matter,  the  law  of  Mind,  the  law  of  Morals, 
pnd  the  like.  \Ye  mean  by  this,  a  certain  mode  of  action  which 
.belongs  to  the  material,  mental,  or  moral  forces,  the  mode  in 


828  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

which  commonly  they  are  found  to  act,  and  in  which  it  is  their 
ideal  to  act  always.  The  ideal  laws  of  matter  we  know  only  from 
the  fact  that  they  are  always  obeyed.  To  us  the  actual  obedience 
is  the  only  evidence  of  the  ideal  rule ;  for  in  respect  to  the  con- 
duct of  the  material  world,  the  ideal  and  the  actual  are  the  same. 

The  laws  of  matter  we  learn  only  by  observation  and  experi- 
ence. Before  experience  of  the  fact,  no  man  could  foretell  that  a 
body,  falling  toward  the  earth,  would  descend  sixteen  feet  the  first 
second,  twice  that  the  next,  four  times  the  third,  and  sixteen  times 
the  fourth.  No  mode  of  action  in  our  consciousness  anticipates 
this  rule  of  action  in  the  outer  world.  The  same  is  true  of  all  the 
laws  of  matter.  The  ideal  law  is  known  because  it  is  a  fact.  The 
law  is  imperative.  It  must  be  obeyed  without  hesitation.  Laws 
of  crystallization,  laws  of  proportion  in  chemical  combination, — 
neither  in  these  nor  in  any  other  law  of  Nature  is  there  any  mar- 
gin left  for  oscillation  of  disobedience.  Only  the  primal  will  of 
God  works  in  the  material  world,  and  no  secondary  finite  will. 

There  are  no  exceptions  to  the  great  general  law  of  Attraction, 
which  binds  atom  to  atom  in  the  body  of  a  rotifier  visible  only  by 
aid  of  a  microscope,  orb  to  orb,  system  to  system ;  gives  unity  to 
the  world  of  things,  and  rounds  these  worlds  of  systems  to  a  Uni- 
verse. At  first  there  seem  to  be  exceptions  to  this  law,  as  in  growth 
and  decomposition,  in  the  repulsions  of  electricity ;  but  at  length 
all  these  are  found  to  be  special  cases  of  the  one  great  law  of  at- 
traction acting  in  various  modes. 

The  variety  of  effect  of  this  law  at  first  surprises  the  senses ; 
but  in  the  end  the  unity  of  cause  astonishes  the  cultivated  mind. 
Looked  at  in  reference  to  this  globe,  an  earthquake  is  no  more 
than  a  chink  that  opens  in  a  garden-walk  of  a  dry  day  in  Summer. 
A  sponge  is  porous,  having  small  spaces  between  the  solid  parts : 
the  solar  system  is  only  more  porous,  having  larger  room  between 
the  several  orbs :  the  Universe  yet  more  so,  with  spaces  between 
the  systems,  as  small,  compared  with  infinite  space,  as  those  be- 
tween the  atoms  that  compose  the  bulk  of  the  smallest  invisible 
animalcule,  of  which  millions  swim  in  a  drop  of  salt-water.  The 
same  attraction  holds  together  the  animalcule,  the  sponge,  the 
system,  and  the  Universe.  Every  particle  of  matter  in  that  Uni- 
verse is  related  to  each  and  all  the  other  particles ;  and  attraction 
is  their  common  bond. 

In  the  spiritual  world,  the  world  of  human  consciousness,  there 


GRAND  INSPECTOR  INQUISITOR  CCWMANDER.  829 

is  also  a  law,  an  ideal  mode  of  action  for  the  spiritual  forces  of 
man.  The  law  of  Justice  is  as  universal  an  one  as  the  law  of  At- 
traction ;  though  we  are  very  far  from  being  able  to  reconcile  all 
the  phenomena  of  Nature  with  it.  The  lark  has  the  same  right, 
in  our  view,  to  live,  to  sing,  to  dart  at  pleasure  through  the  ambi- 
ent atmosphere,  as  the  hawk  has  to  ply  his  strong  wings  in  the 
Summer  sunshine :  and  yet  the  hawk  pounces  on  and  devours  the 
harmless  lark,  as  it  devours  the  worm,  and  as  the  worm  devours 
the  animalcule ;  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  there  is  nowhere,  in  any 
future  state  of  animal  existence,  any  compensation  for  this  appa- 
rent injustice.  Among  the  bees,  one  rules,  while  the  others  obey- 
some  work,  while  others  are  idle.  With  the  small  ants,  the  sol- 
diers feed  on  the  proceeds  of  the  workmen's  labor.  The  lion  lies 
in  wait  for  and  devours  the  antelope  that  has  apparently  as  good 
a  right  to  life  as  he.  Among  men,  some  govern  and  others  serve, 
capital  commands  and  labor  obeys,  and  one  race,  superior  in  intel- 
lect, avails  itself  of  the  strong  muscles  of  another  that  is  inferior ; 
and  yet,  for  all  this,  no  one  impeaches  the  justice  of  God. 

No  doubt  all  these  varied  phenomena  are  consistent  with  one 
great  law  of  justice ;  and  the  only  difficulty  is  that  we  do  not,  and 
no  doubt  we  cannot,  understand  that  law.  It  is  very  easy  for  some 
dreaming  and  visionary  theorist  to  say  that  it  is  most  evidently 
unjust  for  the  lion  to  devour  the  deer,  and  for  the  eagle  to  tear 
and  eat  the  wren;  but  the  trouble  is,  that  we  know  of  no  other 
way,  according  to  the  frame,  the  constitution,  and  the  organs 
which  God  has  given  them,  in  which  the  lion  and  the  eagle  could 
manage  to  live  at  all.  Our  little  measure  of  justice  is  not  God's 
measure.  His  justice  does  not  require  us  to  relieve  the  hard- 
working millions  of  all  labor,  to  emancipate  the  serf  or  slave,  un- 
fitted to  be  free,  from  all  control. 

No  doubt,  underneath  all  the  little  bubbles,  which  are  the  lives, 
the  wishes,  the  wills,  and  the  plans  of  the  two  thousand  millions  or 
more  of  human  beings  on  this  earth  (for  bubbles  they  are,  judg- 
ing by  the  space  and  time  they  occupy  in  this  great  and  age-out- 
lasting sea  of  human-kind), — no  doubt,  underneath  them  all  re- 
sides one  and  the  same  eternal  force,  which  they  shape  into  this 
or  the  other  special  form  ;  and  over  all  the  same  paternal  Provi- 
dence presides,  keeping  eternal  watch  over  the  little  and  the  great, 
and  producing  variety  of  effect  from  Unity  of  Force. 

It  is  entirely  true  to  say  that  justice  is  the  constitution  or  funda- 


830  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

mental  law  of  the  moral  Universe,  the  law  of  right,  a  rule  of  con- 
duct for  man  (as  it  is  for  every  other  living  creature),  in  all  his 
moral  relations.  No  doubt  all  human  affairs  (like  all  other  affairs), 
must  be  subject  to  that  as  the  law  paramount;  and  what  is  right 
agrees  therewith  and  stands,  while  what  is  wrong  conflicts  with  it 
and  falls.  The  difficulty  is  that  we  ever  erect  our  notions  of  what 
is  right  and  just  into  the  law  of  justice,  and  insist  that  God  shall 
adopt  that  as  His  law ;  instead  of  striving  to  learn  by  observation 
and  reflection  what  His  law  is,  and  then  believing  that  law  to  be 
consistent  with  His  infinite  justice,  whether  it  corresponds  with 
our  limited  notion  of  justice,  or  does  not  so  correspond.  We  are 
too  wise  in  our  own  conceit,  and  ever  strive  to  enact  our  own  little 
notions  into  the  Universal  Laws  of  God. 

It  might  be  difficult  for  man  to  prove,  even  to  his  own  satisfac- 
tion, how  it  is  right  or  just  for  him  to  subjugate  the  horse  and  ox 
to  his  service,  giving  them  in  return  only  their  daily  food,  which 
God  has  spread  out  for  them  on  all  the  green  meadows  and  savan- 
nas of  the  world :  or  how  it  is  just  that  we  should  slay  and  eat 
the  harmless  deer  that  only  crops  the  green  herbage,  the  buds,  and 
the  young  leaves,  and  drinks  the  free-running  water  that  God 
made  common  to  all;  or  the  gentle  dove,  the  innocent  kid,  the 
many  other  living  things  that  so  confidently  trust  to  our  protec- 
tion;— quite  as  difficult,  perhaps,  as  to  prove  it  just  for  one  man's 
intellect  or  even  his  wealth  to  make  another's  strong  arms  his 
servants,  for  daily  wages  or  for  a  bare  subsistence. 

To  find  out  this  universal  law  of  justice  is  one  thing — to  under- 
take to  measure  off  something  with  our  own  little  tape-line,  and 
call  that  God's  law  of  justice,  is  another.  The  great  general  plan 
and  system,  and  the  great  general  laws  enacted  by  God,  continu- 
ally produce  what  to  our  limited  notions  is  wrong  and  injustice, 
which  hitherto  men  have  been  able  to  explain  to  their  own  satis- 
faction only  by  the  hypothesis  of  another  existence  in  which  all 
inequalities  and  injustices  in  this  life  will  be  remedied  and  com- 
pensated for.  To  our  ideas  of  justice,  it  is  very  unjust  that  the 
child  is  made  miserable  for  life  by  deformity  or  organic  disease,  in 
consequence  of  the  vices  of  its  father;  and  yet  that  is  part  of  the 
universal  law.  The  ancients  said  that  the  child  was  punished  for 
the  sins  of  its  father.  We  say  that  this  its  deformity  or  disease  is 
the  consequence  of  its  father's  vices  ;  but  so  far  as  concerns  the 
question  of  justice  or  injustice,  that  is  merely  the  change  of  a  word. 


GRAND  INSPECTOR  INQUISITOR  COMMANDER.  83! 

It  is  very  easy  to  lay  down  a  broad,  general  principle,  embody- 
ing our  own  idea  of  what  is  absolute  justice,  and  to  insist  that 
everything  shall  conform  to  that :  to  say,  "all  human  affairs  must 
be  subject  to  that  as  the  law  paramount ;  what  is  right  agrees 
therewith  and  stands,  what  is  wrong  conflicts  and  falls.  Private 
cohesions  of  self-love,  of  friendship,  or  of  patriotism,  must  all  be 
subordinate  to  this  universal  gravitation  toward  the  eternal  right." 
The  difficulty  is  that  this  Universe  of  necessities  God-created,  of 
sequences  of  cause  and  effect,  and  of  life  evolved  from  death,  this 
interminable  succession  and  aggregate  of  cruelties,  will  not  con- 
form to  any  such  absolute  principle  or  arbitrary  theory,  no  matter 
in  what  sounding  words  and  glittering  phrases  it  may  be  em- 
bodied. 

Impracticable  rules  in  morals  are  always  injurious;  for  as  all 
men  fall  short  of  compliance  with  them,  they  turn  real  virtues 
into  imaginary  offences  against  a  forged  law.  Justice  as  between 
man  and  man  and  as  between  man  and  the  animals  below  him,  is 
that  which,  under  and  according  to  the  God-created  relations  ex- 
isting between  them,  and  the  whole  aggregate  of  circumstances 
surrounding  them,  is  fit  and  right  and  proper  to  be  done,  with  a 
view  to  the  general  as  well  as  to  the  individual  interest.  It  is  not 
a  theoretical  principle  by  which  the  very  relations  that  God  has 
created  and  imposed  on  us  are  to  be  tried,  and  approved  or  con- 
demned. 

God  has  made  this  great  system  of  the  Universe,  and  enacted 
general  laws  for  its  government.  Those  laws  environ  everything 
that  lives  with  a  mighty  network  of  necessity.  He  chose  to  cre- 
ate the  tiger  with  such  organs  that  he  cannot  crop  the  grass,  but 
must  eat  other  flesh  or  starve.  He  has  made  man  carnivorous  also  ; 
and  some  of  the  smallest  birds  are  as  much  so  as  the  tiger.  In 
every  step  we  take,  in  every  breadth  we  draw,  is  involved  the  de- 
struction of  a  multitude  of  animate  existences,  each,  no  matter 
how  minute,  as  much  a  living  creature  as  ourself.  He  has  made 
necessary  among  mankind  a  division  of  labor,  intellectual  and 
moral.  He  has  made  necessary  the  varied  relations  ot  society  and 
dependence,  of  obedience  and  control. 

What  is  thus  made  necessary  cannot  be  unjust ;  for  if  it  be,  then 
God  the  great  Lawgiver  is  Himself  unjust.  The  evil  to  be 
avoided  is,  the  legalization  of  injustice  and  wrong  under  the  false 
plea  of  necessity.  Out  of  all  the  relations  of  life  grow  duties, — 


MOfeALS  AND  DOGMA. 

as  naturally  grow  and  as  undeniably,  as  the  leaves  grow  upon  the 
trees.  If  we  have  the  right,  created  by  God's  law  of  necessity,  to 
slay  the  lamb  that  we  may  eat  and  live,  we  have  no  right  to  tor- 
ture it  in  doing  so,  because  that  is  in  no  wise  necessary.  We  have 
the  right  to  live,  if  we  fairly  can,  by  the  legitimate  exercise  of  our 
intellect,  and  hire  or  buy  the  labor  of  the  strong  arms  of  others, 
to  till  our  grounds,  to  dig  in  our  mines,  to  toil  in  our  manufacto- 
ries ;  but  we  have  no  right  to  overwork  or  underpay  them. 

It  is  not  only  true  that  we  may  learn  the  moral  law  of  justice, 
the  law  of  right,  by  experience  and  observation ;  but  that  God  has 
given  us  a  moral  faculty,  our  conscience,  which  is  able  to  perceive 
this  law  directly  and  immediately,  by  intuitive  perception  of  it ; 
and  it  is  true  that  man  has  in  his  nature  a  rule  of  conduct  higher 
than  what  he  has  ever  yet  come  up  to, — an  ideal  of  nature  that 
shames  his  actual  of  history :  because  man  has  ever  been  prone  to 
make  necessity,  his  own  necessity,  the  necessities  of  society,  a  plea 
for  injustice.  But  this  notion  must  not  be  pushed  too  far — for  if 
we  substitute  this  ideality  for  actuality,  then  it  is  equally  true  that 
we  have  within  us  an  ideal  rule  of  right  and  wrong,  to  which  God 
Himself  in  His  government  of  the  world  has  never  come,  and 
against  which  He  (we  say  it  reverentially)  every  day  offends.  We 
detest  the  tiger  and  the  wolf  for  the  rapacity  and  love  of  blood 
which  are  their  nature ;  we  revolt  against  the  law  by  which  the 
crooked  limbs  and  diseased  organism  of  the  child  are  the  fruits  of 
the  father's  vices ;  we  even  think  that  a  God  Omnipotent  and  Om- 
niscient ought  to  have  permitted  no  pain,  no  poverty,  no  servi- 
tude ;  our  ideal  of  justice  is  more  lofty  than  the  actualities  of  God. 
It  is  well,  as  all  else  is  well.  He  has  given  us  that  moral  sense  for 
wise  and  beneficent  purposes.  We  accept  it  as  a  significant  proof 
of  the  inherent  loftiness  of  human  nature,  that  it  can  entertain 
an  ideal  so  exalted ;  and  should  strive  to  attain  it,  as  far  as  we  can 
do  so  consistently  with  the  relations  which  He  has  created,  and 
the  circumstances  which  surround  us  and  hold  us  captive. 

If  we  faithfully  use  this  faculty  of  conscience;  if,  applying  it  to 
the  existing  relations  and  circumstances,  we  develop  it  and  all  its 
kindred  powers,  and  so  deduce  the  duties  that  out  of  these  rela- 
tions and  those  circumstances,  and  limited  and  qualified  by  them, 
arise  and  become  obligatory  upon  us,  then  we  learn  justice,  the 
law  of  right,  the  divine  rule  of  conduct  for  human  life.  But  if 
we  undertake  to  define  and  settle  "the  mode  of  action  that  belongs 


GRAND  INSPECTOR  INQUISITOR  COMMANDER.  833 

to  the  infinitely  perfect  nature  of  God,"  and  so  set  up  any  ideal 
rule,  beyond  all  human  reach,  we  soon  come  to  judge  and  condemn 
His  work  and  the  relations  which  it  has  pleased  Him  in  His  infi- 
nite wisdom  to  create. 

A  sense  of  justice  belongs  to  human  nature,  and  is  a  part  of  it. 
Men  find  a  deep,  permanent,  and  instinctive  delight  in  justice,  not 
only  in  the  outward  effects,  but  in  the  inward  cause,  and  by  their 
nature  love  this  law  of  right,  this  reasonable  rule  of  conduct,  this 
justice,  with  a  deep  and  abiding  love.  Justice  is  the  object  of  the 
conscience,  and  fits  it  as  light  fits  the  eye  and  truth  the  mind. 

Justice  keeps  just  relations  between  men.  It  holds  the  balance 
between  nation  and  nation,  between  a  man  and  his  family,  tribe, 
nation,  and  race,  so  that  his  absolute  rights  and  theirs  do  not  in- 
terfere, nor  their  ultimate  interests  ever  clash,  nor  the  eternal 
interests  of  the  one  prove  antagonistic  to  those  of  all  or  of  any 
other  one.  This  we  must  believe,  if  we  believe  that  God  is  just. 
We  must  do  justice  to  all,  and  demand  it  of  all ;  it  is  a  universal 
human  debt,  a  universal  human  claim.  But  we  may  err  greatly 
in  defining  what  that  justice  is.  The  temporary  interests,  and 
what  to  human  view  are  the  rights,  of  men,  do  often  interfere  and 
clash.  The  life-interests  of  the  individual  often  conflict  with  the 
permanent  interests  and  welfare  of  society;  and  what  may  seem 
to  be  the  natural  rights  of  one  class  or  race,  with  those  of  another. 

It  is  not  true  to  say  that  "one  man,  however  little,  must  not  be 
sacrificed  to  another,  however  great,  to  a  majority,  or  to  all  men." 
That  is  not  only  a  fallacy,  but  a  most  dangerous  one.  Often  one 
man  and  many  men  must  be  sacrificed,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
term,  to  the  interest  of  the  many.  It  is  a  comfortable  fallacy  to 
the  selfish  ;  for  if  they  cannot,  by  the  law  of  justice,  be  sacrificed 
for  the  common  good,  then  their  country  has  no  right  to  demand 
»f  them  self -sacrifice ;  and  he  is  a  fool  who  lays  down  his  life,  or 
sacrifices  his  estate,  or  even  his  luxuries,  to  insure  the  safety  or 
prosperity  of  his  country.  According  to  that  doctrine,  Curtius 
was  a  fool,  and  Leonidas  an  idiot ;  and  to  die  for  one's  country  is 
no  longer  beautiful  and  glorious,  but  a  mere  absurdity.  Then  it 
is  no  longer  to  be  asked  that  the  common  soldier  shall  receive  in 
his  bosom  the  sword  or  bayonet-thrust  which  otherwise  would  let 
out  the  life  of  the  great  commander  on  whose  fate  hang  the  liber- 
ties of  his  country,  and  the  welfare  of  millions  yet  unborn. 

On  the  contrary,  it  is  certain  that  necessity  rules  in  all  the  affairs 


834  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

of  men,  and  that  the  interest  and  even  the  life  of  one  man  must 
often  be  sacrificed  to  the  interest  and  welfare  of  his  country.  Some 
must  ever  lead  the  forlorn  hope :  the  missionary  must  go  among 
savages,  bearing  his  life  in  his  hand ;  the  physician  must  expose 
himself  to  pestilence  for  the  sake  of  others ;  the  sailor,  in  the  frail 
boat  upon  the  wide  ocean,  escaped  from  the  foundering  or  burning 
ship,  must  step  calmly  into  the  hungry  waters,  if  the  lives  of  the 
passengers  can  be  s'aved  only  by  the  sacrifice  of  his  own ;  the  pilot 
must  stand  firm  at  the  wheel,  and  let  the  flames  scorch  away  his 
own  life  to  insure  the  common  safety  of  those  whom  the  doomed 
vessel  bears. 

The  mass  of  men  are  always  looking  for  what  is  just.  All  the 
vast  machinery  which  makes  up  a  State,  a  world  of  States,  is,  on 
the  part  of  the  people,  an  attempt  to  organize,  not  that  ideal  jus- 
tice which  finds  fault  with  God's,  ordinances,  but  that  practical 
justice  which  may  be  attained  in  the  actual  organization  of  the 
world.  The  minute  and  wide-extending  civil  machinery  which 
makes  up  the  law  and  the  courts,  with  all  their  officers  and  imple- 
ments, on  the  part  of  mankind,  is  chiefly  an  effort  to  reduce  to 
practice  the  theory  of  right.  Constitutions  are  made  to  establish 
justice ;  the  decisions  of  courts  are  reported  to  help  us  judge  more 
wisely  in  time  to  come.  The  nation  aims  to  get  together  the  most 
nearly  just  men  in  the  State,  that  they  may  incorporate  into 
statutes  their  aggregate  sense  of  what  is  right.  The  people  wish 
law  to  be  embodied  justice,  administered  without  passion.  Even 
in  the  wildest  ages  there  has  been  a  wild  popular  justice,  but 
always  mixed  with  passion  and  administered  in  hate ;  for  justice 
takes  a  rude  form  with  rude  men,  and  becomes  less  mixed  with 
hate  and  passion  in  more  civilized  communities.  Every  progres- 
sive State  revises  its  statutes  and  revolutionizes  its  constitution 
from  time  to  time,  seeking  to  come  closer  to  the  utmost  possible 
practical  justice  and  right;  and  sometimes,  following  theorists  and 
dreamers  in  their  adoration  for  the  ideal,  by  erecting  into  law 
positive  principles  of  theoretical  right,  works  practical  injustice, 
and  then  lias  to  retrace  its  steps. 

In  literature  men  always  look  for  practical  justice,  and  desire 
that  virtue  should  have  its  own  reward,  and  vice  its  appropriate 
punishment.  They  are  ever  on  the  side  of  justice  and  humanity  ; 
and  the  majority  of  them  have  an  ideal  justice,  better  than  the 
things  about  them,  juster  than  the  law  :  for  the  law  is  ever  imper- 


GRAND  INSPECTOR  INQUISITOR  COMMANDER.  835 

feet,  not  attaining  even  to  the  utmost  practicable  degree  of  perfec- 
tion ;  and  no  man  is  as  just  as  his  own  idea  of  possible  and  prac- 
ticable justice.  His  passions  and  his  necessities  ever  cause  him  to 
sink  below  his  own  ideal.  The  ideal  justice  which  men  ever  look 
up  to  and  strive  to  rise  toward,  is  true ;  but  it  will  not  be  realized 
in  this  world.  Yet  we  must  approach  as  near  to  it  as  practicable, 
as  we  should  do  toward  that  ideal  democracy  that  "now  floats  be- 
fore the  eyes  of  earnest  and  religious  men, — fairer  than  the  Repub- 
lic of  Plato,  or  More's  Utopia,  or  the  Golden  Age  of  fabled  mem- 
ory," only  taking  care  that  we  do  not,  in  striving  to  reach  and 
ascend  to  the  impossible  ideal,  neglect  to  seize  upon  and  hold  fast 
to  the  possible  actual.  To  aim  at  the  best,  but  be  content  with 
the  best  possible,  is  the  only  true  wisdom.  To  insist  on  the  abso- 
lute right,  and  throw  out  of 'the  calculation  the  important  and  all- 
controlling  element  of  necessity,  is  the  folly  of  a  mere  dreamer. 

In  a  world  inhabited  by  men  with  bodies,  and  necessarily  with" 
bodily  wants  and  animal  passions,  the  time  will  never  come  when 
there  will  be  no  want,  no  oppression,  no  servitude,  no  fear  of  man, 
no  fear  of  God,  but  only  Love.  That  can  never  be  while  there  are 
inferior  intellect,  indulgence  in  low  vice,  improvidence,  indolence, 
awful  visitations  of  pestilence  and  war  and  famine,  earthquake  and 
volcano,  that  must  of  necessity  cause  men  to  want,  and  serve,  and 
suffer,  and  fear. 

But  still  the  ploughshare  of  justice  is  ever  drawn  through  and 
through  the  field  of  the  world,  uprooting  the  savage  plants.  Ever 
we  see  a  continual  and  progressive  triumph  of  the  right.  The  in- 
justice of  England  lost  her  America,  the  fairest  jewel  of  her 
crown.  The  injustice  of  Napoleon  bore  him  to  the  ground  more 
than  the  snows  of  Russia  did,  and  exiled  him  to  a  barren  rock, 
there  to  pine  away  and  die,  his  life  a  warning  to  bid  mankind  be 
just. 

We  intuitively  understand  what  justice  is,  better  than  we  can 
depict  it.  What  it  is  in  a  given  case  depends  so  much  on  circum- 
stances, that  definitions  of  it  are  wholly  deceitful.  Often  it  would 
be  unjust  to  society  to  do  what  would,  in  the  absence  of  that  con- 
sideration, be  pronounced  just  to  the  individual.  General  prop- 
ositions of  man's  right  to  this  or  that  are  ever  fallacious :  and  not 
infrequently  it  would  be  most  unjust  to  the  individual  himself  to 
do  for  him  what  the  theorist,  as  a  general  proposition,  would  say 
was  right  and  his  due. 
54 


836  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

\Ve  should  ever  do  unto  others  what,  under  the  same  circum- 
stances, we  ought  to  wish,  and  should  have  the  right  to  wish  they 
should  do  unto  us.  There  are  many  cases,  cases  constantly  occur- 
ring, where  one  man  must  take  care  of  himself,  in  preference  to 
another,  as  where  two  struggle  for  the  possession  of  a  plank  that 
will  save  one,  but  cannot  uphold  both ;  or  where,  assailed,  he  can 
save  his  own  life  only  by  slaying  his  adversary.  So  one  must  pre- 
fer the  safety  of  his  country  to  the  lives  of  her  enemies ;  and 
sometimes,  to  insure  it,  to  those  of  her  own  innocent  citizens. 
The  retreating  general  may  cut  away  a  bridge  behind  him,  to 
delay  pursuit  and  save  the  main  body  of  his  army,  though  he 
thereby  surrenders  a  detachment,  a  battalion,  or  even  a  corps  of 
fas  own  force  to  certain  destruction. 

These  are  not  departures  from  justice;  though,  like  other  in- 
stances where  the  injury  or  death  of  the  individual  is  the  safety 
of  the  many,  where  the  interest  of  one  individual,  class,  or  race 
is  postponed  to  that  of  the  public,  or  of  the  superior  race,  they 
may  infringe  some  dreamer's  ideal  rule  of  justice.  But  every  de- 
parture from  real,  practical  justice  is  no  doubt  attended  with  loss 
to  the  unjust  man,  though  the  loss  is  not  reported  to  the  public. 
Injustice,  public  or  private,  like  every  other  sin  and  wrong,  is  in- 
evitably followed  by  its  consequences.  The  selfish,  the  grasping, 
the  inhuman,  the  fraudulently  unjust,  the  ungenerous  employer, 
and  the  cruel  master,  are  detested  by  tfie  great  popular  heart ; 
while  the  kind  master,  the  liberal  employer,  the  generous,  the  hu- 
mane, and  the  just  have  the  good  opinion  of  all  men,  and  even 
envy  is  a  tribute  to  their  virtues.  Men  honor  all  who  stand  up 
for  truth  and  right,  and  never  shrink.  The  world  builds  monu- 
ments to  its  patriots.  Four  great  statesmen,  organizers  of  the 
right,  embalmed  in  stone,  look  down  upon  the  lawgivers  of  France 
as  they  pass  to  their  hall  of  legislation,  silent  orators  to  tell  how 
nations  love  the  just.  How  we  revere  the  marble  lineaments  of 
those  just  judges,  Jay  and  Marshall,  that  look  so  calmly  toward 
the  living  Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States ! 
What  a  monument  Washington  has  built  in  the  heart  of  America 
and  all  the  world,  not  because  he  dreamed  of  an  impracticable 
ideal  justice,  but  by  his  constant  effort  to  be  practically  just! 

But  necessity  alone,  and  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  num- 
ber, can  legitimately  interfere  with  the  dominion  of  absolute  and 
ideal  justice.  Government  should  not  foster  the  strong  at  the  ex- 


GRAND  INSPECTOR  INQUISITOR  COMMANDER.  837 

pense  of  the  weak,  nor  protect  the  capitalist  and  tax  the  laborer. 
The  powerful  should  not  seek  a  monopoly  of  development  and 
enjoyment ;  not  prudence  only  and  the  expedient  for  to-day  should 
be  appealed  to  by  statesmen,  but  conscience  and  the  right :  justice 
should  not  be  forgotten  in  looking  at  interest,  nor  political  moral- 
ity neglected  for  political  economy :  we  should  not  have  national 
housekeeping  instead  of  national  organization  on  the  basis  of 
right. 

We  may  well  differ  as  to  the  abstract  right  of  many  things ;  for 
every  such  question  has  many  sides,  and  few  men  look  at  all  of 
them,  many  only  at  one.  But  we  all  readily  recognize  cruelty, 
unfairness,  inhumanity,  partiality,  over-reaching,  hard-dealing,  by 
their  ugly  and  familiar  lineaments,  and  in  order  to  know  and  to 
hate  and  despise  them,  we  do  not  need  to  sit  as  a  Court  of  Errors 
and  Appeals  to  revise  and  reverse  God's  Providences. 

There  are  certainly  great  evils  of  civilization  at  this  day,  and 
many  questions  of  humanity  long  adjourned  and  put  off.  The 
hideous  aspect  of  pauperism,  the  debasement  and  vice  in  our  cities, 
tell  us  by  their  eloquent  silence  or  in  inarticulate  mutterings,  that 
the  rich  and  the  powerful  and  the  intellectual  do  not  do  their  duty 
by  the  poor,  the  feeble,  and  the  ignorant ;  and  every  wretched 
woman  who  lives,  Heaven  scarce  knows  how,  by  making  shirts  at 
sixpence  each,  attests  the  injustice  and  inhumanity  of  man.  There 
are  cruelties  to  slaves,  and  worse  cruelties  to  animals,  each  dis- 
graceful to  their  perpetrators,  and  equally  unwarranted  by  the 
lawful  relation  of  control  and  dependence  which  it  has  pleased 
God  to  create. 

A  sentence  is  written  against  all  that  is  unjust,  written  by  God 
in  the  nature  of  man  and  in  the  nature  of  the  Universe,  because 
it  is  in  the  nature  of  the  Infinite  God.  Fidelity  to  your  faculties, 
trust  in  their  convictions,  that  is  justice  to  yourself;  a  life  in  obe- 
dience thereto,  that  is  justice  toward  men.  No  wrong  is  really 
successful.  The  gain  of  injustice  is  a  loss,  its  pleasure  suffering. 
Iniquity  often  seems  to  prosper,  but  its  success  is  its  defeat  and 
shame.  After  a  long  while,  the  day  of  reckoning  ever  comes,  to 
nation  as  to  individual.  The  knave  deceives  himself.  The  miser, 
starving  his  brother's  body,  starves  also  his  own  soul,  and  at  death 
shall  creep  out  of  his  great  estate  of  injustice,  poor  and  naked  and 
miserable.  Whoso  escapes  a  duty  avoids  a  gain.  Outward  judg- 
ment often  fails,  inward  justice  never.  Let  a  man  try  to  love  the 


838  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

wrong  and  to  do  the  wrong,  it  is  eating  stones  and  not  bread,  the 
s \vift  feet  of  justice  are  upon  him.  following  with  woollen  tread, 
and  her  iron  hands  are  round  his  neck.  No  man  can  escape  from 
this,  any  more  than  from  himself.  Justice  is  the  angel  of  God 
that  flies  from  East  to  West;  and  where  she  stoops  her  broad 
wings,  it  is  to  bring  the  counsel  of  God,  and  feed  mankind  with 
angels'  bread. 

We  cannot  understand  the  moral  Universe.  The  arc  is  a  long 
one,  and  our  eyes  reach  but  a  little  way;  we  cannot  calculate  the 
curve  and  complete  the  figure  by  the  experience  of  sight ;  but  we 
can  divine  it  by  conscience,  and  we  surely  know  that  it  bends  to- 
ward justice.  Justice  will  not  fail,  though  wickedness  appears 
strong,  and  has  on  its  side  the  armies  and  thrones  of  power,  the 
riches  and  the  glory  of  the  world,  and  though  poor  men  crouch 
down  in  despair.  Justice  will  not  fail  and  perish  out  from  the 
world  of  men,  nor  will  what  is  really  wrong  and  contrary  to  God's 
real  law  of  justice  continually  endure.  The  Power,  the  Wisdom, 
and  the  Justice  of  God  are  on  the  side  of  every  just  thought,  and 
it  cannot  fail,  any  more  than  God  Himself  can  perish. 

In  human  affairs,  the  justice  of  God  must  work  by  human 
means.  Men  are  the  instruments  of  God's  principles ;  our  moral- 
ity is  the  instrument  of  His  justice,  which,  incomprehensible  to 
us,  seems  to  our  short  vision  often  to  work  injustice,  but  will  at 
some  time  still  the  oppressor's  brutal  laugh.  Justice  is  the  rule 
of  conduct  written  in  the  nature  of  mankind.  We  may,  in  our 
daily  life,  in  house  or  field  or  shop,  in  the  office  or  in  the  court, 
help  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  commonwealth  of  justice  which  is 
slowly,  but,  we  would  fain  hope,  surely  approaching.  All  the  jus- 
tice we  mature  will  bless  us  here  and  hereafter,  and  at  our  death 
we  shall  leave  it  added  to  the  common  store  of  human-kind.  And 
every  Mason  who,  content  to  do  that  which  is  possible  and  practi- 
cable, does  and  enforces  justice,  may  help  deepen  the  channel  of 
human  morality  in  which  God's  justice  runs ;  and  so  the  wrecks 
of  evil  that  now  check  and  obstruct  the  stream  may  the  sooner  be 
swept  out  and  borne  away  by  the  resistless  tide  of  Omnipotent 
Right.  Let  us,  my  Brother,  in  this,  as  in  all  else,  endeavor  always 
to  perform  the  duties  of  a  good  Mason  and  a  good  man. 


XXXII. 

SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL 
SECRET. 

[Master  of  Royal  Secret.] 

THE  Occult  Science  of  the  Ancient  Magi  was  concealed  under 
the  shadows  of  the  Ancient  Mysteries :  it  was  imperfectly  revealed 
or  rather  disfigured  by  the  Gnostics :  it  is  guessed  at  under  the 
obscurities  that  cover  the  pretended  crimes  of  the  Templars ;  and 
it  is  found  enveloped  in  enigmas  that  seem  impenetrable,  in  the 
^ites  of  the  Highest  Masonry. 

Magism  was  the  Science  of  Abraham  and  Orpheus,  of  Confu- 
cius and  Zoroaster.  It  was  the  dogmas  of  this  Science  that  were 
engraven  on  the  tables  of  stone  by  Hanoch  and  Trismegistus. 
Moses  purified  and  re-veiled  them,  for  that  is  the  meaning  of  the 
word  reveal.  He  covered  them  with  a  new  veil,  when  he  made  of 
the  Holy  Kabalah  the  exclusive  heritage  of  the  people  of  Israel, 

839 


840  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

and  the  inviolable  Secret  of  its  priests.  The  Mysteries  of  Thebes 
and  Eleusis  preserved  among  the  nations  some  symbols  of  it,  al- 
ready altered,  and  the  mysterious  key  whereof  was  lost  among  the 
instruments  of  an  ever-growing  superstition.  Jerusalem,  the  mur- 
deress of  her  prophets,  and  so  often  prostituted  to  the  false  gods 
of  the  Syrians  and  Babylonians,  had  at  length  in  its  turn  lost  the 
Holy  Word,  when  a  Prophet  announced  to  the  Magi  by  the  con- 
secrated Star  of  Initiation,  came  to  rend  asunder  the  worn  veil  of 
the  old  Temple,  in  order  to  give  the  Church  a  new  tissue  of  legends 
and  symbols,  that  still  and  ever  conceals  from  the  Profane,  and 
ever  preserves  to  the  Elect  the  same  truths. 

It  was  the  remembrance  of  this  scientific  and  religious  Abso- 
lute, of  this  doctrine  that  is  summed  up  in  a  word,  of  this  Word, 
in  fine,  alternately  lost  and  found  again,  that  was  transmitted  to 
the  Elect  of  all  the  Ancient  Initiations :  it  was  this  same  remem- 
brance, preserved,  or  perhaps  profaned  in  the  celebrated  Order  of 
the  Templars,  that  became  for  all  the  secret  associations,  of  the 
Rose-Croix,  of  the  Illuminati,  and  of  the  Hermetic  Freemasons, 
the  reason  of  their  strange  rites,  of  their  signs  more  or  less  conven- 
tional, and,  above  all,  of  their  mutual  devotednest;  and  of  their 
power. 

The  Gnostics  caused  the  Gnosis  to  be  proscribed  by  the  Chris- 
tians, and  the  official  Sanctuary  was  closed  against  the  high  initi- 
ation. Thus  the  Hierarchy  of  Knowledge  was  compromitted  by 
the  violences  of  usurping  ignorance,  and  the  disorders  of  the 
Sanctuary  are  reproduced  in  the  State ;  for  always,  willingly  or 
unwillingly,  the  King  is  sustained  by  the  Priest,  and  it  is  from  the 
eternal  Sanctuary  of  the  Divine  instruction  that  the  Powers  of 
the  Earth,  to  insure  themselves  durability,  must  receive  their  con- 
secration and  their  force. 

The  Hermetic  Science  of  the  early  Christian  ages,  cultivated 
also  by  Geber,  Alfarabius,  and  others  of  the  Arabs,  studied  by  the 
Chiefs  of  the  Templars,  and  embodied  in  certain  symbols  of  the 
higher  Degrees  of  Freemasonry,  may  be  accurately  defined  as  the 
Kabalah  in  active  realization,  or  the  Magic  of  Works.  It  has  three 
analogous  Degrees,  religious,  philosophical,  and  physical  realiza- 
tion. 

Its  religious  realization  is  the  durable  foundation  of  the  true 
Empire  and  the  true  Priesthood  that  rule  in  the  realm  of  human 
intellect :  its  philosophical  realization  is  the  establishment  of  an 
absolute  Doctrine,  known  in  all  times  as  the  "HoLY  Doctrine." 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  84! 

and  of  which  PLUTARCH,  in  the  Treatise  "de  Iside  et  Osiride," 
speaks  at  large  but  mysteriously;  and  of  a  Hierarchical  instruc- 
tion to  secure  the  uninterrupted  succession  of  Adepts  among  the 
Initiates :  its  physical  realization  is  the  discovery  and  application, 
in  the  Microcosm,  or  Little  World,  of  the  creative  law  that  inces- 
santly peoples  the  great  Universe. 

Measure  a  corner  of  the  Creation,  and  multiply  that  space  in 
proportional  progression,  and  the  entire  Infinite  will  multiply  its 
circles  filled  with  universes,  which  will  pass  in  proportional  seg- 
ments between  the  ideal  and  elongating  branches  of  your  Com- 
pass. Now  suppose  that  from  any  point  whatever  of  the  Infinite 
above  you  a  hand  holds  another  Compass  or  a  Square.,  the  lines  of 
the  Celestial  triangle  will  necessarily  meet  those  of  the  Compass 
of  Science,  to  form  the  Mysterious  Star  of  Solomon. 

All  hypotheses  scientifically  probable  are  the  last  gleams  of  the 
twilight  of  knowledge,  or  its  last  shadows.  Faith  begins  where 
Reason  sinks  exhausted.  Beyond  the  human  Reason  is  the  Divine 
Reason,  to  our  feebleness  the  great  Absurdity,  the  Infinite  Absurd, 
which  confounds  us  and  which  we  believe.  For  the  Master,  the 
Compass  of  Faith  is  above  the  Square  of  Reason ;  but  both  resf 
upon  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  combine  to  form  the  Blazing  Star 
of  Truth. 

All  eyes  do  not  see  alike.  Even  the  visible  creation  is  not,  for 
all  who  look  upon  it,  of  one  form  and  one  color.  Our  brain  is  a 
book  printed  within  and  without,  and  the  two  writings  are,  with 
all  men,  more  or  less  confused. 

The  primary  tradition  of  the  single  revelation  has  been  pre- 
served under  the  name  of  the  "Kabalah,"  by  the  Priesthood  of 
Israel.  The  Kabalistic  doctrine,  which  was  also  the  dogma  of  the 
Magi  and  of  Hermes,  is  contained  in  the  Sepher  Yetsairah,  the 
Sohar,  and  the  Talmud.  According  to  that  doctrine,  the  Absolute 
is  the  Being,  in  which  The  Word  Is,  the  Word  that  is  the  utter- 
ance and  expression  of  being  and  life. 

Magic  is  that  which  it  is ;  it  is  by  itself,  like  the  mathematics : 
for  it  is  the  exact  and  absolute  science  of  Nature  and  its  laws. 

Magic  is  the  science  of  the  Ancient  Magi :  and  the  Christian 
religion,  which  has  imposed  silence  on  the  lying  oracles,  and  put 
an  end  to  the  prestiges  of  the  false  Gods,  itself  reveres  those  Magi 
who  came  from  the  East,  guided  by.  a  Star,  to  adore  the  Saviour 
of  the  world  in  His  cradle. 


£42  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Tradition  also  gives  these  Magi  the  title  of  "Kings;"  because 
initiation  into  Magism  constitutes  a  genuine  royalty ;  and  because 
the  grand  art  of  the  Magi  is  styled  by  all  the  Adepts  "The  Royal 
Art,"  or  the  Holy  Realm  or  Empire,  Sanctum  Regnum. 

The  Star  which  guided  them  is  that  same  Blazing  Star,  the  im- 
age whereof  we  find  in  all  initiations.  To  the  Alchemists  it  is  the 
sign  of  the  Quintessence ;  to  the  Magists,  the  Grand  Arcanum ;  to 
the  Kabalists,  the  Sacred  Pentagram.  The  study  of  this  Penta- 
gram could  not  but  lead  the  Magi  to  the  knowledge  of  the  New 
Name  which  was  about  to  raise  itself  above  all  names,  and  cause 
all  creatures  capable  of  adoration  to  bend  the  knee. 

Magic  unites  in  one  and  the  same  science,  whatsoever  Philoso- 
phy can  possess  that  is  most  certain,  and  Religion  of  the  Infallible 
and  the  Eternal.  It  perfectly  and  incontestably  reconciles  these 
two  terms  that  at  first  blush  seem  so  opposed  to  each  other ;  faith 
and  reason,  science  and  creed,  authority  and  liberty. 

It  supplies  the  human  mind  with  an  instrument  of  philosophi- 
cal and  religious  certainty,  exact  as  the  mathematics,  and  account- 
ing for  the  infallibility  of  the  mathematics  themselves. 

Thus  there  is  an  Absolute,  in  the  matters  of  the  Intelligence 
and  of  Faith.  The  Supreme  Reason  has  not  left  the  gleams  of  the 
human  understanding  to  vacillate  at  hazard.  There  is  an  incon- 
testable verity,  there  is  an  infallible  method  of  knowing  this  verity, 
and  by  the  knowledge  of  it,  those  who  accept  it  as  a  rule  may 
give  their  will  a  sovereign  power  that  will  make  them  the  masters 
of  all  inferior  things  and  of  all  errant  spirits :  that  is  to  say,  will 
make  them  the  Arbiters  and  Kings  of  the  World. 

Science  has  its  nights  and  its  dawns,  because  it  gives  the  intel- 
lectual world  a  life  which  has  its  regulated  movements  and  its 
progressive  phases.  It  is  with  Truths,  as  with  the  luminous  rays : 
nothing  of  wrhat  is  concealed  is  lost ;  but  also,  nothing  of  what  is 
discovered  is  absolutely  new.  God  has  been  pleased  to  give  to 
Science,  which  is  the  reflection  of  His  Glory,  the  Seal  of  His 
Eternity. 

It  is  not  in  the  books  of  the  Philosophers,  but  in  the  religious 
symbolism  of  the  Ancients,  that  we  must  look  for  the  footprints 
of  Science,  and  re-discover  the  Mysteries  of  Knowledge.  The 
Priests  of  Egypt  knew,  better  than  we  do,  the  laws  of  movement 
and  of  life.  They  knew  how  to  temper  or  intensify  action  by  re- 
action ;  and  readily  foresaw  the  realization  of  these  effects,  the 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  843 

causes  of  which  they  had  determined.  The  Columns  of  Seth, 
Enoch,  Solomon,  and  Hercules  have  symbolized  in  the  Magian 
traditions  this  universal  law  of  the  Equilibrium ;  and  the  Science 
of  the  Equilibrium  or  balancing  of  Forces  had  led  the  Initiates 
to  that  of  the  universal  gravitation  around  the  centres  of  Life, 
Heat,  and  Light. 

Thales  and  Pythagoras  learned  in  the  Sanctuaries  of  Egypt 
that  the  Earth  revolved  around  the  Sun ;  but  they  did  not  attempt 
to  make  this  generally  known,  because  to  do  so  it  would  have  been 
necessary  to  reveal  one  of  the  great  Secrets  of  the  Temple,  that 
double  law  of  attraction  and  radiation  or  of  sympathy  and  antip- 
athy, of  fixedness  and  movement,  which  is  the  principle  of  Crea- 
tion, and  the  perpetual  cause  of  life.  This  truth  was  ridiculed  by 
the  Christian  Lactantius,  as  it  was  long  after  sought  to  be  proven 
a  falsehood  by  persecution,  by  Papal  Rome. 

So  the  philosophers  reasoned,  while  the  Priests,  without  reply- 
ing to  them  or  even  smiling  at  their  errors,  wrote,  in  those  Hiero- 
glyphics that  created  all  dogmas  and  all  poetry,  the  Secrets  of  the 
Truth. 

When  Truth  comes  into  the  world,  the  Star  of  Knowledge  ad- 
vises the  Magi  of  it,  and  they  hasten  to  adore  the  Infant  who  cre- 
ates the  Future.  It  is  by  means  of  the  Intelligence  of  the  Hie- 
rarchy and  the  practice  of  obedience,  that  one  obtains  Initiation. 
If  the  Rulers  have  the  Divine  Right  to  govern,  the  true  Initiate 
will  cheerfully  obey. 

The  orthodox  traditions  were  carried  from  Chaldea  by  Abra- 
ham. They  reigned  in  Egypt  in  the  time  of  Joseph,  together  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  True  God.  Moses  carried  Orthodoxy  out  of 
Egypt,  and  in  the  Secret  Traditions  of  the  Kabalah  we  find  a 
Theology  entire,  perfect,  unique,  like  that  which  in  Christianity  is 
most  grand  and  best  explained  by  the  Fathers  and  the  Doctors, 
the  whole  with  a  consistency  and  a  harmoniousness  which  it  is  not 
as  yet  given  to  the  world  to  comprehend.  The  Sohar,  which  is 
the  Key  of  the  Holy  Books,  opens  also  all  the  depths  and  lights, 
all  the  obscurities  of  the  Ancient  Mythologies  and  of  the  Sciences 
originally  concealed  in  the  Sanctuaries.  It  is  true  that  the  Secret 
of  this  Key  must  be  known,  to  enable  one  to  make  use  of  it.  and 
that  for  even  the  most  penetrating  intellects,  not  initiated  in  this 
Secret,  the  Sohar  is  absolutely  incompreheHsibk  and  almost 
illegible. 


844  MORALS  AND  DOGMA, 

The  Secret  of  the  Occult  Sciences  is  that  of  Nature  itself,  the 
Secret  of  the  generation  of  the  Angels  and  Worlds,  that  of  the 
Omnipotence  of  God. 

"Ye  shall  be  like  the  Elohim,  knowing  good  and  evil,"  had  the 
Serpent  of  Genesis  said,  and  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  became  the 
Tree  of  Death. 

For  six  thousand  years  the  Martyrs  of  Knowledge  toil  and  die 
at  the  foot  of  this  tree,  that  it  may  again  become  the  Tree  of  Life. 

The  Absolute  sought  for  unsuccessfully  by  the  insensate  and 
found  by  the  Sages,  is  the  TRUTH,  the  REALITY,  and  the  REASON 
of  the  universal  equilibrium  ! 

Equilibrium  is  the  Harmony  that  results  from  the  analogy  of 
Contraries. 

Until  now,  Humanity  has  been  endeavoring  to  stand  on  one 
foot ;  sometimes  on  one,  sometimes  on  the  other. 

Civilizations  have  risen  and  perished,  either  by  the  anarchical 
insanity  of  Despotism,  or  by  the  despotic  anarchy  of  Revolt. 

To  organize  Anarchy,  is  the  problem  which  the  revolutionists 
have  and  will  eternally  have  to  resolve.  It  is  the  rock  of  Sisyphus 
that  will  always  fall  back  upon  them.  To  exist  a  single  instant, 
they  are  and  always  will  be  by  fatality  reduced  to  improvise  a  des- 
potism without  other  reason  of  existence  than  necessity,  and  which, 
consequently,  is  violent  and  blind  as  Necessity.  We  escape  from 
the  harmonious  monarchy  of  Reason,  only  to  fall  under  the  irregu- 
lar dictatorship  of  Folly. 

Sometimes  superstitious  enthusiasms,  sometimes  the  miserable 
calculations  of  the  materialist  instinct  have  led  astray  the  nations, 
and  God  at  last  urges  the  world  on  toward  believing  Reason  and 
reasonable  Beliefs. 

We  have  had  prophets  enough  without  philosophy,  and  philoso- 
phers without  religion ;  the  blind  believers  and  the  skeptics  resem- 
ble each  other,  and  are  as  far  the  one  as  the  other  from  the  eternal 
salvation. 

In  the  chaos  of  universal  doubt  and  of  the  conflicts  of  Reason 
and  Faith,  the  great  men  and  Seers  have  been  but  infirm  and 
morbid  artists,  seeking  the  beau-ideal  at  the  risk  and  peril  of  their 
reason  and  life. 

Living  only  in  the  hope  to  be  crowned,  they  are  the  first  to  do 
what  i'ythagoras  in  so  touching  a  manner  prohibits  in  his  admira- 
ble Symbols  ;  they  rend  crowns,  and  tread  them  under  foot. 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET. 

Light  is  the  equilibrium  of  Shadow  and  Lucidity. 

Movement  is  the  equilibrium  of  Inertia  and  Activity. 

Authority  is  the  equilibrium  of  Liberty  and  Power. 

Wisdom  is  equilibrium  in  the  Thoughts,  which  are  the  scintil- 
lations and  rays  of  the  Intellect. 

Virtue  is  equilibrium  in  the  Affections :  Beauty  is  harmonious 
proportion  in  Forms. 

The  beautiful  lives  are  the  accurate  ones,  and  the  magnificences 
of  Nature  are  an  algebra  of  graces  and  splendors. 

Everything  just  is  beautiful ;  everything  beautiful  ought  to  be 
just. 


There  is,  in  fact,  no  Nothing,  no  void  Emptiness,  in  the 
Universe.  From  the  upper  or  outer  surface  of  our  atmosphere 
to  that  of  the  Sun,  and  to  those  of  the  Planets  and  remote  Stars, 
in  different  directions,  Science  has  for  hundreds  of  centuries  imag- 
ined that  there  was  simple,  void,  empty  Space.  Comparing  finite 
knowledge  with  the  Infinite,  the  Philosophers  know  little  more 
than  the  apes !  In  all  that  "void"  space  are  the  Infinite  Forces 
of  God,  acting  in  an  infinite  variety  of  directions,  back  and  forth, 
and  never  for  an  instant  inactive.  In  all  of  it,  active  through 
the  whole  of  its  Infinity,  is  the  Light  that  is  the  Visible  Manifest- 
ation of  God.  The  earth  and  every  other  planet  and  sphere  that 
is  not  a  Centre  of  Light,  carries  its  cone  of  shadow  with  it  as  it 
flies  and  flashes  round  in  its  orbit;  but  the  darkness  has  no  home 
in  the  Universe.  To  illuminate  the  sphere  on  one  side,  is  to 
project  a  cone  of  darkness  on  the  other ;  and  Error  also  is 
the  Shadow  of  the  Truth  with  which  God  illuminates  the 
Soul. 

In  all  that  "Void,"  also,  is  the  Mysterious  and  ever  Active  Elec- 
tricity, and  Heat,  and  the  Omnipresent  Ether.  At  the  will  of 
God  the  Invisible  becomes  Visible.  Two  invisible  gases,  com- 
bined by  the  action  of  a  Force  of  God,  and  compressed,  become 
and  remain  the  water  that  fills  the  great  basin?  o  f  the  seas,  flows 
in  the  rivers  and  rivulets,  leaps  forth  from  the  rocks  or  springs, 
drops  upon  the  earth  in  rains,  or  whitens  it  with  snows,  and  bridges 
the  Danubes  with  ice,  or  gathers  in  vast  reservoirs  in  the  earth's 
bosom.  God  manifested  fills  all  "the  extension  ihat  we  foolishly 
call  Empty  Space  and  the  Void. 


846  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

And  everywhere  in  the  Universe,  what  we  call  Life  and  Move- 
ment results  from  a  continual  conflict  of  Forces  or  Impulses. 
Whenever  that  active  antagonism  ceases,  the  immobility  and 
inertia,  which  are  Death,  result. 

If,  says  the  Kabalah,  the  Justice  of  God,  which  is  Severity  or 
the  Female,  alone  reigned,  creation  of  imperfect  beings  such  as 
man  would  from  the  beginning  have  been  impossible,  because  Sin 
being  congenital  with  Humanity,  the  Infinite  Justice,  measuring 
the  Sin  by  the  Infinity  of  the  God  offended  against,  must  have 
annihilated  Humanity  at  the  instant  of  its  creation;  and  not 
only  Humanity  but  the  Angels,  since  these  also,  like  all  created 
by  God  and  less  than  perfect,  are  sinful.  Nothing  imperfect 
would  have  been  possible.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Mercy  or 
Benignity  of  God,  the  Male,  were  in  no  wise  counteracted,  Sin 
would  go  unpunished,  and  the  Universe  fall  into  a  chaos  of  cor- 
ruption. 

Let  God  but  repeal  a  single  principle  or  law  of  chemical  attrac- 
tion or  sympathy,  and  the  antagonistic  forces  equilibrated  in  mat- 
ter, released  from  constraint,  would  instantaneously  expand  all 
that  we  term  matter  into  impalpable  and  invisible  gases,  such  as 
water  or  steam  is,  when,  confined  in  a  cylinder  and  subjected  to 
an  immense  degree  of  that  mysterious  force  of  the  Deity  which  we 
call  "heat,"  it  is  by  its  expansion  released. 

Incessantly  the  great  currents  and  rivers  of  air  flow  and  rush 
and  roll  from  the  equator  to  the  frozen  polar  regions,  and 
back  from  these  to  the  torrid  equatorial  realms.  Necessarily 
incident  to  these  great,  immense,  equilibrated  and  beneficent 
movements,  caused  by  the  antagonism  of  equatorial  heat  and 
polar  cold,  are  the  typhoons,  tornadoes,  and  cyclones  that  result 
from  conflicts  between  the  rushing  currents.  These  and  the 
benign  trade-winds  result  from  the  same  great  law.  God  is 
omnipotent :  but  effects  without  causes  are  impossible,  and  these 
effects  cannot  but  sometimes  be  evil.  The  fire  would  not  warm, 
if  it  could  not  also  burn,  the  human  flesh.  The  most  virulent 
poisons  are  the  most  sovereign  remedies,  when  given  in  due  pro- 
portion. The  Evil  is  the  shadow  of  the  Good,  and  inseparable 
from  it. 

The  Divine  Wisdom  limits  by  equipoise  the  Omnipotence  of  the 
Divine  Will  or  Power,  and  the  result  is  Beauty  or  Harmony. 
The  arch  rests  not  on  a  single  column,  but  springs  from  one  on 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  847 

either  side.   So  is  it  also  with  the  Divine  Justice  and  Mercy,  and 
with  the  Human  Reason  and  Human  Faith. 

That  purely  scholastic  Theology,  issue  of  the  Categories  of 
Aristotle  and  of  the  Sentences  of  Peter  Lombard,  that  logic  of  the 
syllogism  which  argues  instead  of  reasoning,  and  finds  a  response 
to  every  thing  by  subtilizing  on  terms,  wholly  ignored  the  Kaba- 
lastic  dogma  and  wandered  off  into  the  drear  vacuity  of  darkness. 
It  was  less  a  philosophy  or  a  wisdom  than  a  philosophical  autom- 
aton, replying  by  means  of  springs,  and  uncoiling  its  theses  like 
a  wheeled  movement.  It  was  not  the  human  verb  but  the  monot- 
onous cry  of  a  machine,  the  inanimate  speech  of  an  Android.  It 
was  the  fatal  precision  of  mechanism,  instead  of  a  free  appli- 
cation of  rational  necessities.  ST.  THOMAS  AQUINAS  crushed  with 
a  single  blow  all  this  scaffolding  of  words  built  one  upon  the  other, 
by  proclaiming  the  eternal  Empire  of  Reason,  in  that  magnificent 
sentence,  "A  thing  is  not  just  because  GOD  wills  it;  but  GOD 
wills  it  because  it  is  fust."  The  proximate  consequence  of  this 
proposition,  arguing  from  the  greater  to  the  less,  was  this  :  "A  thing 
is  not  true  because  ARISTOTLE  has  said  it;  but  ARISTOTLE  could 
not  reasonably  say  it  unless  it  was  true.  Seek  then,  first  of  all,  the 
TRUTH  and  JUSTICE,  and  the  Science  of  ARISTOTLE  will  be  given 
you  in  addition." 

It  is  the  fine  dream  of  the  greatest  of  the  Poets,  that  Hell, 
become  useless,  is  to  be  closed  at  length,  by  the  aggrandizement  of 
Heaven  ;  that  the  problem  of  Evil  is  to  receive  its  final  solution, 
and  Good  alone,  necessary  and  triumphant,  is  to  reign  in  Eternity. 
So  the  Persian  dogma  taught  that  AHRIMAN  and  his  subordinate 
ministers  of  Evil  were  at  last,  by  means  of  a  Redeemer  and  Medi- 
ator, to  be  reconciled  with  Deity,  and  all  Evil  to  end.  But  unfor- 
tunately, the  philosopher  forgets  all  the  laws  of  equilibrium,  and 
seeks  to  absorb  the  Light  in  a  splendor  without  shadow,  and 
movement  in  an  absolute  repose  that  would  be  the  cessation  of 
life.  So  long  as  there  shall  be  a  visible  light,  there  will  be  a  shadow 
proportional  to  this  Light,  and  whatever  is  illuminated  will  cast 
its  cone  of  shadow.  Repose  will  never  be  happiness,  if  it  is  not 
balanced  by  an  analogous  and  contrary  movement.  This  is  the 
immutable  law  of  Nature,  the  Eternal  Will  of  the  JUSTICE  which 
is  GOD. 

The  same  reason  necessitates  Evil  and  Sorrow  in  Humanity, 
which  renders  indispensable  the  bitterness  of  the  waters  of  the 


848  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

seas.  Here  also,  Harmony  can  result  only  from  the  analogy  of 
contraries,  and  what  is  above  exists  by  reason  of  what  is  below.  It 
is  the  depth  that  determines  the  height ;  and  if  the  valleys  are  filled 
up, 'the  mountains  disappear:  so,  if  the  shadows  are  effaced,  the 
Light  is  annulled,  which  is  only  visible  by  the  graduated  con- 
trast of  gloom  and  splendor,  and  universal  obscurity  will  be  pro- 
duced by  an  immense  dazzling.  Even  the  colors  in  the  Light  only 
exist  by  the  presence  of  the  shadow :  it  is  the  threefold  alliance 
of  the  day  and  night,  the  luminous  image  of  the  dogma,  the 
Light  made  Shadow,  as  the  Saviour  is  the  Logos  made  man : 
and  all  this  reposes  on  the  same  law,  the  primary  law  of  crea- 
tion, the  single  and  absolute  law  of  Nature,  that  of  the  distinc- 
tion and  harmonious  ponderation  of  the  contrary  forces  in  the 
universal  equipoise. 

The  two  great  columns  of  the  Temple  that  symbolizes  the 
LTniverse  are  Necessity,  or  the  omnipotent  Will  of  God,  which 
nothing  can  disobey,  and  Liberty,  or  the  free-will  of  His  creatures. 
Apparently  and  to  our  human  reason  antagonistic,  the  same  Rea- 
son is  not  incapable  of  comprehending  how  they  can  be  in  equi- 
poise. The  Infinite  Power  and  Wisdom  could  so  plan  the  Universe 
and  the  Infinite  Succession  of  things  as  to  leave  man  free  to  act, 
and,  foreseeing  what  each  would  at  every  instant  think  and  do, 
to  make  of  the  free-will  and  free-action  of  each  an  instrument  to 
aid  in  effecting  its  general  purpose.  For  even  a  man,  foreseeing 
that  another  will  do  a  certain  act,  and  in  nowise  controlling  or 
even  influencing  him  may  use  that  action  as  an  instrument  to  effect 
his  own  purposes. 

The  Infinite  Wisdom  of  God  foresees  what  each  will  do,  and 
uses  it  as  an  instrument,  by  the  exertion  of  His  Infinite  Power, 
which  yet  does  not  control  the  Human  action  so  as  to  annihilate 
its  freedom.  The  result  is  Harmony,  the  third  column  that  up- 
holds the  Lodge.  The  same  Harmony  results  from  the  equipoise 
of  Necessity  and  Liberty.  The  will  of  God  is  not  for  an  instant 
defeated  nor  thwarted,  and  this  is  the  Divine  Victory ;  and  yet 
He  does  not  tempt  nor  constrain  men  to  do  Evil,  and  thus  His 
Infinite  Glory  is  unimpaired.  The  result  is  Stability,  Cohesion,  and 
Permanence  in  the  Universe,  and  undivided  Dominion  and  Auto- 
cracy in  the  Deity.  And  these,  Victory,  Glory,  Stability,  and  Do- 
minion, are  the  last  four  Sephiroth  of  the  Kabalah. 

I  AM,  God  said  to  Moses,  that  which  Is,  Was  and  Shall  forever 


SUBLIME   PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  849 

Be.  But  the  Very  God,  in  His  unman ifested  Essence,  conceived 
of  as  not  yet  having  created  and  as  Alone,  has  no  Name.  Such 
was  the  doctrine  of  all  the  ancient  Sages,  and  it  is  so  expressly 
declared  in  the  Kabalah.  mn11  is  the  Name  of  the  Deity  mani- 
fested in  a  single  act,  that  of  Creation,  and  containing  within 
Himself,  in  idea  and  actuality,  the  whole  Universe,  to  be  inves- 
ted with  form  and  be  materially  developed  during  the  eternal 
succession  of  ages.  As  God  never  WAS  NOT,  so  He  never  THOUGHT 
not,  and  the  Universe  has  no  more  had  a  beginning  than  the 
Divine  Thought  of  which  it  is  the  utterance, — no  more  than  the 
Deity  Himself.  The  duration  of  the  Universe  is  but  a  point  half- 
way upon  the  infinite  line  of  eternity ;  and  God  was  not  inert  and 
uncreative  during  the  eternity  that  stretches  behind  that  point. 
The  Archetype  of  the  Universe  did  never  not  exist  in  the  Divine 
Mind.  The  Word  was  in  the  BEGINNING  with  God,  and  WAS 
God.  And  the  Ineffable  NAME  is  that,  not  of  the  Very  Essence 
but  of  the  Absolute,  manifested  as  Being  or  Existence.  For 
Existence  or  Being,  said  the  Philosophers,  is  limitation ;  and  the 
Very  Deity  is  not  limited  nor  defined,  but  is  all  that  may  possibly 
be,  besides  all  that  is,  was,  and  shall  be. 

Reversing  the  letters  of  the  Ineffable  Name,  and  dividing  it,  it 
becomes  bi-sexual,  as  the  word  iT1,  Yitd-He  or  JAH  is,  and  dis- 
closes the  meaning  of  much  of  the  obscure  language  of  the 
Kabalah,  and  is  The  Highest  of  which  the  Columns  Jachin  and 
Boaz  are  the  symbol.  "In  the  image  of  Deity,"  we  are  told, 
"God  created  the  Man;  Male  and  Female  created  He  them:" 
and  the  writer,  symbolizing  the  Divine  by  the  Human,  then  tells 
us  that  the  woman,  at  first  contained  in  the  man,  was  taken 
from  his  side.  So  Minerva,  Goddess  of  Wisdom,  was  born,  a  wo- 
man and  in  armor,  of  the  brain  of  Jove ;  Isis  was  the  sister  be- 
fore she  was  the  wife  of  Osiris,  and  within  BRAIIM,  the  Source 
of  all,  the  Very  God,  without  sex  or  name,  was  developed  MAYA, 
the  Mother  of  all  that  is.  The  WORD  is  the  First  and  Only-be- 
gotten of  the  Father;  and  the  awe  with  which  the  Highest 
Mysteries  were  regarded  has  imposed  silence  in  respect  to  the 
Nature  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Word  is  Light,  and  the  Life  of 
Humanity. 

It  is  for  the  Adepts  to  understand  the  meaning  of  the  Sym- 
bols. 


850  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

Return  now,  with  us,  to  the  Degrees  of  the  Blue  Masonry,  and 
for  your  last  lesson,  receive  the  explanation  of  one  of  their 
Symbols. , 

You  see  upon  the  altar  of  those  Degrees  the  SQUARE  and  the 
COMPASS,  and  you  remember  how  they  lay  upon  the  altar  in  each 
Degree. 

The  SQUARE  is  an  instrument  adapted  for  plane  surfaces  only, 
and  therefore  appropriate  to  Geometry,  or  measurement  of  the 
Earth,  which  appears  to  be,  and  was  by  the  Ancients  supposed  to 
be,  a  plane.  The  COMPASS  is  an  instrument  that  has  relation  to 
spheres  and  spherical  surfaces,  and  is  adapted  to  spherical  trigo- 
nometry, or  that  branch  of  mathematics  which  deals  with  the 
Heavens  and  the  orbits  of  the  planetary  bodies. 

The  SQUARE,  therefore,  is  a  natural  and  appropriate  Symbol  of 
this  Earth  and  the  things  that  belong  to  it,  are  of  it,  or  concern 
it.  The  Compass  is  an  equally  natural  and  appropriate  Symbol 
of  the  Heavens,  and  of  all  celestial  things  and  celestial  natures. 

You  see  at  the  beginning  of  this  reading,  an  old  Hermetic  Sym- 
bol, copied  from  the  "MATERIA  PRIM  A"  of  Valentinus,  printed 
at  Franckfurt,  in  1613,  with  a  treatise  entitled  "AzoTH."  Upon 
it  you  see  a  Triangle  upon  a  Square,  both  of  these  contained  in  a 
circle ;  and  above  this,  standing  upon  a  dragon,  a  human  body, 
with  two  arms  only,  but  two  heads,  one  male  and  the  other  female. 
By  the  side  of  the  male  head  is  the  Sun,  and  by  that  of  the  female 
head,  the  Moon,  the  crescent  within  the  circle  of  the  full  moon. 
And  the  hand  on  the  male  side  holds  a  Compass,  and  that  on  the 
f em-ale  side,  a  Square. 

The  Heavens  and  the  Earth  were  personified  as  Deities,  even 
among  the  Aryan  Ancestors  of  the  European  nations  of  the  Hin- 
dus, Zends,  Bactrians,  and  Persians ;  and  the  Rig  Veda  Sanhita 
contains  hymns  addressed  to  them  as  gods.  They  were  deified 
also  among  the  Phoenicians ;  and  among  the  Greeks  OURAXOS  and 
GEA,  Heaven  and  Earth,  were  sung  as  the  most  ancient  of  the 
Deities,  by  Hesiod. 

It  is  the  great,  fertile,  beautiful  MOTHER,  Earth,  that  produces, 
with  limitless  profusion  of  beneficence,  everything  that  ministers 
to  the  needs,  to  the  comfort,  and  to  the  luxury  of  man.  From 
her  teeming  and  inexhaustible  bosom  come  the  fruits,  the  grain, 
the  flowers,  in  their  season.  From  it  comes  all  that  feeds  the  ani- 
mals which  serve  man  as  laborers  and  for  food.  She,  in  the  fair 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  851 

Springtime,  is  green  with  abundant  grass,  and  the  trees  spring 
from  her  soil,  and  from  her  teeming  vitality  take  their  wealth  of 
green  leaves.  In  her  womb  are  found  the  useful  and  valuable 
minerals ;  hers  are  the  seas  that  swarm  with  life ;  hers  the  rivers 
that  furnish  food  and  irrigation,  and  the  mountains  that  send 
down  the  streams  which  swell  into  these  rivers ;  hers  the  forests 
that  feed  the  sacred  fires  for  the  sacrifices,  and  blaze  upon  the  do- 
mestic hearths.  The  EARTH,  therefore,  the  great  PRODUCER,  was 
always  represented  as  a  female,  as  the  MOTHER, — Great,  Bounte- 
ous, Beneficent  Mother  Earth. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  light  and  heat  of  the  Sun  in  the 
Heavens,  and  the  rains  that  seem  to  come  from  them,  that  in  the 
Springtime  make  fruitful  this  bountifully-producing  Earth,  that 
restore  life  and  warmth  to  her  veins,  chilled  by  Winter,  set  running 
free  her  streams,  and  beget,  as  it  were,  that  greenness  and  that 
abundance  of  which  she  is  so  prolific.  As  the  procreative  and 
generative  agents,  the  Heavens  and  the  Sun  have  always  been  re- 
garded as  male;  as  the  generators  that  fructify  the  Earth  and 
cause  it  to  produce. 

The  Hermaphroditic  figure  is  the  Symbol  of  the  double  nature 
anciently  assigned  to  the  Deity,  as  Generator  and  Producer,  as 
BRAHM  and  MAYA  among  the  Aryans,  Osiris  and  Isis  among  the 
Egyptians.  As  the  Sun  was  male,  so  the  Moon  was  female ;  and 
Isis  was  both  the  sister  and  the  wife  of  Osiris.  The  Compass, 
therefore,  is  the  Hermetic  Symbol  of  the  Creative  Deity,  and  the 
Square  of  the  productive  Earth  or  Universe. 

From  the  Heavens  come  the  spiritual  and  immortal  portion  of 
man ;  from  the  Earth  his  material  and  mortal  portion.  The  He- 
brew Genesis  says  that  YEHOIM.H  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
Earth,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life.  Through 
the  seven  planetary  spheres,  represented  by  the  Mystic  Ladder  of 
the  Mithriac  Initiations,  and  it  by  that  which  Jacob  saw  in  his 
dream  (not  with  three,  but  with  seven  steps),  the  Souls,  emanating 
from  the  Deity,  descended,  to  be  united  to  their  human  bodies : 
and  through  those  seven  spheres  they  must  re-ascend,  to  return  to 
thei-r  origin  and  home  in  the  bosom  of  the  Deity. 

The  COMPASS,  therefore,  as  the  Symbol  of  the  Heavens,  repre- 
sents the  spiritual,  intellectual,  and  moral  portion  of  this  double 
nature  of  Humanity ;  and  the  SQUARE,  as  the   Symboi   of  the 
Earth,  its  material,  sensual,  and  baser  portion. 
55 


852  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

"Truth  and  Intelligence,"  said  one  of  the  Ancient  Indian  Sects 
of  Philosophers,  "are  the  Eternal  attributes  of  God,  not  of  the  in- 
dividual Soul,  which  is  susceptible  both  of  knowledge  and  igno- 
rance, of  pleasure  and  pain ;  therefore  God  and  the  individual 
Soul  are  distinct :"  and  this  expression  of  the  ancient  Nyaya 
Philosophers,  in  regard  to  Truth,  has  been  handed  down  to  us 
through  the  long  succession  of  ages,  in  the  lessons  of  Freema- 
sonry, wherein  we  read,  that  "Truth  is  a  Divine  Attribute,  and 
the  foundation  of  every  virtue." 

"While  embodied  in  matter,"  they  said,  "the  Soul  is  in  a  state 
of  imprisonment,  and  is  under  the  influence  of  evil  passions ;  but 
having,  by  intense  study,  arrived  at  the  knowledge  of  the  elements 
and  principles  of  Nature,  it  attains  unto  the  place  of  THE  ETER- 
NAL; in  which  state  of  happiness,  its  individuality  does  not 
cease." 

The  vitality  which  animates  the  mortal  frame,  the  Breath  of 
Life  of  the  Hebrew  Genesis,  the  Hindu  Philosophers  in  general 
held,  perishes  with  it ;  but  the  Soul  is  divine,  an  emanation  of 
the  Spirit  of  God,  but  not  a  portion  of  that  Spirit.  For  they 
compared  it  to  the  heat  and  light  sent  forth  from  the  Sun,  or  to 
a  ray  of  that  light,  which  neither  lessens  nor  divides  its  own 
essence. 

However  created,  or  invested  with  separate  existence,  the  Soul, 
which  is  but  the  creature  of  the  Deity,  cannot  know  the  mode  of 
its  creation,  nor  comprehend  its  own  individuality.  It  cannot 
even  comprehend  how  the  being  which  it  and  the  body  consti- 
tute, can  feel  pain,  or  see,  or  hear.  It  has  pleased  the  Universal 
Creator  to  set  bounds  to  the  scope  of  our  human  and  finite  rea- 
son, beyond  which  it  cannot  reach ;  and  if  we  are  capable  of  com- 
prehending the  mode  and  manner  of  the  creation  or  generation 
of  the  Universe  of  things,  He  has  been  pleased  to  conceal  it  from 
us  by  an  impenetrable  veil,  while  the  words  used  to  express  the 
act  have  no  other  definite  meaning  than  that  He  caused  that  Uni- 
verse to  commence  to  exist. 

It  is  enough  for  us  to  know,  what  Masonry  teaches,  that  we  are 
not  all  mortal ;  that  the  Soul  or  Spirit,  the  intellectual  and  rea- 
soning portion  of  ourself,  is  our  Very  Self,  is  not  subject  to  decay 
and  dissolution,  but  is  simple  and  immaterial,  survives  the  death 
of  the  body,  and  is  capable  of  immortality ;  that  it  is  also  capable 
of  improvement  and  advancement,  of  increase  of  knowledge  of 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  853 

the  things  that  are  divine,  of  becoming  wiser  and  better,  and 
more  and  more  worthy  of  immortality;  and  that  to  become  so, 
and  to  help  to  improve  and  benefit  others  and  all  our  race,  is  the 
noblest  ambition  and  highest  glory  that  we  can  entertain  and 
attain  unto,  in  this  momentary  and  imperfect  life. 

In  every  human  being  the  Divine  and  the  Human  are  inter- 
mingled. In  every  one  there  are  the  Reason  and  the  Moral  sense, 
the  passions  that  prompt  to  evil,  and  the  sensual  appetites.  "If 
ye  live  after  the  flesh,  ye  shall  die,"  said  Paul,  writing  to  the 
Christians  at  Rome,  "but  if  ye  through  the  spirit  do  mortify  the 
deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall  live.  For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  sons  of  God."  "The  flesh  lusteth 
against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit  against  the  flesh,"  he  said,  writing 
to  the  Christians  of  Galatia,  "and  these  are  contrary  the  one  to 
the  other,  so  that  ye  cannot  do  the  things  that  ye  would."  "That 
which  I  do,  I  do  not  willingly  do,"  he  wrote  to  the  Romans, 
"for  what  I  wish  to  do,  that  I  do  not  do,  but  that  which  I  hate  I 
do.  It  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that  dwelleth  in  me.  To 
will,  is  present  with  me;  but  how  to  perform  that  which  is  good, 
I  find  not.  For,  I  do  not  do  the  good  that  I  desire  to  do ;  and  the 
evil  that  I  do  not  wish  to  do,  that  I  do  do.  I  find  then  a  law, 
that  when  I  desire  to  do  good,  evil  is  present  with  me ;  for  I  de- 
light in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man,  but  I  see  another 
law  in  my  members,  warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and 
bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  mem- 
bers. .  .  So  then,  with  the  mind  I  myself  serve  the  law  of  God, 
but  with  the  flesh  the  law  of  sin." 

Life  is  a  battle,  and  to  fight  that  battle  heroically  and  well  is  the 
great  purpose  of  every  man's  existence,  who  is  worthy  and  fit  to 
live  at  all.  To  stem  the  strong  currents  of  adversity,  to  advance 
in  despite  of  all  obstacles,  to  snatch  victory  from  the  jealous  grasp 
of  fortune,  to  become  a  chief  and  a  leader  among  men,  to  rise  to 
rank  and  power  by  eloquence,  courage,  perseverance,  study,  en- 
ergy, activity,  discouraged  by  no  reverses,  impatient  of  no  delays, 
deterred  by  no  hazards;  to  win  wealth,  to  subjugate  men  by  our 
intellect,  the  very  elements  by  our  audacity,  to  succeed,  to  pros- 
per, to  thrive : — thus  it  is,  according  to  the  general  understanding, 
that  one  fights  well  the  battle  of  life.  Even  to  succeed  in  business 
by  that  boldness  which  halts  for  no  risks,  that  audacity  which 
stakes  all  upon  hazardous  chances ;  by  the  shrewdness  of  the 


854  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

close  dealer,  the  boldness  of  the  unscrupulous  operator,  even  by 
the  knaveries  of  the  stock-board  and  the  gold-room ;  to  crawl  up 
into  place  by  disreputable  means  or  the  votes  of  brutal  ignorance, 
— these  also  are  deemed  to  be  among  the  great  successes  of  life. 

But  that  which  is  the  greatest  battle,  and  in  which  the  truest 
honor  and  most  real  success  are  to  be  won,  is  that  which  our  in- 
tellect and  reason  and  moral  sense,  our  spiritual  natures,  fight 
against  our  sensual  appetites  and  evil  passions,  our  earthly  and 
material  or  animal  nature.  Therein  only  are  the  true  glories  of 
heroism  to  be  won,  there  only  the  successes  that  entitle  us  to  tri- 
umphs. 

In  every  human  life  that  battle  is  fought ;  and  those  who  win 
elsewhere,  often  suffer  ignominious  defeat  and  disastrous  rout,  and 
discomfiture  and  shameful  downfall  in  this  encounter. 

You  have  heard  more  than  one  definition  of  Freemasonry.  The 
truest  and  the  most  significant  you  have  yet  to  hear.  It  is  taught 
to  the  entered  Apprentice,  the  Fellow-Craft,  and  the  Master,  and 
it  is  taught  in  every  Degree  through  which  you  have  advanced  to 
this.  It  is  a  definition  of  what  Freemasonry  is,  of  what  its  pur- 
poses and  its  very  essence  and  spirit  are ;  and  it  has  for  every  one 
of  us  the  force  and  sanctity  of  a  divine  law,  and  imposes  on  every 
one  of  us  a  solemn  obligation. 

//  is  symbolized  and  taught,  to  the  Apprentice  as  well  as  to  you, 
by  the  COMPASS  and  the  SQUARE;  upon  which,  as  well  as  upon  the 
Book  of  your  Religion  and  the  Book  of  the  law  of  the  Scottish 
Freemasonry,  you  have  taken  so  many  obligations.  As  a  Knight, 
you  have  been  taught  it  by  the  Swords,  the  symbols  of  HONOR  and 
DUTY,  on  which  you  have  taken  your  vows :  it  was  taught  you  by 
the  BALANCE,  the  symbol  of  all  Equilibrium,  and  by  the  CROSS, 
the  symbol  of  devotedness  and  self-sacrifice ;  but  all  that  these 
teach  and  contain  is  taught  and  contained,  for  Entered  Appren- 
tice, Knight,  and  Prince  alike,  by  the  Compass  and  the  Square. 

For  the  Apprentice,  the  points  of  the  Compass  are  beneath  the 
Square.  For  the  Fellow-Craft,  one  is  above  and  one  beneath.  For 
the  Master,  both  are  dominant,  and  have  rule,  control,  and  em- 
pire over  the  symbol  of  the  earthly  and  the  material. 

FREEMASONRY  is  the  subjugation  of  the  Human  that  is  in  man 
by  the  Divine;  the  Conquest  of  the  Appetites  and  Passions  by  the 
Moral  Sense  and  the  Reason;  a  continual  effort,  struggle,  and 
warfare  of  the  Spiritual  against  the  Material  and  Sensual.  That 


SUBLIME   PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  855 

victory,  when  it  has  been  achieved  and  secured,  and  the  conqueror 
may  rest  upon  his  shield  and  wear  the  well-earned  laurels,  is  the 
true  HOLY  EMPIRE. 

To  achieve  it,  the  Mason  must  first  attain  a  solid  conviction, 
founded  upon  reason,  that  he  hath  within  him  a  spiritual  nature, 
a  soul  that  is  not  to  die  when  the  body  is  dissolved,  but  is  to  con- 
tinue to  exist  and  to  advance  toward  perfection  through  all  the 
ages  of  eternity,  and  to  see  more  and  more  clearly,  as  it  draws 
nearer  unto  God,  the  Light  of  the  Divine  Presence.  This  the 
Philosophy  of  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Rite  teaches  him  ;  and 
it  encourages  him  to  persevere  by  helping  him  to  believe  that  his 
free  will  is  entirely  consistent  with  God's  Omnipotence  and  Om- 
niscience ;  that  He  is  not  only  infinite  in  power,  and  of  infinite 
wisdom,  but  of  infinite  mercy,  and  an  infinitely  tender  pity  and 
love  for  the  frail  and  imperfect  creatures  that  He  has  made. 

Every  Degree  of  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite,  from 
the  first  to  the  thirty-second,  teaches  by  its  ceremonial  as  well  as 
by  its  instruction,  that  the  noblest  purpose  of  life  and  the  high- 
est duty  of  a  man  are  to  strive  incessantly  and  vigorously  to  win 
the  mastery  of  everything,  of  that  which  in  him  is  spiritual  and 
divine,  over  that  which  is  material  and  sensual ;  so  that  in  him 
also,  as  in  the  Universe  which  God  governs,  Harmony  and  Beauty 
may  be  the  result  of  a  just  equilibrium. 

You  have  been  taught  this  in  those  Degrees,  conferred  in  the 
Lodge  of  Perfection,  which  inculcate  particularly  the  practical 
morality  of  Freemasonry.  To  be  true,  under  whatever  tempta- 
tion to  be  false ;  to  be  honest  in  all  your  dealings,  even  if  great 
losses  should  be  the  consequence ;  to  be  charitable,  when  selfish- 
ness would  prompt  you  to  close  your  hand,  and  deprivation  of 
luxury  or  comfort  must  follow  the  charitable  act;  to  judge  justly 
and  impartially,  even  in  your  own  case,  when  baser  impulses 
prompt  you  to  do  an  injustice  in  order  that  you  may  be  benefited 
or  justified ;  to  be  tolerant,  when  passion  prompts  to  intolerance 
and  persecution ;  to  do  that  which  is  right,  when  the  wrong  seems 
to  promise  larger  profit ;  and  to  wrong  no  man  of  anything  that 
is  his,  however  easy  it  may  seem  so  to  enrich  yourself ; — in  all 
these  things  and  others  which  you  promised  in  those  Degrees,  your 
spiritual  nature  is  taught  and  encouraged  to  assert  its  rightful  do- 
minion over  your  appetites  and  passions. 

The  philosophical  Degrees  have  taught  you  the  value  of  knowl- 


856  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

edge,  the  excellence  of  truth,  the  superiority  of  intellectual  labor, 
the  dignity  and  value  of  your  soul,  the  worth  of  great  and  noble 
thoughts ;  and  thus  endeavored  to  assist  you  to  rise  above  the  level 
of  the  animal  appetites  and  passions,  the  pursuits  of  greed  and 
the  miserable  struggles  of  ambition,  and  to  find  purer  pleasure  and 
nobler  prizes  and  rewards  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  the 
enlargement  of  the  intellect,  the  interpretation  of  the  sa-cred  writ- 
ing of  God  upon  the  great  pages  of  the  Book  of  Nature. 

And  the  Chivalric  Degrees  have  led  you  on  the  same  path,  by 
showing  you  the  excellence  of  generosity,  clemency,  forgiveness 
of  injuries,  magnanimity,  contempt  of  danger,  and  the  paramount 
obligations  of  Duty  and  Honor.  They  have  taught  you  to  over- 
come the  fear  of  death,  to  devote  yourself  to  the  great  cause  of 
civil  and  religious  Liberty,  to  be  the  Soldier  of  all  that  is  just, 
right,  and  true ;  in  the  midst  of  pestilence  to  deserve  your  title  of 
Knight  Commander  of  the  Temple,  and  neither  there  nor  else- 
where to  desert  your  post  and  flee  dastard-like  from  the  foe.  In 
all  this,  you  assert  the  superiority  and  right  to  dominion  of  that 
in  you  which  is  spiritual  and  divine.  No  base  fear  of  danger  or 
death,  no  sordid  ambitions  or  pitiful  greeds  or  base  considerations 
can  tempt  a  true  Scottish  Knight  to  dishonor,  and  so  make  his 
intellect,  his  reason,  his  soul,  the  bond-slave  of  his  appetites,  of  his 
passions,  of  that  which  is  material  and  animal,  selfish  and  brutish 
in  his  nature. 

It  is  not  possible  to  create  a  true  and  genuine  Brotherhood  upon 
any  theory  of  the  baseness  of  human  nature :  nor  by  a  commu- 
nity of  belief  in  abstract  propositions  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
Deity,  the  number  of  His  persons,  or  other  theorems  of  religious 
faith  :  nor  by  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  association  simply 
for  mutual  relief,  and  by  which,  in  consideration  of  certain  pay- 
ments regularly  made,  each  becomes  entitled  to  a  certain  stipend 
in  case  of  sickness,  to  attention  then,  and  to  the  ceremonies  of 
burial  after  death. 

There  can  be  no  genuine  Brotherhood  without  mutual  regard, 
good  opinion  and  esteem,  mutual  charity,  and  mutual  allowance 
for  faults  and  failings.  It  is  those  only  who  learn  habitually  to 
think  better  of  each  other,  to  look  habitually  for  the  good  that  is 
in  each  other,  and  expect,  allow  for,  and  overlook,  the  evil,  who 
can  be  Brethren  one  of  the  other,  in  any  true  sense  of  the  word. 
Those  who  gloat  over  the  failings  of  one  another,  who  think  each 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  857 

other  to  be  naturally  base  and  low,  of  a  nature  in  which  the  Evil 
predominates  and  excellence  is  not  to  be  looked  for,  cannot  be 
even  friends,  and  much  less  Brethren. 

No  one  can  have  a  right  to  think  meanly  of  his  race,  unless  he 
also  thinks  meanly  of  himself.  If,  from  a  single  fault  or  error,  he 
judges  of  the  character  of  another,  and  takes  the  single  act  as 
evidence  of  the  whole  nature  of  the  man  and  of  the  whole  course 
of  his  life,  he  ought  to  consent  to  be  judged  by  the  same  rule,  and 
to  admit  it  to  be  right  that  others  should  thus  uncharitably  con- 
demn himself.  But  such  judgments  will  become  impossible  when 
he  incessantly  reminds  himself  that  in  every  man  who  lives  there 
is  an  immortal  Soul  endeavoring  to  do  that  which  is  right  and 
just ;  a  Ray,  however  small,  and  almost  inappreciable,  from  the 
Great  Source  of  Light  and  Intelligence,  which  ever  struggles 
upward  amid  all  the  impediments  of  sense  and  the  obstructions 
of  the  passions ;  and  that  in  every  man  this  ray  continually  wages 
war  against  his  evil  passions  and  his  unruly  appetites,  or,  if  it  has 
succumbed,  is  never  wholly  extinguished  and  annihilated.  For 
he  will  then  see  that  it  is  not  victory,  but  the  struggle  that  de- 
serves honor ;  since  in  this  as  in  all  else  no  man  can  always  com- 
mand success.  Amid  a  cloud  of  errors,  of  failures,  and  short- 
comings, he  will  look  for  the  struggling  Soul,  for  that  which  is 
good  in  every  one  amid  the  evil,  and,  believing  that  each  is  tfetter 
than  from  his  acts  and  omissions  he  seems  to  be,  and  that  God 
cares  for  him  still,  and  pities  him  and  loves  him,  he  will  feel  that 
even  the  erring  sinner  is  still  his  brother,  still  entitled  to  his  sym- 
pathy, and  bound  to  him  by  the  indissoluble  ties  of  fellowship. 

If  there  be  nothing  of  the  divine  in  man,  what  is  he,  after  all, 
but  a  more  intelligent  animal?  He  hath  no  fault  nor  vice  which 
some  beast  hath  not ;  and  therefore  in  his  vices  he  is  but  a  beast 
of  a  higher  order ;  and  he  hath  hardly  any  moral  excellence,  per- 
haps none,  which  some  animal  hath  not  in  as  great  a  degree, — 
even  the  more  excellent  of  these,  such  as  generosity,  fidelity,  and 
magnanimity. 

Bardesan,  the  Syrian  Christian,  in  his  Book  of  the  Laws  of 
Countries,  says,  of  men,  that  "in  the  things  belonging  to  their 
bodies,  they  maintain  their  nature  like  animals,  and  in  the  things 
which  belong  to  their  minds,  they  do  that  which  they  wish,  as 
being  free  and  with  power,  and  as  the  likeness  of  God";  and 
Meliton,  Bishop  of  Sardis,  in  his  Oration  to  Antoninus  Caesar. 


858  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

says,  "Let  Him,  the  ever-living  God,  be  always  present  in  thy 
mind ;  for  thy  mind  itself  is  His  likeness,  for  it,  too,  is  invisible 
and  impalpable,  and  without  form.  .  .  As  He  exists  forever,  so 
thou  also,  when  thou  shalt  have  put  off  this  which  is  visible  and 
corruptible,  shalt  stand  before  Him  forever,  living  and  endowed 
with  knowledge." 

As  a  matter  far  above  our  comprehension,  and  in  the  He- 
brew Genesis  the  words  that  are  used  to  express  the  origin  of 
things  are  of  uncertain  meaning,  and  with  equal  propriety  may 
be  translated  by  the  word  "generated,"  "produced,"  "made,"  or 
"created,"  we  need  not  dispute  nor  debate  whether  the  Soul  or 
Spirit  of  man  be  a  ray  that  has  emanated  or  flowed  forth  from  the 
Supreme  Intelligence,  or  whether  the  Infinite  Power  hath  called 
each  into  existence  from  nothing,  by  a  mere  exertion  of  Its  will, 
and  endowed  it  with  immortality,  and  with  intelligence  like  unto 
the  Divine  Intelligence :  for,  in  either  case  it  may  be  said  that  in 
man  the  Divine  is  united  to  the  Human.  Of  this  union  the  equi- 
lateral Triangle  inscribed  within  the  Square  is  a  Symbol. 

We  see  the  Soul,  Plato  said,  as  men  see  the  statue  of  Glaucus, 
recovered  from  the  sea  wherein  it  had  lain  many  years — which 
viewing,  it  was  not  easy,  if  possible,  to  discern  what  was  its  origi- 
nal nature,  its  limbs  having  been  partly  broken  and  partly  worn 
and  by  defacement  changed,  by  the  action  of  the  waves,  and  shells, 
weeds,  and  pebbles  adhering  to  it,  so  that  it  more  resembled  some 
strange  monster  than  that  which  it  was  when  it  left  its  Divine 
Source.  Even  so,  he  said,  we  see  the  Soul,  deformed  by  innumer- 
able things  that  have  done  it  harm,  have  mutilated  and  defaced  it. 
But  the  Mason  who  hath  the  ROYAL  SECRET  can  also  with  him 
argue,  from  beholding  its  love  of  wisdom,  its  tendency  toward  as- 
sociation with  what  is  divine  and  immortal,  its  larger  aspirations, 
its  struggles,  though  they  may  have  ended  in  defeat,  with  the  im- 
pediments and  enthralments  of  the  senses  and  the  passions,  that 
when  it  shall  have  been  rescued  from  the  material  environments 
that  now  prove  too  strong  for  it,  and  be  freed  from  the  deforming 
and  disfiguring  accretions  that  here  adhere  to  it,  it  will  again  be 
seen  in  its  true  nature,  and  by  degrees  ascend  by  the  mystic  ladder 
of  the  Spheres,  to  its  first  home  and  place  of  origin. 

The  ROYAL  SECRET,  of  which  you  are  Prince,  if  you  are  a  true 
Adept,  if  knowledge  seems  to  you  advisable,  and  Philosophy  is, 
for  you,  radiant  with  a  divine  beauty,  is  that  which  the  Sohw 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  859 

terms  The  Mystery  of  the  BALANCE.  It  is  the  Secret  of  the  UNI- 
VERSAL EQUILIBRIUM  : — 

— Of  that  Equilibrium  in  the  Deity,  between  the  Infinite  Di- 
vine WISDOM  and  the  Infinite  Divine  POWER,  from  which  result 
the  Stability  of  the  Universe,  the  unchangeableness  of  the  Divine 
Law,  and  the  Principles  of  Truth,  Justice,  and  Right  which  are 
a  part  of  k ;  and  the  Supreme  Obligation  of  the  Divine  Law  upon 
all  men,  as  superior  to  all  other  law,  and  forming  a  part  of  all 
the  laws  of  men  and  nations. 

— Of  that  Equilibrium  also,  between  the  Infinite  Divine  JUS- 
TICE and  the  Infinite  Divine  MERCY,  the  result  of  which  is  the 
Infinite  Divine  EQUITY,  and  the  Moral  Harmony  or  Beauty  of 
the  Universe.  By  it  the  endurance  of  created  and  imperfect  na- 
tures in  the  presence  of  a  Perfect  Deity  is  made  possible ;  and  for 
Him,  also,  as  for  us,  to  love  is  better  than  to  hate,  and  Forgive- 
ness is  wiser  than  Revenge  or  Punishment. 

— Of  that  Equilibrium  between  NECESSITY  and  LIBERTY,  be- 
tween the  action  of  the  DIVINE  Omnipotence  and  the  Free-will 
of  man,  by  which  vices  and  base  actions,  and  ungenerous  thoughts 
and  words  are  crimes  and  wrongs,  justly  punished  by  the  law  of 
cause  and  consequence,  though  nothing  in  the  Universe  can  hap- 
pen or  be  done  contrary  to  the  will  of  God ;  and  without  which 
co-existence  of  Liberty  and  Necessity,  of  Free-will  in  the  creature 
and  Omnipotence  in  the  Creator,  there  could  be  no  religion,  nor 
any  law  of  right  and  wrong,  or  merit  and  demerit,  nor  any  justice 
in  human  punishments  or  penal  laws. 

— Of  that  Equilibrium  between  Good  and  Evil,  and  Light  and 
Darkness  in  the  world,  which  assures  us  that  all  is  the  work  of  the 
Infinite  Wisdom  and  of  an  Infinite  Love ;  and  that  there  is  no 
rebellious  demon  of  Evil,  or  Principle  of  Darkness  co-existent  and 
in  eternal  controversy  with  God,  or  the  Principle  of  Light  and 
of  Good :  by  attaining  to  the  knowledge  of  which  equilibrium  we 
can,  through  Faith,  see  that  the  existence  of  Evil,  Sin,  Suffering, 
and  Sorrow  in  the  world,  is  consistent  with  the  Infinite  Goodness 
as  well  as  with  the  Infinite  Wisdom  of  the  Almighty. 

Sympathy  and  Antipathy,  Attraction  and  Repulsion,  each  a 
Force  of  nature,  are  contraries,  in  the  souls  of  men  and  in  the 
Universe  of  spheres  and  worlds ;  and  from  the  action  and  opposi- 
tion of  each  against  the  other,  result  Harmony,  and  that  move- 
ment which  is  the  Life  of  the  Universe  and  the  Soul  alike. 


86O  MORALS  AND  DOGMA. 

They  are  not  antagonists  of  each  other.  The  force  that  repels  a 
Planet  from  the  Sun  is  no  more  an  evil  force,  than  that  which  at- 
tracts the  Planet  toward  the  central  Luminary;  for  each  is  cre- 
ated and  exerted  by  the  Deity,  and  the  result  is  the  harmonious 
movement  of  the  obedient  Planets  in  their  elliptic  orbits,  and  the 
mathematical  accuracy  and  unvarying  regularity  of  their  move- 
ments. 

— Of  that  Equilibrium  between  Authority  and  Individual  Ac- 
tion which  constitutes  Free  Government,  by  settling  on  immuta- 
ble foundations  Liberty  with  Obedience  to  Law,  Equality  with 
Subjection  to  Authority,  and  Fraternity  with  Subordination  to  the 
Wisest  and  the  Best :  and  of  that  Equilibrium  between  the  Active 
Energy  of  the  Will  of  the  Present,  expressed  by  the  Vote  of  the 
People,  and  the  Passive  Stability  and  Permanence  of  the  Will  of 
the  Past,  expressed  in  constitutions  of  government,  written  or  un- 
written, and  in  the  laws  and  customs,  gray  with  age  and  sanctified 
by  time,  as  precedents  and  authority ;  which  is  represented  by  the 
arch  resting  on  the  two  columns,  Jachin  and  Boaz,  that  stand  at 
the  portals  of  the  Temple  builded  by  Wisdom,  on  one  of  which 
Masonry  sets  the  celestial  Globe,  symbol  of  the  spiritual  part  of 
our  composite  nature,  and  on  the  other  the  terrestrial  Globe,  sym- 
bol of  the  material  part. 

— And,  finally,  of  that  Equilibrium,  possible  in  ourselves,  and 
which  Masonry  incessantly  labors  to  accomplish  in  its  Initiates, 
and  demands  of  its  Adepts  and  Princes  (else  unworthy  of  their 
titles),  between  the  Spiritual  and  Divine  and  the  Material  and 
Human  in  man ;  between  the  Intellect,  Reason,  and  Moral  Sense 
on  one  side,  and  the  Appetites  and  Passions  on  the  other,  from 
which  result  the  Harmony  and  Beauty  of  a  well-regulated  life. 

Which  possible  Equilibrium  proves  to  us  that  our  Appetites  and 
Senses  also  are  Forces  given  unto  us  by  God,  for  purposes  of 
good,  and  not  the  fruits  of  the  malignancy  of  a  Devil,  to  be  de- 
tested, mortified,  and,  if  possible,  rendered  inert  and  dead :  that 
they  are  given  us  to  be  the  means  by  which  we  shall  be  strength- 
ened and  incited  to  great  and  good  deeds,  and  are  to  be  wisely 
used,  and  not  abused ;  to  be  controlled  and  kept  within  due  bounds 
by  the  Reason  and  the  Moral  Sense ;  to  be  made  useful  instru- 
ments and  servants,  and  not  permitted  to  become  the  managers 
and  masters,  using  our  intellect  and  reason  as  base  instruments 
for  their  gratification. 


SUBLIME  PRINCE  OF  THE  ROYAL  SECRET.  86l 

And  this  Equilibrium  teaches  us,  above  all,  to  reverence  our- 
selves as  immortal  souls,  and  to  have  respect  and  charity  for  oth- 
ers, who  are  even  such  as  we  are,  partakers  with  us  of  the  Divine 
Nature,  lighted  by  a  ray  of  the  Divine  Intelligence,  struggling, 
like  us,  toward  the  light ;  capable,  like  us,  of  progress  upward  to- 
ward perfection,  and  deserving  to  be  loved  and  pitied,  but  never 
to  be  hated  nor  despised ;  to  be  aided  and  encouraged  in  this  life- 
struggle,  and  not  to  be  abandoned  nor  left  to  wander  in  the  dark- 
ness alone,  still  less  to  be  trampled  upon  in  our  own  efforts  to 
ascend. 

From  the  mutual  action  and  re-action  of  each  of  these  pairs  of 
opposites  and  contraries  results  that  which  with  them  forms  the 
Triangle,  to  all  the  Ancient  Sages  the  expressive  symbol  of  the 
Deity ;  as  from  Osiris  and  Isis,  Har-oeri,  the  Master  of  Light  and 
Life,  and  the  Creative  Word.  At  the  angles  of  one  stand,  sym- 
bolically, the  three  columns  that  support  the  Lodge,  itself  a  sym- 
bol of  the  Universe,  Wisdom,  Power,  and  Harmony  or  Beauty. 
One  of  these  symbols,  found  on  the  Tracing-Board  of  the  Appren- 
tice's Degree,  teaches  this  last  lesson  of  Freemasonry.  It  is  the 
right-angled  Triangle,  representing  man,  as  a  union  of  the  spirit- 
ual and  material,  of  the  divine  and  human.  The  base,  measured 
by  the  number  3,  the  number  of  the  Triangle,  represents  the 
Deity  and  the  Divine ;  the  perpendicular,  measured  by  the  number 
4,  the  number  of  the  Square,  represents  the  Earth,  the  Material, 
and  the  Human ;  and  the  hypothenuse,  measured  by  5,  represents 
that  nature  which  is  produced  by  the  union  of  the  Divine  and 
Human,  the  Soul  and  the  Body ;  the  squares,  9  and  16,  of  the  base 
and  perpendicular,  added  together,  producing  25,  the  square  root 
whereof  is  5,  the  measure  of  the  hypothenuse. 

And  as  in  each  Triangle  of  Perfection,  one  is  three  and  three  are 
one,  so  man  is  one,  though  of  a  double  nature ;  and  he  attains 
the  purposes  of  his  being  only  when  the  two  natures  that  are  in 
him  are  in  just  equilibrium ;  and  his  life  is  a  success  only  when  it 
too  is  a  harmony,  and  beautiful,  like  the  great  Harmonies  of  God 
and  the  UYiiverse. 

Such,  my  Brother,  is  the  TRUE  WTORD  of  a  Master  Mason  :  such 
the  true  ROYAL  SECRET,  which  makes  possible,  and  shall  at  length 
make  real,  the  HOLY  EMPIRE  of  true  Masonic  Brotherhood. 

GLORIA  DEI  EST  CELARE  VERBUM.  AMEN. 


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